Following his abrupt release from EVOLVE Wrestling over the weekend, Joey Styles has come out with an open letter to explain his mindset prior to and the situation that unfolded immediately after he made the Donald Trump pop culture reference / "rape joke" during a segment on their event on Saturday, which was being streamed live on the internet for the first time via FloSlam.
"I panicked on a live broadcast, ad-libbed by telling bad joke, apologized to Gabe, told him to publicly fire me to protect himself and then apologized sincerely and repeatedly to everybody involved including Joanna Rose, Jeremy Botter from FloSlam and the wrestlers in the EVOLVE locker room," wrote Styles in the open letter, which he published via PWInsider.com. "In conclusion, I’d like to thank FloSlam for editing out the segment from the EVOLVE 72 replay on FloSlam so fans can enjoy the historic event forever without it being marred.”
Styles continued, "Gabe was justifiably furious at me and thought that I had endangered his relationship with FloSports. After the event, I looked Gabe in the eye, apologized to him, and as not as to put him in the awkward position of having to fire someone he has known for 20 years, told him to fire me publicly and then shook his hand.”
For those who didn't see the show, Styles was in the ring with ring announcer Joanna Rose and referenced Trump's infamous quote in an attempt at humor.
"Joanna you look great, if our next President were here he’d want to grab you by the p---y," said the former ECW and WWE announcer.