AJ Styles says his son Avery signed with TNA because television reps are the one thing the independent circuit cannot give him.
Speaking on The AJ Styles Show, the WWE Hall of Famer said the TNA deal is not a replacement for indie dates but an addition to them, and that the value sits in the clock.
He’s gonna do independents and he’s definitely doing TNA. TNA gets him the reps that he needs on television. You need these reps on television because you have to hit times.
Styles then explained what he means by hitting times, and what he expects from a 19-year-old learning to work inside a broadcast window.
You have a certain time limit to hit these things before the commercial break, and then you have a certain time after you come back that you got to hit. I’m a stickler of hit your time. You’re a professional. Do your job. And so being at TNA will help him hit his times.
An independent show runs to a loose schedule and a match ends when it ends. Television does not work that way, and learning to land a segment on a producer’s cue is a skill that only comes from repetition in front of a live broadcast.
The dues argument still hangs over Avery Styles
That emphasis on professionalism arrives weeks after Avery spent most of August at the center of a very different argument about what a young wrestler owes the business. Arik Cannon accused him of dodging ring setup work at a GCW show in Minneapolis, and AJ replied on X that his son had been paid to wrestle, not to put up and take down the ring.
The exchange pulled in Cody Rhodes, Lexis King and Joe Gacy before Styles gave his fullest account of the ring crew mixup on the same podcast and said he was done talking about it.
Avery Styles has not wrestled on TNA television yet
Avery announced the deal himself at TNA Lockdown on August 23 in Chicago, arriving to his father’s Ring of Honor entrance theme and being introduced as the Phenomenal Son before Frankie Kazarian interrupted to warn him about the locker room.
He appeared again on the August 27 episode of iMPACT on AMC, where Moose cut into a Gia Miller interview to warn him off Kazarian. He was at ringside later that night when Moose beat Kazarian, but he still has not had a televised match.
The independent half of his father’s plan is already booked. Avery is scheduled for Expect The Unexpected’s All I Want 4 card on September 19 in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, a show promoted by Marcus Mathers, the wrestler he faced in the GCW match that started the argument in the first place.
