On a recent episode of “Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard”, the topic was AJ Styles’ run in TNA. Prichard was asked by his co-host Conrad Thompson what TNA officials thought of AJ Styles as a top guy.
Here is what he said (h/t to Wrestling INC for the quote below)
“I had never worked with AJ beyond his tryout matches for WWE so immediately I’m hearing the negative,” Prichard said when co-host Conrad Thompson asked what TNA officials thought about AJ as a top guy. “I hear that, ‘AJ, he just wants to wrestle his matches and do all these high spots, he doesn’t listen, doesn’t want to change, doesn’t want to grow. He’s a pain in the ass. We’re trying to build him into a bigger star and he’s bucking us at every single opportunity.’ The feeling was that AJ just wasn’t willing to do what it took to become a star. For example… they wanted AJ to bleach his hair blonde like Ric Flair. AJ didn’t want to do that. They wanted AJ to wear robes like Ric Flair but it looked like something that his daughter put together. It just wasn’t a good look and AJ wasn’t comfortable being Ric Flair. He didn’t want to talk about being up all night with the women. AJ’s happily married and a very religious guy. He didn’t want that perception. Every time you suggest something new to AJ, he doesn’t want to do it. Unless it’s just wrestling a match with one of his buddies, he doesn’t want to do it”
“I learned early on in my career that you try to judge people on how they treat you. And I tried talking to AJ and found that he was pretty receptive to things. He had good reasons why he didn’t want to do some of the things suggested to him. So, now all of a sudden I’m trying to find a way to get into AJ, in a way to pitch him ideas and try to do some different things with him which he was open to, at least with me.”
Here is a list of the best matches of AJ’s career. This includes matches from his time in TNA.