AJ Styles is one of the top stars on the SmackDown Live brand, and he’s also the current WWE United States Champion. It seems so natural to call AJ Styles a WWE Superstar nowadays, but there was once a time when fans worried that they may never seen AJ Styles work in WWE full time.
Styles worked for TNA for a long time, and during his run with the company he worked closely with former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Christian. During a recent appearance on E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness, Styles recalled a meeting in TNA where Dixie Carter told the entire roster they were free to leave if they wanted to. The US Champion revealed what was on his mind during the meeting, and he noted that he would have walked out if Christian did (via WrestlingInc).
“Well, let’s be clear here and Jay knows this as well, there was a point and this was the whole roster is sitting in the Impact Zone and Dixie Carter said, ‘if anybody doesn’t want to be here, then it’s okay if you leave.’ I literally looked over to see what Jay was going to do because had he gotten up, I would’ve went with him.”
AJ Styles was loyal to TNA for a long time, but he said that his working relationship with the company turned sour because they didn’t know how to manage their money.
“I take a lot of pride in what I do in the ring, but at the end of the day, if I’m not supporting my family, then why am I here? And so, it came down to a money issue and they were having problems, but that isn’t my problem. I contributed the best I can and did everything I could to help make TNA a good company that people would want to work for and they abused their money terribly. They just didn’t know how to manage their money and so they basically, after I won the championship, and we knew, we were in negotiations, and we just extended my contract till December. My contract was up in August. We extended it till December.” Styles recalled, “I mean, my contract was up, but I was done negotiating.”
Related: AJ Styles Reacts To Being Left Off The WWE SummerSlam Poster
Even though AJ’s run with TNA didn’t exactly have a happy ending, he’s where he belongs now, so all’s well that ends well. Right?
