Road Dogg Reveals He Had To Argue With Vince McMahon To Push This Major WWE Star

Brian James and VKM "had some serious arguments" over this star.

by Andrew Pollard
Road Dogg AJ Styles
WWE

He may well these days be one of the most trusted and capable hands in the entire company, but 'Road Dogg' Brian James has revealed how he got into some "serious argument" with Vince McMahon about how best to use AJ Styles.

In a career that dates back to 1998, it wasn't until 2016 that the Phenomenal One finally appeared in WWE. Of course, Styles had one of the most memorable debuts in company history, coming out at #3 as a surprise entrant in that year's Royal Rumble match.

There have been plenty of stories over the years about how McMahon didn't particularly 'get' AJ Styles, especially in terms of being a top tier player for the promotion. Still, AJ soon changed Vince's opinion, and early bangers against the likes of Chris Jericho and Roman Reigns led to him getting the win over Dean Ambrose at that year's SummerSlam to become WWE Champion.

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To date, Styles is a two-time WWE Champion, one-time Intercontinental Champion, three-time United States Champion, and one-time Raw Tag Team Champion, but that seemingly could've been oh so different if Vince maintained his initial perception of the TNA Original.

Speaking on his Oh... You Didn't Know podcast (as per WrestlingNews.co), the D-O-Double G explained:

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"[Vince McMahon] didn't know who AJ was and he didn't know what he was capable of, and I did. Me pitching him in that way just made [Vince] dig deeper, so we had some serious arguments over AJ Styles."

After departing WWE in 2001, Brian James spent the best part of eight years working for TNA Wrestling - where he clearly got to see first-hand how great AJ Styles was.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.