10 TNA Matches You Totally Forgot (That WWE Should Now Book)

9. AJ Styles Vs Rhino

Jeff Hardy AJ Styles
ImpactWrestling.com

The 2007 AJ Styles/Rhino wars marked an important transitional period for 'The Phenomenal One', with his mid-story heel turn opening new doors for his character over the next several years.

Portraying a veteran even then, the 'War Machine', attempted to sooth deteriorating relations between Styles and former NWA Tag Team Champion partner Christopher Daniels, but earned a sneak attack from an embittered AJ for his troubles. The two had an excellent Last Man Standing encounter at January's Final Resolution pay-per-view, and even made the best of TNA's zany X-shaped scaffold for their nail-biting 'Elevation X' battle two months later.

'The Man Beast' has been little more than a utility player since returning to WWE via NXT in 2015, but the unlikely success of his odd couple unit with Heath Slater in the early days of SmackDown Live!'s 2016 post-Brand Split flourish has highlighted just how versatile he can actually be.

Meanwhile, despite what's largely been a disappointing programme with Kevin Owens up to this point, AJ Styles remains the inarguably the best all rounder in the organisation and still one of the very best in the world.

Though the pair would be unlikely to headline a major supercard, a quick heel turn and brand switch for Rhyno would, on evidence, afford AJ a low pressure storyline to help revitalise him ahead of a renewed push towards the WWE Title.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett