Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Before we get started, I realize that TNA is technically still around…it just has new ownership and a name change. The TNA brand, however, is dead and buried and was officially put to rest in March of 2017. It took Bruce Prichard to come out to the middle of the ring at the Impact Zone and declare that the TNA name was dead and long live Impact Wrestling.
With that said, however, the truth is TNA actually died December 5th, 2013. Why that date? That was the day that AJ Styles wrestled his very last match for the company. You see, for 11 years, AJ Styles was the cornerstone of TNA Wrestling. Styles was a founding father of the organization from day one in 2002.
AJ had helped build TNA from a weekly pay per view only company to a regularly viewed promotion on cable television. Styles helped create a true alternative for fans sick of the WWE. He did it by having show stealing matches with the likes of Christopher Daniels, Abyss, Sting, Kurt Angle and countless others. Styles won every single championship TNA had to offer. For all intents and purposes, AJ Styles was Mr. TNA.
Then in 2013…it all changed. You see, AJ’s contract was set to expire at the end of the year and TNA management did little as far as contract negotiations. Bruce Prichard claims that he and AJ agreed to a deal a year earlier for a couple of more years once his old contract expired. When Prichard went to tell TNA President Dixie Carter about the good news…Carter wasn’t pleased. She felt as if it was way too much money and that the best thing to do was wait it out. So Prichard had to pull the offer off the table to AJ.
All that did was insult AJ, who felt that he deserved a good contract because of all of his hard work. Dixie Carter and TNA were in some financial troubles after signing the likes of Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan to big money deals. That left the guys that helped build the promotion up from scratch the ones that had to suffer financially. AJ was deservedly upset and pissed off.
It only got worse from there, because once Dixie Carter and her lawyers took over the negotiations…their offer was a big slap to his face. The very first offer Dixie made to AJ had him taking a 60% pay cut from his previous deal. According to AJ, the initial offer was so bad and insulting, that he knew it would only get worse from there. Some in TNA management just assumed that he would accept the deal because…after all…AJ Styles was a company guy. They guessed wrong.
Styles used the anger and frustration he felt from TNA management and incorporated it into his on screen character. He changed his look a bit with him growing out his hair and beard. He would become sort of a lone wolf type character who was neither a face or a heel. Styles became a man of very few words and his character was very similar that of
“The Crow” Sting in WCW. Not so surprisingly, that gimmick change got over big with TNA fans. It put the proverbial ball in his court as far as contract negotiations went.
With Styles TNA contract expiring, Dixie Carter decided to make AJ the TNA world champion by defeating Bully Ray of the Aces and Eights faction.. This was looked at by many as a negotiations ploy to get Styles to resign with the company. While publicly, AJ was saying he was no longer under a TNA contract, the reality was Dixie managed AJ to agree to a three month extension that would take him to the end of 2013. Despite being TNA world champion, AJ Styles sat at home not being used while long term contract discussions continued.
During his absence from the ring, Dixie Carter made herself into a heel character on television and declared the world title vacant. Magnus would turn heel and join forces with Dixie and defeat Jeff Hardy for the vacant title making him the new TNA world champion. The next week, AJ Styles returned to confront Magnus and claim to be the real world champion. A world title unification match was set up the following week.
Magnus wound up defeating AJ Styles due to a heavy amount of outside interference from Dixie Carter, Rockstar Spud and EC3. The match actually helped AJ still look strong as a wrestler, as he continually overcame the odds and delivered a great match. The hope of TNA management was that AJ would still sign a contract extension with the company. Alas, there was way too much animosity on AJ’s side of things and decided to walk away from TNA wrestling. The last shot of AJ Styles in a TNA ring was him flat on his back, while Magnus held both TNA world titles in each hand.
AJ Styles departure, no doubt hurt TNA’s credibility as a promotion moving forward. He was the one constant that TNA always had and relied upon in many situations….and now…he was gone. TNA management tried to make amends with AJ two years later by offering him a spot in TNA’s Hall of Fame and to wrestle one more match at their Slammiversary show. AJ turned down the offer. TNA was never quite the same after he left and ultimately… three years later…the promotion decided to ditch the TNA name and become Impact Wrestling. Erasing the stigma that was attached to the TNA name.
Now, over 12 years later, AJ Styles finally returned to the promotion he helped build in TNA. A fitting end for AJ to TNA’s new beginning.