Johnny Impact Details Joey Mercury Being Arrested Over "False Allegations," Mercury's ROH Status
On the latest edition of the WINCLY podcast, Wrestling Inc.'s Managing Editor Nick Hausman was joined by Impact World Champion, Johnny Impact. Among many other interesting things, Impact talked about his former tag team partner Joey Mercury's recent legal victory after being falsely accused of using a stolen credit card earlier this year.
Mercury was arrested in Schaumburg, Illinois over ALL IN weekend on an outstanding warrant out of Orange County, Florida. Mercury was charged with crimes including credit card fraud and identity theft; however, Impact's MNM stablemate maintained his innocence all the while, arguing that he was not even in the country over the dates in question.
According to Impact, the charges against Mercury have been dismissed and the former Johnny Nitro could not be happier for his friend and mentor. Additionally, Impact noted that Mercury has been reinstated as a trainer at ROH Academy in Maryland. As of this writing, Wrestling Inc. has not received confirmation from ROH officials.
"It's funny that you mention Joey because I actually hadn't talked to him in a little bit until this morning. And I texted back and forth [with Mercury] and had a brief conversation with him. And he's doing extremely well right now. He was wrongly accused of some alleged crimes out in the parking lot at ALL IN and was transported to a jail in a prison in Florida. And basically, all that, that whole ordeal that he went through was all proven wrong, false allegations. They were looking for somebody who wasn't Joey. For the crime that he was accused of, he was out of the country while it was committed. And he has been reinstated at Ring Of Honor and he's doing really well right now.
"Actually, just talking about him is making me smile because he's one of the smartest guys in the business, but maybe the smartest guy in terms of wrestling psychology and ideas that I've ever met and worked with. And that I got to work with him at an early point in my career and now get to consider him a friend means the world to me. And he went through some really hard times recently and he just came out the other side a better person and he's in a really good spot." Impact added, "I just talked to him this morning and I don't even know if we should be talking about it or if it's public knowledge, but I'm excited about it though."
While Mercury is in a good place now, his lawyer, Jeffrey Weiner, wrote in a statement on the matter that what happened to Mercury "is an embarrassment to our criminal justice system" and that "[t]he actions of the Winter Park Florida Police Department represents the sloppiest and most incompetent police work anywhere."
Weiner noted that Mercury, "never should have been charged with either of those crimes" and that "it took [the Orange County State's Attorney's office] too long to [realize Mercury was absolutely innocent]."
Also, the statement from Mercury's lawyer sets the stage for possible legal actions as it states that Mercury suffered "irreparable harm" to his reputation from the "disgraceful police work" and suffered "inhumane treatment" while incarcerated in Illinois and during transport from Illinois to Florida.
Check out the WINCLY podcast in the audio player below which features more from Johnny, including him discussing his upcoming Impact World Title defense against Brian Cage at Homecoming, Survivor and more. The episode also features all of the latest news and exclusive interviews with Justin Credible (taped days before his arrest), Flip Gordon, WWE Superstar Matt Hardy and Glacier!
Source: WINCLY