How AJ Styles Became TNA’s Biggest Star

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Explore the remarkable journey of AJ Styles, tracing his rise to becoming TNA Wrestling’s ultimate star. From his early days in the X Division to his defining moments in the main event scene, this video chronicles the unparalleled career of the Phenomenal One. Witness the pivotal matches, intense rivalries, and defining moments that solidified AJ Styles as the face of TNA. Join us as we unravel the story behind his evolution, showcasing the skills, charisma, and dedication that propelled him to greatness in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. If you’re a fan of pro wrestling history or AJ Styles himself, this is a must-watch retrospective on the legacy of TNA’s greatest star.

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Yeah many of you may know AJ Styles for his incredible run that he’s still on in WWE where it only took him 5 years to become a grand slam Champion a lot of times in WWE they’re referencing how long it took for someone to get to the

Big leagues and for sty the referencing nearly two decades before he was associated with the company but have you ever wondered what happened in those 12 to 18 years before WWE Yes fans there is more wrestling than WWE and Mr Styles was Mr TNA one of the best wrestlers in the world not

Signed to WWE for a long time but to TNA Impact Wrestling itself he was often underlooked or just not utilized to the utmost potential you think he might be it’s sports key to wrestling I’m Kevin get into the comments below and let us know your favorite matches and moments

With AJ Styles though some have argued that AJ Styles and TNA Impact Wrestling was never figured as the guy of the company he may have had the greatest career to come out of TNA and jump to another promotion and was fans Choice as the face of the company for a

Significant period of his time there if you were to ask AJ Styles himself he was never the face of TNA on the Mark Andrews my love to wrestling podcast Styles said I don’t think I was ever the guy for them at least in their eyes with the whopping 18 championships captured

In the span of 12 Years let’s take a little retrospective look at AJ Styles teeny career and why he never truly became the face of the company that was once clear number two to WWE AJ Styles at one point more than 20 years ago was close to signing a developmental

Deal with WWE but he opted not to because it would interfere with his wife’s college education and he eventually found a home for himself in the then newly established breakout promotion of TNA he was even signed to an exclusive contract at first but within the first few major pay-per-view

Weekly events Styles became the inaugural X Division champion being the man to truly bring that division of cruiserweights to the map it needed to be put on but to top it off he even became the NWA tag team champion alongside Jerry Lynn this occurred during the early stages of TNA when they

Were a weekly pay-per-view product yes a unique presentation as TNA fought to find its foothold it would see established names frequent the roster in clashes with the fresh faces with this element seeing Styles defeating sixo XO for the exhivision title Styles continue to fight his way up the TNA ladder with

Wins over Ron killings in Larry Zisco but on the 33rd total non-stop action Pay-Per-View event from Tennessee Fairgrounds in Nashville Jeff Jarrett with that Hometown Advantage was able to retain the title over AJ Styles and that title being the NWA World Heavyweight Championship his first crack at a world

Title just wasn’t successful Styles would once again work his way up the ladder tag teaming with DLo Brown getting blocked along the way by the Mind Games of Raven Styles began to make moves once again to become the next NWA world champion defeating Jarrett and Raven in a triple threat match in June

Of 2003 in Nashville it’s worth noting that Styles impact on winning his world title is also kind of limited because it was really about Vince Russo interfering and smashing Jeff Jarrett with a guitar Styles first run with the NWA World title wasn’t that much of a needle mover

He did best DLo Brown in a best of three series got revenge and retain the title against Raven heck he even beat Dusty rhods defending the NWA World title with the ref bump down Jeff jerrett would smash AJ Styles with the NWA World title to win back the championship in October

Of 2003 and now villainous Jeff Jarrett used all the dastardly tactics and all the assistance he could to fend off AJ Styles and success with a guitar Smash and the help of kid cash retained the title against Styles in December of 2003 Double J does it again Styles would make

An odd detour into one of those how can they coexist tag teams with another Teena franchise player the monster abyss with the pair winning the NWA World Tag Team titles while still wanting to be single stars on their own they even had a tables match over who would control

The Tag Team titles yeah weird convoluted TNA in the early 2000s Styles got smashed through that table but the feud ended with Styles getting a world title shot off the back of Abyss despite the influence of Raven and Vince ruso outside the steel cage AJ Styles once

