For those that missed it, TNA issued a statement on Friday claiming that AJ Styles and Bullet Club members Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson had reached a deal with TNA in December but then backed out over the Christmas holiday. This was a non-story until TNA issued their statement on Friday on their website and the rumors within the business on AJ Styles and TNA discussions were planted by TNA.
Click here for TNA’s statement. You can click here for the official statement from Styles’ agent Bill Behrens.
The impression given back in December was that Karl Anderson was TNA-bound and Doc Gallows were probably TNA-bound. Anderson was offered $200,000 by TNA but he also wanted to continue working for NJPW. Â Many people in the wrestling business are very negative on TNA with how they handled this situation. One person noted that TNA came off like a “woman scorned.” There were wrestling people openly criticizing TNA on social media on Friday night.
Another part of TNA’s story is that they had purchased plane tickets for them for the Pop TV tapings. That may have been the case but Styles, Gallows and Anderson were not aware of TNA purchasing plane tickets. Also, sources close to the trio say that they never agreed to a deal but they did agree to negotiate a deal which is very different than what TNA is trying to portray.
Another thing that was not previously mentioned in this story is that everyone that Styles was negotiating with (WWE, TNA and ROH) knew that he was looking for the best deal for himself and his family so it should not come to a shock to TNA that he chose WWE. Styles has said publicly that he was going to go whoever made the best offer to him. The bottom line in all of this is that something was presented and agreed to but a contract was never signed. Also, despite TNA’s claim, a long-form agreement was never finalized and there were several terms that had yet to be agreed to. Also, Styles, Gallows and Anderson told TNA around Christmas that they were not going to sign with them.
TNA and New Japan Pro Wrestling do not have a good relationsohip. When The Dudley Boyz were IWGP tag team champions, TNA booked them to lose the belts in TNA and NJPW was not told about it. PWInsider noted that people thinking that WWE was raiding New Japan is a false notion and that these guys were all wanting to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling. The PWInsider story was said to be “bullsh**” by people close to the story because all three of them wanted to stay with NJPW if they would have gotten the same money as before. Also, Karl Anderson’s contract expires on 1/31 and he is staying for a few extra weeks and Gallows and Styles are not under contract but they continued to wrestle extra dates for NJPW so there is clearly no heat towards NJPW from Styles, Gallows and Anderson.
What was TNA’s goal with the statement on Friday? I can’t say for sure. Some have speculated that they did it to cause doubt within WWE and maybe force them to pause on Styles’ planned WWE debut. It looks like that may be the case. Perhaps there are other motives here but they sure did not look good by making all of this public. We got a few emails asking how this situation could affect the Royal Rumble since Styles is scheduled to be in Orlando and could debut at the show. One person in WWE told me that they do not believe management is worried about any of this and most seem to believe the version of the story coming from Styles and his agent so, if the plan is to debut Styles in the Royal Rumble, then those plans are not likely to change.
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