AJ Styles built one of the most decorated résumés in modern wrestling, and he still spent years bracing to lose it all.
On The Phenomenally Retro Podcast with Tony Giles, Styles opened up about the insecurity that shadowed his career, admitting he never quite saw himself the way fans did.
My biggest fear was that I would be released in some way. People think, ‘You’re AJ Styles, why would you even think that way?’ Because I don’t see myself the way you see me. I’d be embarrassed, like, ‘Oh, he’s not good enough at his job, so he’s worth losing.’ Even as good as the career went, there was a time where I wasn’t doing much at all.
Defending TNA’s Identity
Styles spent more than a decade as a cornerstone of TNA, and he still defends the promotion’s most distinctive quirk, even while admitting its downside.
The squared ring is a much better place to bump than that six-sided ring. But at the same time, that’s what separated us from everybody else. That was who we are. Our DNA is in a six-sided ring. I just thought it was the identity of TNA that we lost in going to a square ring.
Turning Down Little Ric Flair
Styles also recalled a pitch from Eric Bischoff that would have reshaped his character entirely, one he pushed back on to protect who he was.
I got a call from Bischoff wanting Ric Flair to be my mentor and for me to get blonde hair and be Little Ric Flair. I was like, ‘No, no. I’ll do a version of AJ Styles,’ because Little Naitch, Charles Robinson, was in WCW. I’m not Little Naitch. I’m AJ Styles. That’s why I frosted my hair, to get some blonde tips.
The Contradiction He Owns
Styles was candid about one contradiction in his own history. He said he’d never book an outsider to beat a homegrown star, then admitted he did exactly that when New Japan came calling, jumping to NJPW in 2014 and dethroning Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in his very first match.
I wouldn’t bring a WWE guy in to beat my homegrown TNA guy. Now, I say that to say: I went to New Japan as a TNA guy and beat their top Japanese guy. I would not have done that, but I sure heck wasn’t going to turn it down either. I’m not saying it was right. I just wasn’t going to turn down the opportunity.
