Joey Janela Denies Drug Rumors, Cites Megan Bayne Jab

Joey Janela is setting the record straight on some unflattering chatter he’s seen about himself online. Appearing for a lengthy sit-down on the podcast In The Weeds, Janela addressed comments circulating on Reddit suggesting he’s a drug user, flatly denying the claims.

To illustrate just how far the perception has spread — and to poke a little fun at himself in the process — Janela brought up a comment from AEW star Megan Bayne, who apparently told him that he looks like “a crackhead” most of the time. Janela shared the remark himself, using it as a lighthearted example of how his appearance has fueled the online speculation rather than any actual substance use.

It’s the kind of story that says more about wrestling’s Reddit and social media culture than it does about Janela himself. He’s long been one of the industry’s most visually distinct performers — the scraggly look, the chaotic in-ring style, the willingness to bleed and brawl through backyard-style deathmatches — and that aesthetic has clearly invited assumptions from fans who don’t know him personally. Janela using his own platform to push back on the narrative, rather than letting it fester, is a smart bit of image management in an era where wrestlers are as online as their audiences.

The Bayne anecdote also underscores how much backstage camaraderie gets filtered into these long-form podcast appearances. Two-hour conversations like the one Janela sat for on In The Weeds have become a staple of how wrestlers control their own narratives outside of promotional talking points, giving them room to clear up misconceptions, needle their peers, and let a little personality shine through that doesn’t always come across in a three-minute in-ring promo.

Janela has built a career on being unpredictable, both in the ring and in how he presents himself, and stories like this are a reminder that the line between his character and his real personality can get blurry for fans who only know him through short clips and forum threads. By naming the specific comment and the specific person who made it, he turned what could have been a defensive moment into something closer to a self-deprecating bit, which tends to land better with an audience than an angry denial ever would.

Whether this puts the Reddit chatter to rest remains to be seen — those corners of the internet rarely let a narrative go quietly — but Janela at least made his position clear on his own terms. Expect him to keep leaning into these long-format interviews as a way of shaping how he’s perceived, crackhead comparisons and all.