AJ Styles faced an "uphill battle" against Vince McMahon in WWE because of a strange reason, according to Nic Nemeth (Dolph Ziggler)

AJ Styles faced an "uphill battle" against former WWE owner Vince McMahon when he first arrived in the company. The Phenomenal One made his way to WWE in 2016 after years of anticipation and has established himself as one of the company's top names since then.

During his WWE tenure, Styles has been a two-time WWE Champion and a three-time U.S. Champion. He has also held the Intercontinental and Tag Team titles, but it wasn't an easy beginning for him in the company. He needed to convince Vince McMahon of his ability, despite his successful career.

Talking on the Busted Open podcast, Nic Nemeth, fka Dolph Ziggler, mentioned how Vince didn't see AJ Styles as a special talent right off the bat.

"When he was coming into WWE, behind the scenes, I was told, this is secondhand, but the boss was like, the way he saw AJ was he still had that 80s mentality: if you're six-five, OK, I can go with you. You look like the Warlord, whatever the situation is. And AJ is jacked, but he's not six-five. And at the time, I had heard that because of him having somewhat of a southern twang to his voice. Basically Vince here is like Heath Slater 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, 'Oh, he's not from New York; he doesn't have his accent that we have,'" he said.

Styles had made a name for himself in TNA as one of the originals and became the face of the company. After his departure from TNA, he spent time on the independent scene before joining New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) in 2014.

He would become the leader of the Bullet Club in NJPW and win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship twice.

"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, he was fighting an uphill battle, even already coming here with all his accolades, with everything he's done, with everything everybody knows he's capable of. Even then he was fighting an uphill battle with the boss. And whatever he did in his body of work while he was here, which, by the way, is F'n fantastic, he won over the boss," Nemeth added.

He made his WWE debut in the 2016 Royal Rumble match and eventually won over a skeptical Vince McMahon. AJ Styles was placed into major programs and even went over WWE's poster boy, John Cena, in their feud.

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AJ Styles lost to Dominik Mysterio on RAW

This week on RAW, AJ Styles faced Dominik Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship in France. Dirty Dom had already beaten Styles at SummerSlam to retain the title before their match on RAW.

Styles appeared in control in the closing moments of the match, but El Grande Americano showed up and attacked him. This allowed Dominik to take the advantage, and he hit a Frog Splash to retain his title.

With a dirty finish ruining Styles's chances of winning the Intercontinental Title, it is possible that he may get another shot at Dominik.

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If you use quotes from this article, please credit the Busted Open podcast and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.