AJ Styles was recently a guest on ‘E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness’ where he spoke on a wide variety of topics about his wrestling career. One of these topics was about his departure from TNA in 2013. He mentions that his departure came from TNA running into some financial issues due to poor management.
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A few years later, Styles made his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble to one of the loudest ovations in recent memory. It turns out that WWE fans could have seen Styles a lot sooner than we did.
According to AJ, he reached out to WWE after leaving TNA in 2013 and never heard back:
“I was in the TNA bubble for so long that I didn’t realize what was out there. I did reach out to WWE to let them know I wasn’t under contract with TNA anymore. I never really heard anything back. It’s just one of those things, ‘okay, we’ll keep rolling, keep doing what I’m doing.'”
After leaving TNA, Styles would wrestle for Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He became the leader of the Bullet Club during this time. He also won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, putting on some incredible matches along the way.
Things certainly turned out okay for AJ Styles and he has become one of the biggest stars in the company. Hard not to think of all the fun matches he could have had if he jumped to WWE a few years earlier (Daniel Bryan immediately comes to mind).
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