What's the first word that pops into your head when you hear that name? I know what it is for me; 'Phenomenal'.
Styles, for the majority of his 18-year-career, has been considered on the best to ever grace a professional wrestling ring, past and present. We're going to be looking at this in depth, to see if we can prove, indefinitely, if these claims are true.
We will begin our discussion by looking at his first tenure in Ring of Honour (ROH). Styles debuted for the company in 2002 on their third show, A Night of Appreciation, and quickly rose to become one of ROH's premier wrestlers. AJ helped to establish Ring of Honour in it's formative years, main eventing shows and bringing about a product quality synonymous with ROH. In 2004 at ROH's second anniversary show, Styles won a one-night tournament to become the inaugural ROH Pure Championship, a championship designed to determine the best pure wrestler on the roster, contested under different rules to standard matches.
- Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls during the match. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts under the ropes by the opponent are considered legal.
- There are no closed-fist punches to the face allowed in a Pure match, only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body (save for low-blows) are permitted. The first use of a closed fist will get a warning, and the second will cause the wrestler to be penalized a rope break. If he is already out of rope breaks, he will be disqualified.
- A wrestler is subject to a twenty count by the referee if the wrestler goes to the floor.
After defeating CM Punk to win the title, Styles reigned for 70 days before he was forced to vacate it due to his contractual obligations to Total Nonstop Action Wreslting (TNA), meaning no-one has ever beaten AJ for that championship.
AJ would continue to wrestle for Ring of Honour until 2006, when his ties to TNA caused him to cease appearing for the promotion.
AJ was an influential figure in the establishment, development and success of the X-Division which has been touted by many as the main reason for TNA's success in the mid-2000s. In total, Styles held the X-Division Championship on six occasions (joint second highest), accumulating to 272 days as champion (joint seventh longest). His work in the X-Division also produced widely considered to be the best match in the company's history and also receiving a 5* rating: Styles vs Christopher Daniels vs Samoa Joe - Unbreakable 2005.
Over the next few years, AJ would branch out of the X-Division, finding success in the tag division with multiple partners and moving up the card into the main event scene. In 2009, AJ achieved what many regarded as well-deserved and frankly, about damn time, winning the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
With the title in hand, AJ would top the PWI rankings in 2010, the first and only TNA wrestler to do so, beating the likes of John Cena, CM Punk, Randy Orton and The Undertaker. Styles would hold the title for a then record of 211 days.
However, after Styles's reign as champion, AJ began to slip from the main event, through no fault of his own or lack of fan support. It was around this time that TNA brought in Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff to help run the company. It is of general consensus that this period of TNA is considered the worst in the company's history, both for fans and talent. This time included AJ being cast aside in favour of wrestlers considered to be more of a draw (usually meaning at some point they were in WWE). Whilst the storylines and opportunities were lacking (see Claire Lynch), AJ made the most of what was given to him and put on great matches.
After the whole Hogan/Bischoff ordeal had passed, AJ entered a new phase in his character that would be influential in his career then on, if for just looks alone. Deemed 'The Lone Wolf', AJ donned dark attire and grew his hair out, an image that would become the usual Styles appearance. In 2013, AJ won the Bound for Glory series, granting him a shot at the TNA Heavyweight Championship which he would then win at the Bound for Glory pay-per-view. 2013 would also see Styles depart the company in favour of greener pastures.
Whilst his time at TNA could be described as turbulent at times, putting it nicely, there is no denying that without Styles' work, the company would be a very different place. We can safely say that Styles was at least partly responsible for the success of the X-Division and the boom of TNA in the mid-2000s.
Following his departure from TNA, Styles made his debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) in 2014. On his first night he attacked the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada, and challenged him to a title match. It was revealed that Styles was the newest member of one of the biggest faction's the company, and wrestling as a whole, The Bullet Club. This would be his first match in NJPW, and it would be a match he would come out of victorious, with a new hunk of gold on his shoulder. Not only was this an unprecedented event in regards to the championship and the company, but also the fact that a 'gaijin' (Japanese term for foreigner) could win the title in his first match was a rarity, a feat shared with one Brock Lesnar.
