What’s the story?
AJ Styles and Samoa Joe are some of the most talented and beloved pro wrestling stars in the world today. Styles has gone on to become a WWE Champion, while Joe is making his presence felt on the main roster in a big way.
While they may be big stars today in the WWE, they got their start in TNA back in the day, where now-former CEO Dixie Carter didn’t believe the two had the capability of being Superstars.
In case you didn’t know...
Styles and Joe both had major success in TNA, and Styles went on to have a great WWE Title run on SmackDown, while Joe was featured in an amazing rivalry with Shinsuke Nakamura on NXT.
The heart of the matter
Here’s what Styles had to say about Dixie Carter not having faith in him or Samoa Joe to become top stars in the industry (quotes courtesy of Goliath.com):
“[Samoa] Joe and I were hoping to make TNA a big deal. You know, that was what we wanted to do. The problem was, the person who owned the company, she didn’t see that in us. She didn’t see us as the stars that put TNA on the map and not just me but like, Jerry Lynn and Christopher Daniels, and Low Ki, all those guys who did great things and she just didn’t see it. Go put it bluntly, she wanted to be WWE-lite and nobody wanted to see that. And at one point in time, it was a great place to work.”
What’s next?
Styles most likely hasn’t won his last WWE Title and Joe has all the makings of a future Champion himself after making a hellacious debut on RAW a few weeks ago when he attacked Seth Rollins. He has already proven he can handle being at the top after his world title reigns in TNA and NXT.
Sportskeeda’s take
Dixie Carter has been faced a lot of criticism for not really knowing much about the product and what fans want, and the fact that she couldn’t see out the potential in either Samoa Joe or AJ Styles only further proves that point.
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