AJ Styles is unanimously recognized as one of the most skilled performers of the modern era, having entered the hearts of fans and made a difference in several companies. Suffice it to say that the 45-year-old from Jacksonville is the only athlete in history to have won at least one world title in WWE, NWA, NJPW and TNA.
During his Stamford-based federation adventure, he won the WWE Championship twice, the US title three times, once the Intercontinental Championship and once the Raw Tag Team Championship, making him the 22nd wrestler in history. having completed the Grand Slam. His second reign as WWE Champion, which lasted a whopping 371 days, is the eighth longest in the history of the belt. In the latest edition of the 'The Wrestling Outlaws' podcast on Sportskeeda, former WWE and WCW writer Vince Russo confessed that he has always had a soft spot for AJ Styles.
Vince Russo opens up on AJ Styles
“I want to tell you a story that dates back to about 20 years ago. AJ Styles is from Gainesville, Georgia. My wife and I went to church with him and his wife. He was not yet the AJ we know today, he was a young talent who had just started working. Styles walked past every single person in that church and shook their hand. When I saw him, I immediately understood that he was a special man. He never lost his humility about him. It would have been easy to walk away from one's roots after breaking through in wrestling, but he didn't," said Vince Russo. A few days ago, Jeff Jarrett confided that he immediately realized the enormous potential of 'Phenomenal One': “When I was at the helm of TNA, it didn't take me long to realize that AJ Styles, Bobby Roode and Samoa Joe had something. more than the others. In Styles's case, it was a genuinely generational talent. Despite being kissed by mother nature, AJ had to work hard to make it into this business”. On the latest episode of The Wrestling Outlaws podcast, Road Dogg said that he got into a huge argument with McMahon over the signing of AJ Styles: "I fought, literally fought for him to get hired there. I had known of him... I knew everything about him. I'd seen his career in TNA. A lot of times Vince is in that WWE bubble and doesn't know about these guys. So I knew what AJ was capable of and what he brought to the table. So one of the first big arguments me and Vince got in was over AJ Styles. He (Vince) didn't see or know what to think, and I pushed a little too hard trying to say that he was over."