Sam Roberts

AJ Styles was on Nitro at the very, very end of Nitro.

That's how far back this goes.

The kind of beginning, that first big national exposure for AJ Styles is the very, very end of Nitro.

Except...

as much as there were some that would come right to WWE after that and build a certain type of career, AJ Styles, after that, goes and spends 16 years building his career elsewhere, helping build a company that is still in existence today, TNA, helping draw international attention to wrestling in Japan.

And then finally, in 2016,

coming into WWE and bringing so much of that with him and that reputation with him.

And honestly, if you look at what AJ Styles did in WWE, it's pretty remarkable because he brought, instead of, you know, there used to be this thing.

It's not the case, I don't think anymore.

But there used to be this thing with WWE where they would say, if certain talent come to WWE, they have to learn to work a WWE style.

But AJ Styles came in and he wrestled like AJ Styles.

He acted like AJ Styles.

He was just AJ Styles.

And what you saw is.

A lot of talent, even talent that had been in WWE for a very long time, started to kind of try to get up to AJ Styles' game.

I mean, that's why that rivalry with John Cena and AJ Styles is so incredibly memorable and important because it wasn't AJ Styles learning how to wrestle the way that John Cena had been wrestling for all these years already.

It was John Cena showing what he could learn to do, what he had in the tank that he hadn't shown off yet, and John Cena elevating his game to match AJ Styles'.

You could feel it as soon as he walked down the aisle.

You know, there was that moment.

And I love that moment.