What’s the story?
Former WWE Superstar Simon Dean revealed on a recent edition of Pancakes and Powerslams, the reason why AJ Styles had declined the initial offer by WWE back in the early 2000s.
In case you didn’t know...
Simon Dean (Michael Bucci) is best known for his time as Nova/Supernova or Hollywood Nova in ECW. He has also performed for WWE’s RAW and SmackDown brands in the mid-2000s.
Dean worked with AJ Styles in the World Wrestling All-Stars promotion around 2001 to 03 – an organisation that was one of many that popped up after the demise of WCW and ECW.
The heart of the matter
Dean revealed that AJ Styles was made an offer by WWE back then, and the main reason why the Phenomenal One declined said the offer was owing to the fact that TNA (Impact Wrestling) made him a big offer.
TNA was just starting out at the time and according to Dean, the company’s higher-ups were interested in building TNA around AJ Styles – an offer that they pitched to Styles right around the time WWE was trying to recruit him. Here are a few excerpts from Dean’s statements regarding the same-
“I was right there for it. It was me and AJ. We were in Australia doing a tour for World Wrestling All-Stars. I told him I had been signed by WWE. They had a tryout in Cincinnati and he had gone to that. I thought I was going to have to go to that, and I didn’t, I went right through it. In Cincinnati, he’d told me basically, after the tour in Australia we’d come back, and they had a (show) in Vegas.”
“Bob Ryder and Jeff Jarrett had come up to me, and they told me that they were launching this new company called TNA. I told them that I had just signed with WWE, and I want to give it a shot. They wanted me to come to TNA, and they wanted to build the company around AJ. So, it’s not that AJ never wanted to go to the WWE, it was just that the offer was never right for AJ to come to WWE.”
What’s next?
Simon Dean presently makes sporadic appearances on the indie circuit and does not compete as a full-time wrestler anymore. Meanwhile, AJ Styles is set to challenge Kevin Owens for the latter’s WWE United States championship at Backlash on Sunday, May 21st.
Author’s take
I, for one, agree with Simon Dean’s account of Styles’ alleged refusal of WWE’s initial offer. TNA did, in fact, build the company around Styles and the Phenomenal One is considered as one of the biggest stars the company has ever produced.
Although Styles and TNA had a less than cordial split, so to speak, their respective stories are intertwined and his classic matchups in the Impact Zone will forever live on in the minds of pro-wrestling fans. For now, we get to see the man challenge another excellent worker Kevin Owens in a WWE ring this Sunday. Giddy up!
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