North American Wrestling Alliance (1992–1993) Joey Styles got his start in professional wrestling announcing while still attending Hofstra University by working for Tony Capone's North American Wrestling Alliance. He would often split time with former WWE announcer
Craig DeGeorge or join DeGeorge for a two-man commentary team. Styles would also host a segment called "NAWA Superstar Stats" where he would talk about the wrestlers and their accomplishments. The NAWA aired on Sportschannel America (now NBC Sports Network through mergers and acquisitions) for a brief time. Towards the end of this period, Styles was credited as author of a column in
Wrestling 93: Rulebreaker, a quarterly wrestling magazine and sister publication of
Pro Wrestling Illustrated, supportive of
heels.
Eastern/Extreme Championship Wrestling (1993–2001) Styles is best known for his work in
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) during its entire run, from 1993 to its 2001 bankruptcy. He debuted at the Super Summer Sizzler Spectacular show in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania on June 19, 1993. Styles was the sole host of
ECW Hardcore TV and spent the early portion of the run as the promotion's only announcer. Providing both
play-by-play and
color commentary during television and pay-per-view broadcasts, Styles added his wrestling knowledge, enthusiasm, and comedic timing to the program. He briefly left ECW in 1994 only to return a few weeks later. At
Barely Legal, he became the first and only wrestling announcer in history to call a live
pay-per-view event solo. Later on in the promotion, he was joined on commentary by
Rick Rude on
Hardcore TV,
Joel Gertner for
ECW on TNN, and later
Cyrus for pay-per-views. Styles also worked full-time in ad sales for News America Marketing, a division of News Corp in New York City. After ECW, Styles briefly appeared in
XPW but quit after one show, returning all checks that he had been paid.
Major League Wrestling (2002–2003) After a brief sabbatical from the wrestling industry, Joey Styles would return to wrestling announcing for Court Bauer's
Major League Wrestling as the "voice of MLW." Styles' return to wrestling would be heralded as he was one of the first names to be announced by the company during its 2002 launch. Initially calling the action for MLW's home video releases, Styles's presence would grow upon MLW inking a major television pact with Sun Sports and several other international distributors. Hosting the weekly 11 pm series,
MLW Underground, Styles returned to his roots in the booth as a solo broadcaster, praised for his calling of memorable matches including a barbed wire match between
Terry Funk and
Steve Corino, amongst others. Styles continued in advertising sales full-time.
World Wrestling Entertainment/WWE ECW One Night Stand (2005) Styles signed a one night deal with
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to call the first-ever
ECW One Night Stand event, where he and
Mick Foley did commentary for the show. He hosted and announced
Hardcore Homecoming two nights earlier from the former
ECW Arena in Philadelphia. The sold-out event featured former ECW stars
Shane Douglas,
The Sandman,
Sabu,
Terry Funk,
Raven,
The Blue Meanie,
Mikey Whipwreck,
Jerry Lynn,
New Jack,
2 Cold Scorpio and more.
Raw and ECW (2005–2008) On November 1, 2005, he made an appearance at WWE's
Taboo Tuesday. Styles was brought in to fill-in for
Jonathan Coachman, as Coachman had a match against
Batista. Styles joined WWE's
Raw as a play-by-play announcer on November 7. On December 4, 2005, it was confirmed by WWE.com that Styles signed a five-year contract to be the official play-by-play commentator for
Raw. This would be the first time in Styles' career that he would work in wrestling full-time. In an earlier interview done by WWE.com, he mentioned that becoming the voice of
Raw was a childhood dream come true. Styles also stated that calling WrestleMania was one of his lifelong dreams growing up. However, despite being the lead announcer for
Raw, it was announced that he would not provide commentary for
WrestleMania 22, which instead featured
Jim Ross calling the matches for
Raw. Styles learned that he would not be announcing at WrestleMania 22 when he arrived on
Raw on March 27, 2006. The reason for Styles not calling the event is that
Vince McMahon disliked pure play-by-play announcing and wanted a "storyteller" instead. Jim Ross had a similar problem when he first joined WWE, and Styles has credited Ross for teaching him the WWE style of commentary upon his return. However, Styles was present at WrestleMania 22, losing his "WrestleMania virginity" as he put it, calling the Hardcore Match between
Mick Foley and
Edge. This was Styles' idea, as he wanted to achieve his lifelong dream of calling a match at WrestleMania and pitched the idea to Vince McMahon by explaining that he had called more Hardcore/ECW style matches than any other announcer in history. On the May 1, 2006 edition of
Raw, Styles announced that he was quitting by delivering a worked shoot promo, in which he bashed Vince McMahon, WWE, sports entertainment, and the fact that people "buy into this crap". To further the storyline, his profile was removed from both the
Raw superstars section and the ECW One Night Stand subsite. Styles remained under contract with WWE after he quit
Raw; however, making his next appearance at
WWE vs. ECW Head-to-Head. Here, he provided commentary with
Tazz and announced that (now former ECW Representative)
Paul Heyman had reinstated him as commentator of the new
ECW brand of WWE. He provided commentary for
ECW One Night Stand 2006 on June 11 and went on to announce ECW's weekly show on
Sci-Fi Channel. In April 2008, Styles began working on WWE.com, with
Mike Adamle replacing him as ECW's play by play commentator. He stated repeatedly that he had retired from announcing full-time and was thrilled to continue to work for WWE as Director of Digital Media Content. Styles was soon after promoted to Vice President of Digital Media Content.
WWE Digital Media (2008–2016) As Vice President of Digital Media Content, that ran from September 2008 to December 2008. On the December 8, 2008 episode of
Raw, Styles presented the
"O M G!" Moment of the Year award at the
2008 Slammy Awards with
Alicia Fox, saying his famous
"Oh My God!" catchphrase. In 2010, Styles' announcing contract expired, but he remained with WWE as a non-contracted employee and continued to host "History of ECW" on
WWE Classics On Demand TV service until it was discontinued in January 2014 because of the launch of
WWE Network. Episodes of ECW
Hardcore TV which aired in syndication from 1993 to 2000 and was hosted and announced by Styles are available on WWE Network along with all ECW pay-per-views. Due to music licensing issues, some of the commentary by Styles from ECW pay-per-views on the WWE Network has been re-recorded by Styles. Styles continued to host the
ECW Unreleased WWE home video series. On November 11, 2014, Styles and
Paul Heyman hosted WWE Network special
ECW Exposed. Styles appeared in
WWE 2K16, announcing an ECW match between
Steve Austin and
Mikey Whipwreck in the Austin 3:16 showcase. On August 8, 2016, it was reported that Styles was released from WWE and returned to advertising sales in New York City.
YESNetwork.com (2012) In addition to his duties on WWE.com, during the 2012 baseball season, Styles hosted a weekly webcast called "Pinstripe Plays of the Week" on
YES Network.com, where he would give a recap of the best weekly plays from the
New York Yankees.
Independent circuit (2016) From September 2 to 4, 2016, Styles provided commentary for the
Chikara promotion's
2016 King of Trios tournament. After his release from WWE, Styles went on record as saying he wanted "to be the Voice of the Indies" while still working full-time in advertising sales. On November 12, 2016, Styles took part in
Evolve's
Evolve 72 event. Before the main event of the show, Styles made a joke involving
Donald Trump and announcer Joanna Rose, stating Trump "
would like to grab her by the...", without saying the word "pussy". Evolve's booker
Gabe Sapolsky immediately apologized for the comment, before announcing that Evolve had terminated Styles. Two days later,
Beyond Wrestling and Chikara also announced they were severing ties with Styles. After that incident, Styles retired from pro wrestling. ==Awards and accomplishments==