Bobby Janiec Reveals What Really Happened to Rich Pyle on 'Hardcore Pawn'

There can never be too many pawn and antique shows! Hardcore Pawn took item evaluation to the next level on truTV from 2010–2015 after Pawn Stars sparked attention in 2009.

The show centered around a family business in Detroit which was called American Jewelry and Loan. The store was opened in 1978 by a third-generation pawnbroker, Les Gold. While Les was the owner of the shop, Rich Pyle was a manager at the store. Fans may remember that he disappeared in later seasons.

Rich was in the store for the first six seasons, but was there long before the cameras started rolling. He was the store manager for 25 years, which would mean he'd known Les for a long time.

However, the pair's friendship seemed to crumble after they got into a little bit of a dispute during one episode when Rich let go of a piece that, arguably, he shouldn't have. As far as fans are aware, Rich ended up apologizing to Les.

Nonetheless, things didn't smooth over that easily since he was eventually written out of the show altogether. The change seemed a bit suspicious to fans who started speculating on what really happened. Some believe that he was booted from the show for becoming too popular and drawing attention away from others.

Bobby Janiec, another personality on the show, said on TikTok that Rich was "put on probation," but that he was eventually "let go by Les and Seth." He recalled that when he started working there, Rich was very nice.

"This dude was super good at what he did. He definitely had his place. He knew music. He knew instruments. He was great with people. Just a genuine nice guy when you met him, but Rich had a job to do and from what I saw, TV started to become more important than the job," he explained.

Bobby explained that there began to be times when he spent more time taking photos with fans when he needed to be working. Over time, Rich's presence started to be replaced by Bobby's on the show. "Then he started messing up and I started getting used more without him," Bobby added.

Social media may have been part of the problem as it started becoming the messaging board we know today. Bobby claims that Rich's wife would start targeting him and saying rude things about him on social media. "Les and Seth had to step in and put an end to it," Bobby explained.

Despite all this bad blood and the argument with Les, there's apparently more to the story. Bobby won't divulge on what happened, but he did say fans wouldn't be able to guess the "grand finale" to the tale.

Nowadays, Rich is working on a clothing line with Darren Hamilton of Detroit Muscle called RPMGear. Leaving the pawnshop caused a major change in his life, but he seems to be doing fine. After all, he's been interviewed by most major media and has a new business in the works.