AJ Styles has had an Incredible Career and Traveled Extensively throughout the World, Winning Titles in nearly every Promotion he has Worked for Across the World
AJ Styles’ father was a Marine and he was born at a base camp in Jacksonville, North Carolina on June 2, 1977. His father also had a drinking problem and became abusive toward not only AJ and his brothers but also his mother. The most important aspect, however, was that Allen Jones could sense that his father loved him and saw great things in his youngest son. AJ cherished the times when he was a little boy and his father would come to his baseball games.
After graduating high school in 1996, Allen Jones attended college at Anderson University in South Carolina on a partial wrestling scholarship but ended up leaving early because the idea of school was not necessarily for him, so he figured “why waste time and money if this is not going to assist me in getting where I want to go in life.” Shortly after that, AJ entered a professional wrestling school at the recommendation of some of his friends at the time just to see what it was like. Turns out as soon as he took that first bump, some switch flipped in his mind and AJ Styles was formed – Jones was drawn to the physicality of the sport.
AJ was trained by Rick Michaels and had his debut match in 1998 at age 21 in the National Championship Wrestling (NCW) which is operated out of his home state of Georgia where Jones grew up and attended high school. The first wrestling name he was ever given was Mr. Olympia who wore a mask. By August 1999 Mr. Olympia won the NCW television championship. In December 1999 NCW merged with NWA Georgia to become NWA Wildside, where Mr. Olympia became AJ Styles (which rolls off the tongue better). This moniker would stick for the rest of his career which is winding down within a few years.
AJ’s first major championship was won on December 22, 2001, when he defeated his trainer Rick Michaels at Christmas Chaos for the NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship.
WCW observed Styles’ program with Air Paris in NWA Wildside, and as a result both men were offered a contract in early 2001. Styles most likely arrived in Atlanta a few years too late, because the novelty of WCW had worn thin and was starting to lose steam by 1999. Tony Schiavone has repeatedly talked about how he intuitively had a feeling that WCW was not going to work in the long run. It did work beautifully for a number of years, but the company could not survive under such poor leadership and many disgruntled employees who were keeping their frustrations to themselves.
Styles took advantage of the opportunity presented to him and his name was changed to Air Styles (he was part of the tag team Air Raid with Air Paris). The team appeared on WCW Thunder three times and even on the March 5 Nitro, just a few weeks before the company was officially announced by Shane McMahon as being bought out by WWE. On July 9, 2001, Styles had his first tryout match for WWE against his trainer Rick Michaels before RAW was taped. This was an example of “just because you win your match, and look pretty decent doing it, doesn’t mean you did enough to convince the right people to see you in the light of a potential star.”
So AJ’s contract was not picked up immediately by WWE. He spent a short amount of time feeling sorry for himself (like anyone probably would), then dusted himself off and went back to the Indies to begin his journey of earning his way into WWE. He had two more televised matches with WWF and was offered a developmental deal from WWE in June 2002 but said no to the deal because it would require him to move to Cincinnati. That would have interfered with his wife’s college plans, and the way he viewed it at the time, her career trajectory was more important because it would make the family more money as far as Allen Jones could see.
After bouncing around the world to places like Australia and the United Kingdom, Styles debuted at Ring of Honor’s third show, A Night of Appreciation in 2002. AJ quickly earned a spot on the card as a main eventer and challenging Low Ki for the ROH World Championship later that year and becoming a Tag Team Champion for the company in 2003. AJ became the first ROH Pure Wrestling Champion at the Second Anniversary Show in 2004.
AJ Styles also began his career with TNA in May 2002 where he would spend the next 11 years. The legitimate prime of his in-ring career took place here and Allen Jones will forever be indebted to this company because he discovered who he was as a wrestler while he was there. In May 2002 Styles signed a nonexclusive contract with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and quickly defeated Jerry Lynn, Psicosis, and Low Ki in a double elimination match to become the Inaugural TNA X Division Champion. He also won the vacant NWA World Tag Team Championship – with partner Jerry Lynn – on the third TNA Pay-Per-View to become a double champion.
Styles won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in June 2003, becoming the first ever TNA Triple Crown winner (AJ won the X Division championship for a third time a year later in June 2004 – defeating Frankie Kazarian). Styles would drop the title back to Jeff Jarrett that October. AJ would win the NWA World Tag Team Championship with partner Christopher Daniels a couple years later at Slammiversary and those two won those titles multiple times. Toward the end of 2007 Styles regained the X Division Championship for the sixth time, this time defeating Chris Sabin.
Styles also competed in various independent promotions around this time. He still competed in Mexico for AAA and CMLL, wrestled for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), appearing at the second Wrestle Kingdom event. AJ even wrestled for US-based companies such as Pro Wrestling Guerilla (PWG). He became world champion for this company and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). He became a champion at every company he ever worked for over time.
Next Styles won the TNA World Tag Team Championship with Tomko against Team Pacman (NFL player Adam Jones who played for the Tennessee Titans at the time, as well as Ron “R-Truth” Killings) at Bound for Glory 2007 before engaging in his biggest feud under the TNA umbrella to that point in 2008 with Kurt Angle. AJ Styles spent much of 2009 – 2010 as TNA World Heavyweight Champion – becoming the longest-reigning champion in company history at the time. Shortly after this, Styles – with Ric Flair – formed what was intended to be an updated version of the Four Horseman under a new name Fortune and became bigger stars by feuding over the next couple years with the stable Immortal.
