Sonny Kiss: Joey Janela Leaving AEW Made Me Wonder What Was Next For My Career

Joey Janela helped Sony Kiss find her inner baddie.

Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss were linked with one another during Joey’s time in AEW. Both Sonny and Joey have roots in the northeast and throughout the early days of AEW’s existence, the pair’s kinship grew as they were paired on-screen, whether as rivals or as a tag team.

Even though Joey is gone from AEW, He is still pitching for Sonny Kiss to have more opportunities in AEW, believing that these opportunities should come year-round and not just during pride month.

“Tony Khan, you better push Sonny fucking Kiss. Most improved wrestler right now in the world,  Sonny Kiss. Everything looks fucking great now, and push Sonny Kiss, not in June because it’s pride month, push Sonny Kiss from June until fucking June,” Janela told Chris Van Vliet recently.

Appearing on Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s FaceTurn, Sonny Kiss opened up about what Joey Janela’s departure from All Elite Wrestling was like for her from a mental standpoint after having been “married” to Joey for so long. Kiss admits that Joey’s departure led to feelings of uncertainty about her own career and credits Joey with helping her form the next evolution of  “The Concrete Rose.”

“Two of my very favorite people are no longer here. Joey Janela and also Cody Rhodes — and Brandi. Of course, Brandi. Brandi is Queen B,  love Queen B,” Sonny said. “It’s tough because I think that definitely, Joey leaving kind of gave me a little bit of like, ‘Okay, what’s happening?’ Because we had our long rivalry and we were kind of like in a marriage in our careers, whether we were tag-teaming or feuding, it was like a marriage. So him leaving was like, ‘Okay, well, what about me? What’s gonna happen to me?’ It really, really does suck because [Joey] really pushed me to be great. He really wanted Sonny Kiss, the brand, to be well-known, recognized, be a force to be reckoned with, like tough. He really, really helped shape and mold the character that is ‘The Beautiful Badass.’ So, ‘Beautiful Badass,’ it’s kind of like ‘The Concrete Rose’, part two, but like ‘Concrete Rose-dark.’ It’s like, ‘The Concrete Rose’ is like the girl next door, who if you keep pushing her buttons, she’ll knock you out. But ‘Badass’ is like, ‘Bitch. I’m a baddie and I will beat your ass.'”

Speaking of The Baddies, Sonny Kiss says she has a wonderful relationship with Jay Cargill, Red Velvet, and Kiera Hogan. During a recent media scrum, Cargill said that she would like to have Sonny Kiss as an official Baddie but right now, the number of people around her on television is reaching a threshold.

Kiss says that she really feels empowered and uplifted by her relationship with Jade.

“I have a wonderful relationship with those girls — all the girls in the locker room, of course, but definitely with those three girls there’s something special between us,” said Kiss. “Velvet and I, we both come from a dance background so we clicked right away. Our personalities are very similar. Keira and I, it’s — the energy, you can’t explain it. Jade and I are always complimenting each other. She empowers me, I empower her. The girls and I, we just have such a — it’s very genuine. It’s very, there’s just love. I don’t know if I can explain it.”

The last time that Sonny appeared on non-YouTube AEW programming was on the October 21, 2020, episode of AEW Dynamite. Sonny was filling in for Joey Janela and quickly lost to Kenny Omega in an AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament match on the road to Kenny Omega winning the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley in December of that same year.

Sonny Kiss has also been contributing behind the scenes as well. She was very instrumental in choreographing The Lucha Bros All Out 2021 entrance prior to their Steel Cage Tag Team Championship Match against The Young Bucks. Learn more about that here.

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