Trivia / AJ Styles

• Breakup Breakout: In WCW, he was called Air Styles and half of a tag team called Air Raid with a guy named Air Paris. After WCW closed, neither WWE nor TNA wanted Air Paris, and he's since been confined to small indy feds.
• Creator Backlash: Out of all the wrestlers who have soured on TNA over the years, AJ is by far the most prominent and damning, because he was The Face of TNA (even if they rarely treated him that way) — to the point that it became Reality Subtext during his last storyline with the company. All this being said, AJ was willing to negotiate a return if they could match his price, owing to his Money, Dear Boy mindset post-departure, but when WWE came calling and offered a better deal, AJ ultimately turned TNA down and absconded to greener pastures.
• Money, Dear Boy: Notably, interviews reveal that AJ originally got into wrestling because of the money. When he found out that you don't make money in wrestling, at least not in the beginning, it was already too late — he had already fallen in love with it. This was the most likely reason why AJ stuck around in TNA for so long. That being said, TNA did pay him a pretty penny, a direct contrast to how badly they mistreated him creatively in the meanwhile. However, by 2011 the company was beginning to stagnate, and by 2013 the company had decayed to the point that their renewal offer contained a forty percent paycut, which AJ refused to accept, leading to his departure from TNA. These days, while AJ is still very much in love with wrestling, he's gonna do what's best for his family and go where the business will direct him to make more money than ever before. So when he said he didn't stick in ROH with Punk because he had to what was best for his family, Styles was basically saying TNA paid better, and when his TNA contract was not renewed and he made a long term return to ROH, it was basically a sign of that no longer being the case.
• Real Song Theme Tune: In Ring of Honor: Also sprach Zarathustra, "Touched" by VAST, "Wherever I May Roam" by Metallica, "Demi Gods" by LabRats (a remix of Touched), "Evil Ways (Justice Mix)" by Blues Saraceno
• Reality Subtext: The heart and soul of TNA becoming disillusioned with what the company was becoming over time was not only true in kayfabe, as was discovered when his departure ushered in 2014 for them. In later interviews, AJ admitted he didn't shed a single tear when he left TNA. In contrast, AJ admitted to being very emotional when he left NJPW, borderline crying like a baby.
• Recycled Script: AJ Styles took part in a war involving the future of TNA. Christopher Daniels, AJ's best friend, came back to TNA to come to his aid in this struggle and became part of the faction AJ fought alongside, tagging up with AJ on several occasions during this time. Sometime after the egomaniacal superstar force that tried to lay siege to TNA was defeated and/or weakened, Daniels would challenge AJ to a match, with Styles winning. Daniels would be consumed with ambition and jealousy, accusing AJ of viewing him as a sidekick and rubbing in his own self-perception of being as good or better than AJ. This led to the two falling out and having bitter heat with each other as they continued to fight over envy and pride. Officially this happened twice, during/after TNA Frontline vs. Main Event Mafia in 2009 and during/after Fortune vs. Immortal in 2011, but shades of this pattern can be traced back to even before the two's real-life friendship became a part of their characters. In early 2003 they teamed once or twice as part of TNA's first takeover stable Sports Entertainment Xtreme, which AJ was simply an ally of while Daniels was a member, then in 2005 "Daniels is jealous of AJ, cue feud" would serve as the impetus to kick off their infamous X-Division Championship rivalry.
• Theme Naming: His children Ajay, Avery, Albey and Anney Jones. Ajay Covell Jones also forms a pair with Christopher Daniels's son Joshua Allen Covell, both of them having a middle name after the other's father (Josh is the younger by 6 months) as well as the same three letters as their initials.
• What Could Have Been
  • He could have had a WWE developmental contract, but that would have required moving, which he didn't want to put his family through, and he was able to make more money on the indies than in developmental, and wanted to keep up that revenue for his family
  • Gabe Sapolsky admitted in an interview with Canada's Slam Sports that the original plan for the Pure Title belt was to build to a champion vs champion match between AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. He tried to come up with something else for the belt but eventually just gave up and did the angle with Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuinness instead.
  • Daniels and Kazarian wanted to work together and would take any angle TNA came up with to get them there but Styles rejected the proposal that Daniels was blackmailing Kazarian with the threat to reveal he was sleeping with AJ's sister because AJ says that wouldn't have offended him at all. The next best thing was Styles having an affair with Dixie Carter, but Dixie being asked about this too many times in real life got that story nixed as well. Unfortunately, those rejections led to Claire Lynch...
  • As late as December 2015 AJ told Bleacher Report that he wouldn't be leaving ROH and NJPW until WWE offered him more money. His loss to Jay Lethal on the 18th made it seem like he would be going and it was indeed his last ROH match but he still kept his Wrestle Kingdom date and then made New Year Dash!! before his departure was official.