Matt Hardy believes AJ Styles would open NXT’s door wider to independent wrestlers than Shawn Michaels has, because Styles is far more connected to the indie scene that produced him.
Hardy made the case on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy with co-host Jon Alba. They were discussing reports that Michaels is in line to take over Bruce Prichard’s creative role after WrestleMania 43, with Styles widely seen as the most likely pick to run NXT.
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Alba asked whether Styles’s background, years of grinding through smaller promotions before he reached TNA, NJPW and WWE, would change how he evaluates developmental talent. Hardy said it would.
“I mean, I do think AJ would be a lot more focused on indies than a lot of other guys would be just because he was such a child of the independent scene, you know, when it was all said and done,” Hardy said, per a transcription by Ringside News. “I remember when he was working those small shows back at, God, what was it initially? MCW.”
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Hardy traced Styles’s path from those shows to WCW, then TNA, then WWE, and said that history still shapes how he sees talent.
“I think he’s definitely much more on the pulse of indie workers, and he would be much more willing to give someone a chance than someone like Shawn Michaels would be because I don’t think Shawn is quite on that same pulse,” Hardy said.
Hardy also sees value in what Styles can teach once talent is in the building. “I think being cool and calm is very important,” he said. “I also think he was very good at working so many different styles, you know. He can do a little bit of everything, and I think that will be very beneficial. I think he’ll be able to look at people and help them, especially from an in-ring work standpoint more than anything else.”
Styles has already started that work since retiring from the ring in January. He has produced matches in NXT, called out a habit he wants to fix in rising talent, and personally told Conan Lycan about his WWE ID deal on EVOLVE.
Hardy knows Styles’s work up close, since the two shared the TNA locker room and wrestled each other at Victory Road in 2011. WWE has not announced Styles as Michaels’s replacement in NXT.
