8. Winning the TNA World Championship

Despite holding every championship in the promotion and stealing the show no matter wherever he was on the card this was truly his coronation. He’d held the NWA title a few times but only briefly and wasn’t exactly the guy. In September 2009 at No Surrender Styles won his first TNA world championship.

A true passing of the torch moment with Sting allowing Styles to pin the then champion Angle. At the time this seemed to be TNA finally steeping away from people who made their name elsewhere and making someone who had been there from day 1 the guy. It didn’t last as AJ lost the title he lost the title in May to RVD only 2 months after RVD debuted.

Aw well it was good while it lasted.

7. Leaving TNA

The most damming example of the poor state Impact was in at the time is when they lost AJ Styles. In 2013 after 11 years with the company and being a company guy he decided he’d had enough. The man competed in the first match of the first weekly PPV and now he was gone. Essentially it came down AJ’s contract was up and despite everything he’d done for them he didn’t think he was getting what he deserved.

Thankfully Impact has turned its fortunes around in recent months because had they gone out of business this moment would be one of the nails in the coffin.

6. His New Japan Debut

After leaving TNA Styles spent some time in ROH before showing up in NJPW attacking Okada and declaring himself the new leader of the Bullet Club. He would go on to win his first of two IWGP Heavyweight championships in his first match.

This was very different Bullet Club from when Balor was in charge because now they had the top prize in the promotion. This is also when they began to expand bringing in the likes of Kenny Omega and Yujiro Takahashi.

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