"I wasn't ready" - AJ Styles gives his honest opinion of WWE buying WCW in 2001

Former WWE Champion AJ Styles was a guest on this week's edition of WWE's The Bump. During his appearance on the show, Styles was asked about his thoughts on WWE buying out WCW in 2001.

AJ Styles made his WCW debut a little under 20 years ago on an episode of Thunder. Styles was in a tag team with Air Paris.

On the latest edition of WWE's The Bump, AJ Styles was asked about his brief time in WCW. Styles was asked about his debut on WCW Thunder and WWE buying WCW shortly after.

Styles said that he had no idea that WWE would buy WCW, but it ended up working out well for him in the long run.

The former WWE Champion acknowledged that he was not ready to be in either WCW or WWE at the time, so he was happy at how things went. He felt that the timing wasn't right for him to be on either WCW or WWE at that point in his career.

"I had a contract so I knew I'd be coming back for a couple more matches. Now, I didn't know WCW was going to go out of business. That sucked for me. But it is what it is and things happen for a reason. I wasn't ready to be in WCW and I sure as heck wasn't ready to be in WWE so I'm glad that things happened the way they did. I'm happy for the experience but the timing wasn't right."

We welcome @AJStylesOrg to #WWETheBump, and he welcomes us to "The Bus." @TheGiantOmos pic.twitter.com/Y1pspNqZRL

— WWE’s The Bump (@WWETheBump) January 13, 2021

WWE bought WCW in 2001

In early 2001, Eric Bischoff and Fusient Media Ventures came to buying out WCW, but the deal fell through because of the lack of a TV deal. Following the AOL/Time Warner merger, executives wanted nothing to do with pro-wrestling, and Vince McMahon and WWE ended up buying their competition.

The deal went through in 2001 with WWE soon buying up another competitor in ECW. This led to the Invasion angle in 2001, which was unsuccessful in the long run.

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