AJ Styles was one of TNA's biggest stars and, even if he'd never signed with WWE, his pro wrestling career would have been considered Hall of Fame-worthy.
Having been described as "the cornerstone of the company since its inception," the Phenomenal One won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times, and was the inaugural titleholder of the X Division Championship, which he won six times.
He is also the first TNA Triple Crown and Grand Slam champion, but in 2014, Styles chose to leave the company.
Reflecting on that and why so many other wrestlers left TNA in quick succession, Styles told Chris Van Vliet, "They hired Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff. I believe Eric was trying to do the right thing, to see where we're at as far as getting more eyes on us that we're growing. Unfortunately, it didn't work out the way it was supposed to. We lost a lot of money."
"I think I was kind of pissed at Hogan at the time, because I was like, why doesn’t he talk about TNA? Why is he not helping us? He's not advertising at all. He never talked about TNA. I was pissed, but I now realize I think he was embarrassed. It was embarrassing to him to talk about that, so he didn’t."
"I think Dixie was trying to do some things, and it was just they keep butting heads, so it just kind of fell apart, and when it fell apart, they lost a lot of money," he added. "When they lost a lot of money, they expected me to take a pay cut. My contract was up."
As for whether he was ever approached by WWE while in TNA, Styles admitted, "No one ever really said anything to me, but I'll tell you, there was an instance. It was a big meeting. Dixie came out and basically said something to the fact of, if you don't want to be here, we'll let you go. At that moment, I looked over at Christian to see what he was going to do."
"This was 2008, 09, 10? I don't know, somewhere around there. But I was watching him because I looked up to Christian, he's amazing too. This guy is a ring general, for sure. I was watching him to see if he got up, because if he had gotten up, I would gotten up too. Hopefully he would have gotten me in the WWE or something," he concluded.
Everything happens for a reason and Styles' eventual WWE debut. It got off to an admittedly slow start but he eventually won the WWE Championship and delivered some of the company's best feuds and matches while squaring off with like likes of John Cena and Dean Ambrose.
You can watch the full interview with Styles in the player below.