For all he accomplished in WWE, AJ Styles says he has never fully felt like he belonged to the company, and that his legacy is tied more closely to TNA.
Speaking on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Styles said he genuinely wrestles with how he will be remembered.
“I don’t know. Is that up to me? Is that up to the fans? Does it bother me? Maybe there isn’t one. I think about this all the time,” Styles said. “Was I even a WWE guy? Yes, I was there, and I participated in WWE. I did all these great things in 10 years, which is amazing. But you never really see AJ Styles on some of the greatest WWE stars and stuff like that. I get it. I was in TNA. I was in New Japan. Maybe I’m not necessarily a WWE guy.”
He was at peace with the idea that his TNA run is his defining chapter.
“That being at the company that you helped build up a reputation of really great stuff, I’ll take that legacy,” Styles said. “I don’t know that the legacy in WWE is as great as the one in TNA, not because of the wrestling or the guys that I worked with weren’t great. It was just because of the time of which I was in TNA.”
Styles said the version of himself that made him a star was forged as his TNA run was ending, and refined in New Japan, before he ever reached WWE.
“It was really that end of TNA where I really found out who AJ Styles was,” Styles said, describing a more aggressive character. “He’s exactly what Vince wanted. He was a pit bull. He could go out there and eat guys alive if he wanted to. Then I was able to take that and go to New Japan and have fun with it, and then get to WWE and go, okay, I just combine these two, and this is what you want, Vince. I got it.”
He is convinced that arriving in WWE any earlier would have gone badly.
“You wouldn’t have gotten this version of me. In fact, I don’t think I would have made it,” Styles said. “I’m not good with getting bullied. I don’t do well. I fly back. It’s just a redneck thing, and I don’t think I would have done well.”
The feeling of being on the outside followed him right to the end. Styles said even the Cena tribute match reinforced it.
“Never a talk of me having a match with John. Listen, I just assume I’m not that guy,” Styles said. “Again, sometimes I feel like, even though I’ve been in WWE for 10 years, I’m not a WWE guy sometimes, and that was just one of those times.”
Even so, Styles said he holds no bitterness about how the wave of new stars will eventually push his name into the background.
“We’re already kind of heading that direction, and that’s okay, because they need to move on to the next stars, and they need to build these other stars to be bigger and bigger and better,” Styles said. “So I’m okay with that. I’ve dealt with it.”
