GCW owner Brett Lauderdale has come to the defense of Avery Styles after a weekend of public criticism toward the rookie.
Styles recently wrestled Marcus Mathers at GCW’s Rude Awakening card, which was co-promoted by F1RST Wrestling in Minneapolis.
It began when Nattie was interviewed by The Wrestling Classic and put over their match. She noted how the younger Styles was willing to pay his dues by losing to Mathers and didn’t want to be “pampered and coddled”. This prompted a response from promoter Arik Cannon of F1RST, who stated that the 19-year-old didn’t help with “a single thing at this very show”.
It escalated with Avery’s father, AJ Styles, getting involved and defending his son being paid to wrestle on the show and not “take down the ring”.
As you can expect, this exploded into a bigger story than it needed to be and has put Avery in the role of a spoiled teenager, with his father coming to his defense while Avery has stayed quiet.
GCW owner Brett Lauderdale is caught in the middle and tried to quell the situation on Monday evening:
I respect arik cannon & i respect aj styles. Regardless of which side of this situation you’re on… Avery Styles is a kid and he deserves the same grace that would be afforded to any other *teenager* being thrown in to the deep end at this early stage in his career (and LIFE)
hes gonna make mistakes along the way just as all rookies in this business will, but the difference is he will be held to a higher standard because of who his dad is from talking to avery personally, im certain hes going to learn from them all and continue to grow on his journey
He earned his spot on the show because I’ve never seen a wrestler with less than 10 matches under his belt show so much natural talent and ability. He was highly recommended & endorsed by people whos opinions i value. There is no privilege here. If he sucked, he wouldnt be here.
Avery Styles has only had two matches after making his debut on July 31.