AJ was involved in a soap opera type storyline throughout most of 2012 in which he was accused of being involved in an affair with TNA Pres. Dixie Carter, growing a beard and sporting an unkempt look to adequately portray the emotions his character was going through. He became the TNA World Heavyweight Champion immediately after this storyline was finished, AJ’s fifth world title overall in the company – with the TNA and NWA World Heavyweight Championships being accounted for.
AJ Styles’ final match with TNA was taped on December 5, 2013 and aired on January 9 of the following year. On December 8, contract negotiations between the two parties had broken down and Styles became a free agent on December 17 (he claimed on WWE Untold via the WWE Network that he was asked to take less money – about 50% less – to do basically the same job, and he said no because he felt he had given the company everything over the past 12 years and AJ felt undervalued).
At the time, TNA acknowledged Styles as “the cornerstone of the company since the inception in 2002”, he won five world titles with the company and was the inaugural holder of the X Division Championship, which he held six times. Styles was the first wrestler to complete the TNA Triple Crown and the TNA Grand Slam.
The Phenomenal One spent the next two years traveling back and forth between Japan and the United States, making his return to Ring of Honor in the US and working with NJPW in Japan. Styles made his final appearance for ROH on January 23, 2016. On his final night in the company, he engaged in a group hug with former Bullet Club stablemates Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson and The Young Bucks. This emotional moment was reminiscent of the 1996 “Curtain Call” at Madison Square Garden, in which WWF’s Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and X-Pac were saying goodbye to their friends Kevin Nash and Scott Hall (who were leaving the company for WCW).
He also made appearances on the independent circuit in England for Revolution Pro Wrestling and AAA in Mexico. In the United States, Styles made his return to Combat Zone Wrestling and PWG. AJ was best known around this time for his tenure with NJPW, signing with the company in 2014, becoming the third leader of Bullet Club and winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in his debut match for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, becoming the sixth non-Japanese champion and the first American champion since Brock Lesnar in 2005. Prince Devitt (Finn Balor), the original leader of Bullet Club, had his final match in Japan and was leaving for WWE on the same night that The Phenomenal One made his debut.
Styles would leave NJPW in January 2016, passing the torch to Kenny Omega as the leader of Bullet Club. He would debut for WWE at the Royal Rumble in 2016. TNA would argue that he agreed to return there but was offered a blow-away deal” by WWE.
Nonetheless, The Phenomenal One entered the Royal Rumble match at number 3 and was received with massive ovation. He entered a storyline next with Chris Jericho and had a WrestleMania match with Jericho in 2016 which he lost. Styles was named Wrestler of the Year by PWI three straight years from 2016-18, and accomplishment only held by Ric Flair from 1984-‘86.
AJ subsequently challenged Roman Reigns twice for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (both unsuccessful). He won the WWE title for the first time in September 2016 on SmackDown and entered a longer-term feud with John Cena immediately after (which produced some classic matches Royal Rumble 2017 being the best of the bunch). After failing to regain the WWE Championship on two occasions, Styles began a rivalry with Shane McMahon which culminated at Mania 33 on April 2, 2017. AJ would turn face immediately after this event.
He then feuded with Kevin Owens for a number of months over the United States Championship, even winning the title for a short time, with Shane McMahon sprinkled in here and there, before going on to face the 2018 Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans for the WWE Championship. Nakamura turned heel looked at this event, although it was right in the middle of Styles’ 371-day reign as WWE Champion (his second WWE title). He also won this particular title in England, the first time a title in WWE had ever changed hands outside North America (he became the longest-reigning WWE Champion in SmackDown history surpassing JBL’s record).
AJ’s greatest rivalry of his year-long run with the title was with Samoa Joe (who he had plenty of history with from their time in TNA and ROH. Their feud ran from SummerSlam in August 2018 through October that year. It comprised of four matches on Pay-Per-View, including a fantastic Hell in a Cell match. Styles was originally scheduled to defend the title against Daniel Bryan at Crown Jewel in 2018, but he instead passed the title on to Bryan a week later because Daniel refused to travel to Saudi Arabia due to political disagreements. The Phenomenal One is only the eighth man in WWE history to hold the WWE Championship for one year consecutively.
Styles’ feud with Daniel Bryan continued through Royal Rumble 2019 and was extremely memorable because of the classic matches. Styles would subsequently begin a rivalry with Randy Orton, with culminated at WrestleMania 35 (April 2019) in New York (it was a very underrated match even though it was not high on the card. A month later AJ followed that performance with an absolutely Phenomenal match against Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship at Money in the Bank on May 21, 2019. He moved on after this to win the United States Championship against Ricochet at Extreme Rules in July as well as putting over the start of Ricochet (a Paul Heyman project) in a fantastic match for the United States title at SummerSlam 2019.
The Phenomenal One was defeated by Roderick Strong of NXT in a triple threat inter-brand match (which also featured Shinsuke Nakamura) at Survivor Series 2019 consisting of the midcard champion of each brand (Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, and NXT North American Champion). Styles went on to begin a WrestleMania 36 program with The Undertaker and ended up participating in the main event of Night 1 of the two-night event on April 4, 2020 (AJ’s first WrestleMania main event). It was a huge honor for him to give The Undertaker a proper farewell, and it was extremely rewarding that The Undertaker was happy with the result.
The Phenomenal One followed this by winning the vacated Intercontinental Championship in June 2020 in a match against Daniel Bryan. This was the one title he had not won in WWE. This past week, he earned a victory over Ricochet on Monday Night RAW – he didn’t get it because he “deserved it,” he earned it.