AJ Styles Says Being in TNA Flattened His Ego

WWE superstar AJ Styles recently participated in a Q&A session at Wizard World Portland. He discussed a number of topics, but mostly commented on his time in TNA and how it helped him with the transition to WWE.

It’s no secret that the “Phenomenal One” has worked all around the world. In between his stunts with TNA and WWE, he worked for both Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He said that while working with those companies boosted his ego, TNA pretty much shut it down.

“Ring of Honor treated me real well, and New Japan treated me like a superstar. So I’ve got to give credit to them, who helped boost my ego a little bit because it was definitely flattened due to TNA’s service. But then — doing all that and then having the opportunity to come to WWE and… you know, whether people like it or not, WWE is easy, the biggest – you know, when it comes to wrestling, it doesn’t get any bigger than the WWE. And being there means you’ve finally made it.”

Styles was also asked about if he ever thought himself and Samoa Joe would be in WWE, 10 years after their historical triple threat match with Christopher Daniels at TNA’s “Unbreakable.” He said that the problems from TNA advancing came because of Dixie Carter.

“Well, at that time Joe and I were hoping to make TNA a big deal. You know, that was what we wanted to do. The problem was, the person who owned the company, she didn’t see that in us. She didn’t see us as the stars that put TNA on the map and not just me but like, Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels, and Low Ki, all those guys who did great things and she just didn’t see it. Go put it bluntly, she wanted to be WWE-lite and nobody wanted to see that. They wanted to see something different. And at one point in time, it was a great place to work.”

“But I can tell you this,” he added. “I am certainly happy with [making it] to WWE. It is thus far head and shoulders over any other place I’ve ever worked.”