Crowbar Reveals How His AEW Debut Came Together
Crowbar faced Joey Janela
Oct 21, 2021
Crowbar made history during his All Elite Wrestling debut on October 11.
With ECW original Blue Meanie in his corner, the former WCW star went one on one with real-life friend Joey Janela on Dark: Elevation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With his debut, Crowbar became the only wrestler to have appeared in WCW, ECW, WWE, TNA, AEW, ROH and MLW.
Speaking with 2 Dynamite Dudes On A Rampage about his AEW match, Crowbar revealed he sent footage of his matches from ECWA Super 8 earlier this year to Tony Khan's promotion. The former Devon Storm then got a call from QT Marshall in the summer and AEW opted to book him for the Dark: Elevation tapings in Philadelphia.
"QT [Marshall] reached out around summer and he said, 'We might bring you in. Joey really wants to work with you, yada yada yada,' and that was around the end of July, and I'm excited, but again, coming from the time that I come from, wrestling is wrestling. Anything can happen, I'll believe it when I'm there. So a month goes by, they go to Newark, NJ which is right by the house, I don't hear anything. They go to Arthur Ashe, I don't hear anything. Then, I get the call the week before Philly, but I've been preparing," Crowbar said.
"Since COVID hit, I've been preparing. That enabled me to do the [ECWA Super 8], that enabled me to do the JCW/GCW show, I prepared for this. I think for the first time in my career I was prepared as I could be. I was ready, so it was very relaxed. I was able to enjoy the fact that I'm going there and it sunk in and I'm prepared. I'm extremely confident, I know going in there, there was going to be a lot of naysayers, 'Oh, why are they bringing in this old guy in? I'm sure he can't do anything,' and I wanted to go out there and make a lot of people put their foot in their mouth."
AEW would show respect to ECW throughout their tapings in Philadelphia and the evening wrapped up with ECW originals Taz, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko and Jerry Lynn inside the squared circle to address the crowd. Former WWE ECW Champion CM Punk also entered the ring and joked about technically being a former ECW star.