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A lot of wrestlers often transition to WWE from other promotions like TNA Wrestling and AEW. But back in the reign of Vince McMahon, it was very rare for a wrestler to succeed in WWE who transitioned from TNA Wrestling. Even if he was a main eventer of TNA Wrestling, he was mostly treated as a lower mid card in WWE.
The only big difference was AJ Styles, who not only maintained his main event status after transitioning to WWE from TNA Wrestling, but also became a two times World Champion. Presently he is considered one of the biggest legends of WWE and he is still active in the ring in the promotion.
How AJ Styles came to WWE from TNA Wrestling
It has never been easy for any professional wrestler to transition to WWE from TNA Wrestling, but things had always been different for AJ Styles. Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler recently spoke on the Busted Open Radio Podcast, where he discussed the success of AJ Styles in TNA Wrestling. Here is what he had to say;
AJ Styles joined WWE back in January 2016
“When he was coming into WWE behind the scenes, I was told this is secondhand, but the boss, boss was like, the way he saw AJ was he still had that 80s mentality, if you’re 6’5, OK, I can go with you. You look like the warlord, whatever the situation is.”
“And AJ is jacked, but he’s not 6’5. And at the time, I had heard that because of him having somewhat of a southern twang to his voice, Vince was like, basically, that Vince here is like, he’s later telling a joke and is like, Oh, that’s what AJ Styles is? OK, I can’t even take him seriously, because that’s still that mentality from his brain from like the 60s and 80s. Like, he’s not from New York. He doesn’t have the accent that we have.”
Styles is still active in the promotion
“And I heard that. I’m like, oh, come on. What, he can’t really still think that way? And I kind of secondhand and first heard of like, oh, he was like he was fighting an uphill battle. Even with all his accolades, with everything he’s done, with everything he knows.”
WWE has always brought talents from their Rival promotion, but things have not always been the same. When WWE was in competition with WCW, Vince McMahon brought in a lot of WCW stars who later became the biggest stars of WWE. The biggest example of such would be Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was just mid card in WCW, but after joining WWE, he became the biggest star in wrestling.
