AJ Styles Confirms Dixie Carter Wanted TNA To Be “WWE Lite”

AJ Styles made his WWE debut in January of 2016 and he’s had an incredible run with the company so far. He’s wrestled some of the top names in the WWE and he held the WWE Championship for several months before dropping the title to John Cena. Styles is truly where he belongs now that he’s at the top of the industry, but his success didn’t come easy and he had to overcome a lot of obstacles on his way to WWE.

One of the biggest obstacles AJ Styles had to overcome was the negative stigma attached to TNA as he was once seen as the face of the company. Although fans saw AJ as the face of the company, apparently Dixie Carter didn’t see it that way. During a Q&A panel at Wizard World Portland on Friday night Styles opened up about his time with the company and he said that Dixie didn’t see the homegrown talent as stars because she wanted the company to be “WWE-lite.”

“Well, at that time Joe and I were hoping to make TNA a big deal. You know, that was what we wanted to do,” Styles said via 411Mania.com. “The problem was, the person who owned the company, she didn’t see that in us. She didn’t see us as the stars that put TNA on the map and not just me but like, Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels, and Low Ki, all those guys who did great things and she just didn’t see it. Go put it bluntly, she wanted to be WWE-lite and nobody wanted to see that. They wanted to see something different. And at one point in time, it was a great place to work.”

AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels got quite a few people talking about TNA during their time with the company, but after a while fans became disgruntled when homegrown stars were consistently denied opportunities that were handed to ex-WWE stars.

For years people criticized the decisions that Dixie Carter made and now that Dixie is out of power Impact Wrestling is trying to get back on track.

Styles also noted that his time with TNA “flattened” his ego, but he had nothing but good things to say about ROH and NJPW.

“Ring of Honor treated me real well, and New Japan treated me like a superstar. So I’ve got to give credit to them, who helped boost my ego a little bit because it was definitely flattened due to TNA’s service. But then — doing all that and then having the opportunity to come to WWE and…you know, whether people like it or not, WWE is easy, the biggest — you know, when it comes to wrestling, it doesn’t get any bigger than the WWE. And being there means you’ve finally made it.”

It’s a shame that Dixie Carter seemingly didn’t know what she had at the time. At one point TNA’s roster was loaded with talented names such as Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, Eric Young and more. Luckily quite a few stars have one on to find success with WWE and other various wrestling promotions.

Still, if you were a TNA fan who watched Impact when the company was in its prime it’s tough to think about what could have been. Oh well, now AJ Styles is where he belongs and if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past few years it’s that one way or another, TNA will find a way to survive.

AJ Styles has come a long way since making his WWE debut. He’s a former WWE Champion and he’s feuded with big names such as Roman Reigns and John Cena, but is AJ being buried? Some people out there seem to think so and we’re talking about it on this week’s episode of Still Real Radio which you can listen to below or on iTunes by clicking here.