10 Things We Learned From WWE 365: AJ Styles
Styles is a big fan of the game community.
WWE's documentarians are having a busy ol' week. Hot off the heels of dropping an admittedly insipid episode of Chronicle centred around Dean Ambrose, the Network have followed up with a brand spanking episode of the streaming service's flagship feature, 365.
The new doc, which landed immediately after Survivor Series, is focused on the entire last year in the life of AJ Styles. The filmmakers couldn't have picked a much better time to trail the Georgian, as he made some sort of slightly made-up history as the 'longest reigning SmackDown champion', sharing dramatic clashes with Brock Lesnar and Finn Bálor along the way. Not to mention a tepid feud with Shinsuke Nakamura - which is very briefly glossed over (along with the fact part of it took place in [NAME REDACTED]).
The problem with AJ is that when he's not making troublesome comments, he's a bit, well, dull. But if you film a man for an entire year, he's bound to say something interesting eventually. And he does. We'll spare you the other 40 minutes of insipid fluff by telling you what.
10. He Got Into Wrestling For The Money
Right off the bat, AJ opens the documentary with the ominous words "I shouldn't be saying this... " Thankfully, he doesn't launch into any problematic political polemic, but instead admits that he didn't get into the business as a consequence of childhood passion. His first thought was that wrestling looked like something he could do - and potentially make a bit of moolah from.
He quickly realised - probably around the time he signed for WCW - that the industry probably wasn't going to line his wallet. But it was too late: despite the utter sh*tstorm going on around him in Atlanta, he'd somehow managed to fall in love with wrestling. That's some sort of miracle.