Joey Janela Reflects On Lighting His Foot On Fire, Explains Why There Was No Fire Extinguisher

At GCW Maniac on May 21, Joey Janela made headlined by performing a flaming superkick. 

Janela headlined the event against Drew Parker, setting his foot/boot on fire to perform a superkick. While he was able to hit the kick on Parker, the fire didn’t go out and Janela sat in the middle of the ring as the fire continued.

Eventually, they got the fire out with water bottles and a leather jacket. 

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, Janela reflected on the spot. He said that it started the night before when he was taking shots of whiskey. 

“I go, ‘Drew, I got an idea, let’s do 15 minutes of a regular wrestling match and then it’s like an M. Night Shyamalan twist, it turns into a deathmatch.’ ‘Alright, let’s do it.’ I woke up the next day, ‘Why did I agree to this?’ At this point in my career, I kind of want to stay away from deathmatches. I don’t want to scar my face up. I have glass, still from the last one I did, in my arm. We agreed we were going to do glass, but the day of the show, they couldn’t find glass. We got barbed wire, thumbtacks, and gussets, which are square metal spikey things that hold bridges together. They’re pretty dangerous. Alright, I’ll do it, let’s do it. I came up with this idea, ‘what if I light my foot on fire and do a superkick?’ I’m just playing with ideas. ‘That sounds cool.’ ‘Can we get lighter fluid?'” he wondered. 

Janela talked to Rob Shit, who had lighter fluid and gave it to Janela. Brett Lauderdale thought Janela was bullshitting when he told him about the spot. 

“Fire spots go to the left or the right, it’s rarely perfect. They either don’t work and the fire goes out and you look like a complete idiot or the fire is blazing and you nearly die. I didn’t want to make it a shitty fire spot. When I took the lighter fluid, I absolutely used, probably three-quarters of the bottle on my foot and when we were ready to go, I took the lighter, lit my foot up, and it was blazing. I didn’t really feel it at the time. It wasn’t bad, I hit it, perfectly executed superkick with the fire, couldn’t have gone any better. Then, I’m waiting for the water,” said Janela. 

He noted that only him, Drew, the ref, Rob, and a young guy knew about the spot and were clued in about putting it out. 

When asked why there wasn’t a fire extinguisher, Janela replied, “I didn’t want a fire extinguisher. Usually, a fire extinguisher, it’s kind of pointless. You put water on the fire and it goes out. That’s what people don’t get. The last thing you want is some fucking guy spraying a fire extinguisher and me breaking out in a rash and my eyes swelling up for four days. The chemicals in a fire extinguisher are terrible for you. This is not 2000 WWF fire extinguisher, it’s a real one, I didn’t want that sprayed at me. Usually, a bucket of water will do it. That’s what they had.”

Janela said the water they used was store brand water. 

“They start splashing my foot, I’m trying to get the shoe off. I tied thr shoe so tight on, I didn’t want there to be a chance that I superkicked him and the flaming shoe flew off into the crowd and lit someone on fire. That was a famous situation in ECW. People are saying, ‘ECW would never be dumb enough to do this.’ No, they were dumber. They almost lit the whole building on fire and they were lighting fans on fire when Cactus Jack…the video doesn’t exist, the evidence was supposedly erased. Somebody has that video, somewhere, probably in Stamford in some vault. Cactus Jack hit Terry Funk in the back with a flaming chair and the tow lift flew off onto Funk and (Tommy) Dreamer. They both caught fire, ran into the crowd, the tow lift flew into the crowd. There was supposed to be a crucifixion angle after and they have this flaming rag, Funk is running around on fire, they turn off the lights for the crucifixion angle. The fans are freaking out, there are no lights in the ECW Arena, there is a stampede, people are getting trampled, there is fire everywhere. It was a disaster. ECW did dumber shit than I did on that night in LA. I [the shoe] tight and it was hard to get off. I get it off, the shoe is on fire, I look and my sock is fire. ‘What the fuck?’ They are pouring water on it, I grab my foot and try to put it out with my hands. Adrenaline is running through me, I don’t feel the flames, I guess the lighter fluid, the way it burns, eventually, Rob Shit to the rescue, threw his leather jacket on my foot and put it out. No burns. Didn’t even burn through the sock,” said Janela.

Parker ended up being victorious in the bout. Janela was fine, wrestling three times the following weekend for VxS, BLP, and GCW. 

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