Again able to fend off Jeff Jarrett’s dirty tactics kicking the guitar out of his hands this time inside the steel cage and rolling him up to once again become the NWA world champion in April of 2004 yes but first comes the spring and an unfortunate Summer with the odds

Stacked against him in the multi-man Mayhem of the king of the mountain match in June Styles would lose the NWA World title back to Guess Who Jeff Jarrett at the 100th TNA Pay-Per-View event yeah once again a fleeting flirtation with gold for AJ so what’s a lonely AJ Styles

To do well he goes back to the ex Division and re captures that title from Frankie Kazarian has a fleeting match with Jeff Hardy that doesn’t really go anywhere it was during this Title reign that AJ got to be a part of the first time ever true Let’s test those No Limit

Style Match of ultimate X that’s right hanging the title by this contraption above the six-sided ring and just really letting the cruiserweights be cruiserweights doing insane stuff but it didn’t serve the best purpose for AJ Styles as he would lose the championship there he would then have a grudge Feud

With kid cash before finding his way back into the ex division title scene in a great six-way championship match with Alex Shelly Chris saan kazarin and kid cash at tea impact yeah at this point Tina is on TV filming in Orlando the competition in the midcard of Tina at

The time was pretty Fierce and it wasn’t just a foreground conclusion that AJ Styles would get the ex division championship every time he challenged for it pety Williams was able to successfully retain it against him at the Victory Road 2004 Pay-Per-View event with the title dangling once again above

The ring in the ultimate x match AJ Styles would get his highflying Redemption defeating Chris Sav and pety Williams to once again become the ex Division champion but it was around this time that he would face in meet on television for the first time one of his

Greatest Rivals the Fallen Angel Ang AJ Styles they would face off in a 30 minute Iron Man match at the Against All Odds pay-per-view with Styles coming out the winner it was around this time in 2005 that AJ Styles was truly being regarded as one of the best minute Forin

Pound-for-pound pro wrestlers in the world and really helping TNA and its ex division stand out as a pure wrestling action-based product emphasis on total non-stop action now now of course Styles having great dance Partners like Christopher Daniels at the time truly helped ultimate X would prove to be yet

Another problem for the phenomenal one as Christopher Daniels would get the title from him once again dangling above the ring in a match that also featured Prime Time and Ron killings Styles would once again attempt to ascend the world title mountain with an elevated sense of

Hype at this point in his career and he would get to headline his first real pay-per-view Main Event TNA lockdown 2005 in a six-sided steel cage match but he had a real challenge here to get to that next World title level and it was the monster abyss 6’8 350 lbs of

Unpredictable uncontrollable monster as Mike today described on commentary styles did not disappoint in his first real pay-per-view Main Event bleeding red and powerbombing a giant on thumbtacks to get that world title shot Styles would one once again challenge guess who Double J Jeff Jared for the NWA World title at the Hard Justice

Pay-per-view and who would be the special guest referee well yes the Huntington Beach bad boy himself MMA meast star Tito Ortiz a bunch of shenanigans Monty Brown comes in for the pounds but hits Jeff Jarrett and then Jeff Jarrett does a low blow in front of

Tito Ortiz and then he gets into with him and then torti punches him out Styles hits the spiral tap from the top rope everyone goes crazy and AJ Styles is once again the world champion just when you thought tea was finally going to go with Styles as their guy once

Again bit by the odds of a multi-man title match the king of the mountain yes a reverse ladder match it only lasted a month or so and once again Styles would lose the title this time to Raven are we starting to see a pattern here with TNA

And how they treat AJ Styles it’s a bit odd that TNA had Styles jump back into the X division as if nothing ever happened like they didn’t invest all that time in him the up and down with AJ Styles and TNA would continue with the Super X tournament in 2005 where he

Would go through the ranks defeating pety Williams Matt Bentley XO yeah and then the tournament final where he would lose to another one of his greatest opponents of all time Samoa Joe that went down at the sacrifice pay-per-view that Tournament final was to determine who would face Christopher Daniels for

The ex division championship and considering that Daniels himself had a little nasty Dusty interference in there it meant that we were going to get a triple threat the triple threat Samo Joe Styles and Daniels at the unbreakable pay-per-view now this match to many was the greatest match in TNA history a

