10 Times Wrestlers Bet On Themselves (... And WON!)

A pillar of Total Nonstop Action, AJ Styles made headlines in 2013 when, for the first time since TNA launched, he was a free agent.

At the time he left, the 'Phenomenal One' was in possession of the TNA World Heavyweight title. Magnus, Dixie Carter's latest pet project, had officially won the vacated strap in an only-TNA-would-do-this Dixieland match, with the 'National Treasure' then felling AJ in his final TNA outing.

AJ Styles' reasons for departing the company weren't caused directly by Dixie's creative mismanagement, though it certainly contributed. Instead, he cited pay issues. A reported 60% pay cut was offered to AJ, an 'offer' he found so insulting that he knew his time in the fledgling organisation was done.

AJ joined New Japan Pro-Wrestling, targeting then-IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada as Bullet Club's latest recruit. Styles' own reigns with the title received different receptions; his first went down like a wet fart as the Fukuoka audience became incensed at the Americanised manner in which he dethroned the 'Rainmaker'.

But his second? It proved AJ Styles as a draw in Japan, selling out the Ryogoku Kokugikan for the quickest-selling non-G1 Climax event in almost a decade in a generative bout vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. This was the AJ Styles who moulded the foundations of TNA. Does that sound like someone who should take a 60% pay cut because the company can't control its own finances?