AJ Styles Says He Was Never “The Guy” In TNA
AJ Styles has commented on how he may have been seen as a top guy in TNA during his career, he never felt he was “The Guy” while he was there.
For the past seven years following his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble in 2016, the “Phenomenal” AJ Styles has been a WWE guy. During his WWE career, he has held the WWE Championship twice as well as the Intercontinental, United States and Tag Team Titles. Just based on his WWE career alone, Styles is a no doubt WWE Hall of Famer some day.
Wrestling fans know that TNA Wrestling/Impact Wrestling is the company where we first got to know AJ Styles. The electrifying Styles became one of the biggest homegrown stars in TNA history since he was there from day one in 2002 and stayed there until the end of 2013.
During his TNA run, AJ Styles did everything you could do in the company and won everything there was to win. Styles was five-time World Champion in TNA (NWA World Title three times, TNA World Title two times), he held the X Division Championship six times, he was a six-time Tag Team Champion and had many other accolades in the company.
Despite all of his success and hard work in TNA, Styles felt like that while some fans may have thought of him as the top guy, he never felt like the company owned by Dixie Carter treated him that way since they relied so much on big names like Kurt Angle and Sting.
In an interview on Mark Andrews’ My Love Letter to Wrestling, AJ Styles explained why he didn’t feel like TNA/Impact’s top guy.
“The guy for Impact is what most people saw me but I wasn’t the guy to them. I was just AJ Styles, who had been here. But their guy was more of a guy who had been from WWE. I think that’s who they looked to do pretty much everything.”
“I don’t think I was ever that guy for them; at least in their eyes. I think in the fans’ eyes, they go ‘that’s our guy’, but as far as the Dixie Carters of the world, they were like ‘it’s more Kurt [Angle] or Sting, it’s not AJ.'”
As for what’s next, AJ Styles will face Seth “Freakin” Rollins to determine the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion this Saturday, May 27th at Night of Champions.