AJ was now a major player in New Japan, and took the Bullet Club to new heights. A case can be made to say that AJ was perhaps the greatest 'gaijin' to perform in New Japan, though Kenny Omega could be on the cusp of surpassing him sometime soon.
It is also worth noting that whilst under contract with New Japan, Styles also competed for NJPW's partners ROH as well as in the UK for Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW). Though championship gold proved elusive in ROH, Styles won the RPW British Heavyweight Championship on June 14th, 2015. AJ, along with The Young Bucks, also made the finals of the Chikara King of Trios tournament, only to be defeated by the team of Aero Star, Drago and Fenix.
2015 also saw Styles become 1 of only 15 men to have ever held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship twice, defeating the ace of New Japan, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Overall, he would reach 307 combined days as champion, ranking 13th overall.
Towards the latter end of that year, AJ suffered a back injury that put him out of action for nearly two months. In January of 2016, before his departure from the company, Styles competed classic match against Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 10, ending an amazing run in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The next chapter of Styles's career takes us now to the biggest wrestling company on the globe, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
Debuting in the 2016 Royal Rumble match, Styles lasted roughly 28 minutes, eliminating 2 men in the process and set the wrestling world on fire. Going on from this Styles feuded with Chris Jericho until WrestleMania 32, an exchange he would come out of as the loser.
Styles would really begin to shine in the WWE during his pursuits for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Roman Reigns. AJ faced off against Reigns twice for the gold, receiving star ratings of 4.5 and 3.75 (average of 4.125).
Following this feud, Styles began a program with John Cena, long thought to be a fantasy feud that would most probably never come to fruition, yet, here it is. In his two encounters one-on-one with Cena, their matches have an average star rating of 4.375, the latter of the two at SummerSlam considered an instant classic to some and deserving of a 5* rating to others.
Moving on from Cena and becoming the new 'Face That Runs The Place', Styles won the opportunity to challenge Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Championship at the revived Backlash PPV. After putting on one hell of a match, Styles would walk out victorious, with a new championship to add to his already overflowing list of accomplishments. Along with adding that acclaim to his record, in doing so, Styles also became only the third person ever to have held both the WWE Championship and the NWA Championship, joining the duo of two 'Nature Boys', Buddy Rogers and Ric Flair, who are debated to be two of the greatest of all time.
So far in WWE, AJ Styles has competed on 9 pay-per-views (also being every one he was eligible for), achieving a 4.05* average match rating, with his lowest rating being 3.5 for the six man tag of The Club vs Enzo & Cass & Cena at Battleground. Now, if we compare this to his last 9 big matches in New Japan, his average match rating is 3.80, showing that Styles is performing even better since coming to WWE, even at the age of 38 he continues to improve.
In conclusion, looking over Styles's career, we can see that he was influential in the early success of Ring of Honour and TNA, two companies which now rank at the number 2 and 3 spots in the US wrestling scene. We can also conclude that he played a major role in what many consider the 'Golden Age' of TNA and the X-Division. Looking to where he went afterwards, we can assess that AJ was key in the development of the Bullet Club becoming a top-tier faction of all time with his main event success, and also gave 'gaijin' wrestlers new heights to aim for. Finally, we can note that Styles has certainly heavily impacted the landscape of the WWE, proving how a seemingly 'overlooked' performer can come in and positively affect the company massively. And all the while, we can see that Styles has been putting on stellar matches from his early years to his current run against opponents of all shapes, sizes and styles.
Thus ends my essay on why I believe AJ Styles to deserve the moniker of 'Greatest of All Time' in the field of professional wrestling.
[DISCLAIMER: ALL STAR RATINGS COME FROM profightdb.com, MELTZER CERTIFIED]
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