"Also, does anyone have any info or idea on why Joey would have been meeting with Parello and the Genovese family 22 years ago (1994 roughly)? My guess is this was when he was taking over the Family officially because Stanfa was arrested in 1994. "

It would be a year or two off, but there was a big raid in 1995 or 1996 in the Bronx/Westchester where Barney Bellomo and a lot of the Genovese capos got arrested on gambling charges, but there was a Philly guy in that mix--John Praino. It could be that Merlino came up to straighten out his accounts.