10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week
2. AJ Styles' Theme Was Written For James Storm
On the latest Table For 3 episode, Road Dogg confessed that "Phenomenal" wasn't originally written for AJ Styles. Before the song was handed that title (to suit AJ's character), it was in the can for another ex-TNA star who was already working in WWE before Styles debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble.
That man was James Storm.
Storm had a brief run in NXT towards the end of 2015, and he was the one who was supposed to use that music once he put pen to paper on a WWE deal. In the end, Storm chose not to, and WWE had to find another use for the theme. That's when AJ adopted it.
Some of the lyrics make this believable. Lines like, "we some southern boys with the farmer strength" and, "ain't nobody breaking this red neck" would have suited Storm's cowboy gimmick. As AJ hails from Georgia, it was easy for WWE to transfer the tune over to Styles instead of binning it.