Match that put them on the map a match that proved they could hang in there and deliver on pay-per-view at a level that WWE was doing you need to watch it to understand it but you aren’t going to find many matches with this level of psychology pacing speed for 23 straight

Minutes three guys absolutely at the peak of what they can do and believe me the action did not stop in this one the match managed to put all three men on the list of the best professional wrestlers in the world world at the time AJ Styles cracked the top 10 of the pwi

500 that year although you could argue that AJ Styles didn’t need to become a five-time ex Division champion by winning this match and that Samoa Joe would have been a bigger beneficiary from it it didn’t really matter because the match was so goddamn good it was the

True Glory period of the ex division with the title changing hands from styles to Joe to Daniels to Joe to styles to Daniels and you get the drift of where where we’re going here Styles was becoming such a bankable star for TNA not a main eventer just yet that he

Was featured not once but twice on the Bound for Glory pay-per-view that year eventually Styles learned that some of his greatest Rivals could be some of his greatest teammates he would align himself with Christopher Daniels to have a really great tag team seeing them chase America’s Most Wanted before going

After LAX who they would take the NWA World Tag Team titles from at slam adversary 2006 as if you thought he couldn’t take the X division to new heights well he went and did it with the tag team division as well along with Daniels they would have the first tag

Team ultimate x match against LAX retaining the titles in that big risky match as if AJ couldn’t take the ex division to new heights he would do that with tag team wrestling as well him and Daniels would defeat LAX for the titles in the ultimate X at no surrender the

Titles would go back to LAX at Bound for Glory 2006 only a few days later AJ Styles would once again get gold around his waist inside the Impact Zone yes winning the fight for the right tournament and recapturing the X division championship this time from Chris Savin after getting the XD title

Back for the sixth and final time he lost it to Christopher Daniels his tag team partner once now his rival and at the next pay-per-view Genesis he failed to get it off CD interference led to Styles losing to Christian Cage following this rhino yes the ECW veteran

Tried to be a mediator between Styles and Daniels with Styles attacking Rhino and beating him in a series of matches and what would probably be one of the most one-sided feuds of his career yeah it was a gory period for Styles he got his ass kicked at final resolution

Against All Odds and destination X all by Rhino there was a true sense of the elevated stars from other companies coming over to TNA and the Homegrown Talent of TNA simply not being featured nearly as much and maybe not getting those big wins that were needed this was

In place in the 10-man lethal lockdown steel cage match at the lockdown event in 2007 team Engle that featured Kurt Angle Jeff Jarrett Rhino samoo and sting defeating team cage which featured Styles along with Abyss Christian Cage Scott Steiner and TOMCO in the aftermath of the defeat at the hands of Team Angle

Styles and TOMCO taged together and became tea World Tag Team Champions Styles looking to elevate his stature would join Kurt Angle Alliance but things wouldn’t go smoothly since Styles was accused of having an affair with Karen angles before she became Karen Jarrett yeah you know this was that time

You could do those type of weird crazy storylines to make matters worse TOMCO betrayed AJ Styles choosing angle over Christian and styles and wound up quitting the angle Alliance anyway because of the constant accusations and the supposed Affair The Fallout from the angle Christian story which was an

Attempt to maybe give Styles something to do that didn’t involve chasing a championship really led to a new Guard versus an old established guard story reaching the point where Kurt Angle was sent to help AJ Styles from an attack at the hands of Booker T TOMCO and The

Dudley boys or teen 3D as they were known by then and only to turn on Styles himself yeah this is confusing sting on the other hand tried to stop Samoa Joe from a rampage assault on Booker T only to be given the middle finger himself he would finally snap and turn

Eventually Styles and Samo Joe disrespected the value of the veterans it was a good story because you could see the logic of both perspectives in October of 2008 the lineup of Kurt Angle sting Booker T and Kevin Nash declaring themselves the main event Mafia with the intention of taking back respect and

Taking back the business from those youngsters to combat this Styles and Samoa Joe yeah they’re not friends line to form the TNA front line Scott Steiner would end up siding with the mafia instead of the front line and got names like Rhino teen 3D Christopher Daniels pety Williams ODB yes a female

Representative and quite a few others it was mainly Rhino and Joe and Styles at the Forefront a few months after the formation of the main event mafia they took out Styles and quote unquote injured him for a grand total of 17 days before his big comeback at the Against

