10 WWE Superstars And The Angles That Made Them Famous

7. AJ Styles & The Rise Of The X-Division

aj styles tna
TNA

For many, AJ Styles seemed likely to end his career as the greatest professional wrestler never to perform on the biggest stage (Velocity and Heat squashes don't count). This was because of how closely he was linked to TNA, formerly the second biggest wrestling promotion in the United States, towards which the WWE held great disdain. 

It was AJ Styles who was at the forefront of the style (pun intended) that once made TNA a genuine alternative to a stagnating WWE. Styles was one of the pioneers of the X-Divison, a vehicle for cruiserweight wrestling that gave smaller guys a more prominent spotlight than any company before them.

The X-Division became synonymous with TNA, and Styles (who was also the first X-Division Champion) was a by-word for both. His battles over the strap are legendary, none more so than the triple threat against Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe that most consider the best match in TNA history.

It was his performances in the X-Division that caused the rest of the wrestling world to fall in love with the man known as AJ Styles. 

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.