AJ Styles

[strobogo]

Good, because that run fucking sucks outside of the Diesel and Mankind matches.

[KB8]

I had AJ at 98 in 2016 and I'm not really sure what to do with him next time. I don't, like, LIKE Styles that much, but I went and watched some of the New Japan run just before the 2016 deadline and some of that stuff was great, which got him onto my list. I have no use for Tetsuya Naito one way or the other but the Styles match ruled and Styles was awesome in it. The Suzuki match was fantastic. I've since gone back and watched some 00s ROH-era Styles and he was really good there as well, which will sound redundant to people who are already a fan of his but I honestly wasn't sure what to expect. The Rave feud when he came back in 2005 has been a blast and Styles working surly as a bastard is amazing and I'm hyped about watching the Fight Without Honour (or whatever stipulation it is). Clearly very good in 2003 and the triple threat with Low-Ki and Paul London still holds up as being a spectacular spotfest almost 20 years later, which is sort of nuts when you think about it. That also highlights his longevity because he was involved in that Bryan match from the end of 2018 that was also great. TNA has become less of a joke now that some have revisited it, but honestly, I really don't have any interest in doing that myself, so I guess that particular stretch of his career in that particular wrestling promotion will always be a mystery to me (well, outside of 2005, which I watched in real time, but I doubt I'll go back to that either). The WWE run is fine and I should watch the Reigns series, I guess. Honestly, Styles could just as easily finish 98 again as he could 81 as he could off my list entirely. I have absolutely no affinity to him though, so if it comes down to picking him or a favourite like Herodes or Espectrito then I'm afraid he's out on his arse. 

 

AJ STYLES YOU SHOULD WATCH:

v Paul London v Low-Ki (ROH One Year Anniversary Show, 2/8/03)

v Jimmy Rave (ROH Third Anniversary Celebration - Night 2, 2/25/05)

v Samoa Joe (TNA Turning Point, 12/11/05)

v Minoru Suzuki (New Japan, 8/1/14)

v Daniel Bryan (WWE TLC 12/16/18)

[strobogo]

Not going back to watch TNA AJ stuff is a mistake, that dude was putting in the highest quality work from the weekly PPV era all the way to his end with the company, no matter how stupid or shitty he was booked or what spot on the card he was on. 

 

You can basically just go look at cagematch and if you see a match with a name that interests you between 2002-2013 and it's a match with AJ, you can be sure it's at least going to be decent. This dude was getting solid matches out of guys like Mike Sanders, Raven, Larry Zbyszko, Dusty Rhodes in 2002-2003 just a couple of years into his career while also having the best junior stuff in the US at the time with the Lynn/Low Ki/Red types at the same time.

[dkookypunk43]

I had him at 45 in 2016 

I wrote this in my evaluations doc

AJ got up this high in 2016 based on the strength of the NJPW run and the early parts of his WWE run when he was tearing it up night in and out. Since 2016, he had a killer 1.5 years in WWE and then he’s faltered a bit and it’s not his fault as he’s aging and his level of push but I feel it might hurt him in the 2026 round of voting. The timing of the 2016 vote was almost as well timed as when he jumped ship. I still think there’s a lot of overlooked TNA stuff that he was in and the hyped stuff still holds up. I think he’s become a savvy veteran.

TRENDING: EVEN

EVALUATION POINTS: TNA, NJPW, EARLY WWE RUN   

[DMJ]

I'm curious to see where AJ lands this time around. I know I have him fairly high up on my list (maybe even top 10), having now gone back and seen quite a bit of his work in TNA. I think, and its not even particularly close, he's been in the top 5 in-ring performers in the WWE over the past decade when he's been healthy. Maybe not the runaway #1, but his consistency is pretty off-the-charts. 2017 had him vs. Cena and Brock. In 2018 and 2019 there was vs. Joe, vs. Danielson, and vs. Ricochet. In 2020, I really liked the AJ/Sami/Jeff Hardy three-way. More recently he gave Cody one of his better matches in the WWE at Backlash: France. I'm a big mark for the Undertaker cinematic match too.

To me, AJ also deserves a ton of credit for influence. I personally like Danielson more and I'm a bigger Samoa Joe fan and, if CM Punk is on, I'm watching...but if you look at those 4 as being the most significant/important performers of their generation, I think AJ would be the most influential in terms of in-ring performance. You look at Seth Rollins, Swerve Strickland, Ricochet, Ospreay, Omega, Hangman, and just about anyone else who is mixing spectacular high-flying with striking and submissions and doing it at a high athletic level and that's AJ Styles. (Danielson does most of those things too, but his high-flying was never as flashy as AJ's and that flashiness is a huge part of today's well-balanced wrestler, where it used to be that everyone needed to do a moonsault, now everyone has to do a 450). 

That's not to say AJ is the most original wrestler ever or anything or that he himself wasn't inspired and influenced by wrestlers in the 80s and 90s, but I see way more guys trying to "do it all," blend every style, throw in every crazy move they can, fly off every structure possible, and AJ Styles was doing that 20 years ago. The difference is, I think AJ tended to structure his matches better to build to those moments and the psychology was there and he did it, in TNA, with some horrendous writing behind it. 

[Tetsujin]

He's gonna be way high up for me too. Like, top 10 is not out of reach (he's my #13 right now). The guy is a total package of a pro wrestler and has been consistently great for too long now. It's a shame he's wasting his last good years in WWE, as I don't think he has had as much memorable stuff as he could've had from 2017 onwards, but it's not like he didn't produce great matches here and there recently either. And his 00s work, his NJPW run and his first WWE year (2016) are still among the best wrestling stuff I've seen.

[Boss Rock]

A.J. is still in good position to make my top 15, but what are A.J's best 2020's matches? I know the Bryan IC title match during the pandemic is great, but I've been out of the loop on recent great WWE matches for a while.

[EnviousStupid]

A friend of mine made this comparison a few years ago, but AJ does feel like the LeBron James of his generation. Absurdly gifted at a raw level and capable of so much yet stuck inside a promotion that seldom had their shit together enough to make consistently good use of him. Not to say that he wasn't a great wrestler around the time; his ROH/other indie work around the time he wasn't exclusively kept to TNA shows should prove that fact to most. But it's not until 2014 where he takes his talents to greener pastures and becomes undeniable as one of the best in the world.