All Odds pay-per-view and his role there stealing Booker te Legends championship before eventually winning it himself it’s got to be one of the rare instances where a superstar stole a title and won it too no this wasn’t like a cash in situation after failed attempts at becoming the tnaa world champion Samoa

Joe would turn on him during one of the attempts to align himself with the mafia yes the Frontline thing was gone and to add salt to the wound Big Daddy Cool not so cool Kevin Nash won the Legends title from AJ as well that’s right just when

You thought AJ was going to get back on top and get kick back down around the summer of 2009 the main event Mafia story reached its conclusion with Kurt Angle eventually changing his mind about younger Talent while Booker T left TNA alt together reportedly around this time Styles contemplated retirement only for

See to talk him out of it by telling him that he wanted to pass the torch to the phenomenal one in what turned out to be a touching gesture at the No Surrender event sting intentionally didn’t pin Kurt Angle allowing styles to capture the TNA World Championship for the first

Time in his career yes this was the TNA World title yeah weird booking scenario aside that was one of the defining moments of Tea’s incredible stretch before it downfall as fans celebrated a true original becoming a world champion the cracks were there for TNA over all but they weren’t exactly showing in

Response to Sting’s selfless move Styles awarded him a title shot at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view that year where Styles solidified himself above everyone else by defeating the icon right down the middle he went on to have a series of successful defenses even having a triple threat rematch against Samo Mojo

And Christopher Daniels the next major chapter is when he retained against the Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle with the help of Rick Flair this wasn’t the usual Styles we were used to he was turning heel and becoming the new Nature Boy they were trying to literally add

Flare to the Styles performer who we knew could have Banger matches but some criticized for simply just not having a tangible character that maybe mainstream fans could sink their teeth into Flair now teaching styles how to be the new dirtiest player in the game on numerous occasions would help him retain the

World title with interference and even paying off a referee after defenses against Kurt Angle Samoa Joe abyss and Elijah Burke now going by the name D’Angelo daero he lost the title to Rob Van Dam yes this was a strong time for tea overall they had some new management

Some new people wanted to bet on some new names but that didn’t mean that Styles wouldn’t be featured he would have flare with him form a new group dubbed Fortune the successors to The Four Horsemen they were called Fortune you get it the four part Styles would

Lead the group along with flair joining them would be Frankie Kazarian James storm and Robert Roode and their first order of business was to drive EV 2.0 the ECW Originals out of TNA although they had a series of singles wins on their side and the addition of Matt

Morgan to their group they lost the lethal lockdown match to the ECW Originals before teasing a feud against another group The Hulk Hogan Le group Immortal that’s right at this point Hulk Hogan and Eric Bishoff are running TNA instead of Fortune going at it with Immortal well they aligned you know like

The corporate Ministry and the sight of of a 61-year-old Ric Flair and a 57-year-old Hulk Hogan embracing didn’t get a lot of love and was something that really just kind of put AJ Styles in the background it was probably a good foreshadowing of the downfall that Teena

Were going to suffer in the next of many years this new Coalition managed to beat the ECW Originals at Turning Point sending Sabu out of the company but Styles luck took a turn for the worse when Douglas Williams now a member of the Fortune group turned on them and

Captured the TV Championship from the phenomenal one yeah it was the TV Championship the global Championship but it definitely wasn’t the world championship the entire story was a bit of a mess and it was only a few months later when fortun finally did turn babyfaced taking out Immortal with AJ

Styles declaring that he didn’t want Eric bishof to do to TNA what he did to WCW by taking it all the way down Ric Flair was absent during this period because of an injury and when he returned he betrayed AJ Styles and Fortune and revealed himself to be aligned with a mortal instead

Enthralling stuff woo Styles would be sideline for a month courtesy of a bully rap Power Bomb from an extreme height he would return at the 2011 edition of the lockdown event to help Fortune beat Immortal for a brief period he was into it with bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer for a little while

Trading wins between all three of them and eventually losing a last man standing match to Bully Ray despite coming off on the losing in he went after the TNA World title once again this time against Bobby rude falling short every time with Frankie Kazarian ditching AJ Styles it put an end to the

Fortune story as we knew it oh it gets even better on paper a three-way Feud with a Christopher Daniels okay that that’s worked before let’s add in Frankie heeran this could get interesting for AJ Styles no he’s accused of having an affair with the then president of the company Dixie

Carter why we we did this a few years earlier and it wasn’t that good you can see the quality of the story lines rapidly deteriorating here and it’s no coincidence tea was in the midst of a big crash when they still have seemingly never fully recovered from there’s still

A strong number two company behind WWE but they are very much number two at a far far distance AJ is supposed to be one of their top guys and he doesn’t feel like it even with the official rebranding of Teena to Impact Wrestling things didn’t change too much but what

Did change was AJ getting another major Ally in the form of Kurt Angle they won the Tag Team titles at slam aary but wait there’s another twist remember AJ Styles in the Dixie Carter Affair thing we mentioned a few seconds ago well it turns out they were actually taking a

Drug addicted pregnant woman overcome her demons how Noble and it even makes no sense whatsoever yeah why were AJ Styles and Dixie Carter who were work colleagues taking care of a pregnant woman together to cover up a previous lie Christopher Daniels said that Styles and Dixie left out one important detail

That AJ Styles was the father of this woman who name was Claire Lynch and her she had a baby and it’s what to earn the right to make Claire take a paternity test we got to have a match right AJ Styles had to defeat Christopher Daniels in a last man

Ding match at destination X we’re going to find out who the baby’s father is did myy Povich book this the results revealed that Claire wasn’t pregnant at all no she faked her pregnancy as a plot with Christopher Daniels you know cuz he’s evil uh to Blackmail AJ that still

Doesn’t explain why he and Dixie Carter were taking care of her none of it made any sense either way angle and styles lost their titles back to Kazarian and Daniels in between and they failed to regain him and it just this was this was really bad after failing to become the number one

Contender for the world title he lost to Christopher Daniels and maybe lost to smile he began a rivalry with angle after not revealing whether he was a part of the new formidable faction Aces and eights and everyone needed to know who was in that faction and AJ was

Wearing a leather jacket and they wear leather jackets hey are you with those Bad Dudes we need to know although he would lose to Kurt Angle at slam adversary he opted not to join Aces and eights and was done with the whole faction thing to begin with cuz it

Didn’t work before earning a spot at the Bound for Glory Glory tournament he went on to win it and defeat Bully Ray to become the Teena world champion again revived AJ’s back he’s phenomenal but this time there was a problem Styles and TNA were in renegotiation stages and it

Played out on screen with the phenomenal one getting into a rivalry with Dixie Carter wrestling as the world champion without a contract somewhat intriguing okay they got something here the result of it would be the world title getting vacated with Magnus you now know as Smackdown general manager Nick Aldis

Winning a tournament to Crown a new Champion AJ Styles returned to have a unification match with Magnus and an interference infestation of nearly 10 Superstars saw Magnus unify the titles for good this would Mark the unfortunate end of AJ Styles 12year run with TNA the real life situation of him having a

Contract negotiation played out in a very very messy ending the falling out backstage saw Dixie Carter offer AJ Styles the TNA original who carried the promotion on his shoulders and became Mr TNA a contract that was reportedly 60% reduced salary this was according to Styles himself it’s not difficult to understand why styles

Was not happy with this in his own words when you’ve become loyal to one company for that long you should be getting a big pay raise not a pay cut thankfully for Styles the departure was a blessing in disguise as he made the jump to New Japan Pro Wrestling and became a

Two-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Lighting the world on fire at the Tokyo Dome also establishing himself as one of the biggest International stars in wrestling at the time and one of the Undisputed top wrestlers in the entire business oh yeah and there was this whole thing called the bullet Club

According to AJ himself Dixie was a lot more keen on using the established X WWE Stars Then pushing them over younger lesser known names like himself who were the foundation of the company and nobody built the foundation of tea the way AJ Styles did Tea’s loss was AJ Styles gain

In the end he would sign with WWE and have that massive debut at the Royal Rumble and quickly became one of the favorites maybe even a franchise player for WWE where if you told me that 20 years ago I don’t know if I would have believed you the fact that he’s actively

Referred to as one of the best in ring performers of his generation in WWE and has won every major title there shows you everything you need to know but don’t let the backstage bitterness and drama deter you from a period in t where Styles’s career truly shined because

Whether anybody admits it or not tnaa is the biggest reason why AJ Styles became who he is one of the best in the world what’s your favorite AJ Styles match or angle let us know in the comments below