WWE: 5 Reasons AJ Styles Won't Be Signed (And 5 Reasons Why They Should)

2. Styles Is Hugely Over With Lapsed WWE Fans And The IWC

The Internet Wrestling Community, or IWC, pretty much unanimously love A.J Styles. Now, that may not mean a lot to some of you, but I have a newsflash for you: IF YOU'RE READING THIS, YOU ARE THE IWC. Uh huh. I know, it sucks, but, in the words of Kirk Angel, "its true, its true". Do you have to comment and post stuff on the web to be included in the IWC? Personally, I don't think so. I wouldn't be writing this if you (yes, you) weren't reading it. What would be the point? If I'm a paid-up member of the IWC for writing this, then so are you for reading it. I'm up here on my cyber soapbox bitching about Batista, praising Daniel Bryan and joking about John Cena. It's likely that you have opinions in these areas as well. "Hey, Batista is the Man!" "John Cena works with charities, so he deserves to be the champ!" "Daniel Bryan is so overrated!" etc etc etc. That's all fine. As a matter of fact, I encourage it. Go nuts. But just remember, that if you are a wrestling fan and you're online talking, watching or reading about wrestling, then, to some degree, you are the IWC. The vast majority of WWE fans have access to the Internet. WWE acknowledges this (WWE Network, anyone?) therefore the opinions of the IWC; hateful, moronic and wildly ill informed though they frequently are, actually do matter. CM Punk and Daniel Bryan are hugely over with the IWC and that's yet another reason why they did so well in WWE. A push for A.J Styles works from the same logic. If it helps, think of it this way: The IWC is a ready-made fanbase. In the 21st Century, the marks come to you. Next up, the lapsed WWE fan. Lapsed WWE fans number in the hundreds of thousands. Maybe more. Now, some of these people were never true fans to begin with, just vacant, vacuous trendy-types who tuned in during the Attitude Era because wrestling was 'cool' back then. However, the vast majority of lapsed fans genuinely loved the WWE product at one point or another in time. They could learn to love it again. Maybe they turned away because they didn't like 'The Cena Show'. Maybe they turned away because the PG Era didn't work for them. Maybe they turned away because Daniel Bryan didn't win at 'Hell in a Cell'. Maybe they turned away because I hated the fact that everybody had to put Brock Sodding Lesnar over after, like, two minutes in the company and a million, billion years before he was ready and it made the entire roster look like sh*t. Who knows, its all just speculation, completely impartial speculation. Anyway, the point is that many fans have switched over to TNA after becoming disillusioned with WWE. These fans became A.J Styles fanatics (because, well, why wouldn't you?) and casual fans would be arguably more likely to follow him to WWE than they would to Ring of Honour. I'm British and here in the UK, you have to pay exorbitant monthly fees to Sky TV if you want to watch regular WWE programming. You can watch it via Youtube, but frankly, that can be less than ideal. Here's a real-life example from a couple of months back... Me: "Alright! Time to hit 'full screen', eat junk food and watch WWE Battleground!" (Clicks the mouse €“ Adverts) Annoying Youtube Person: "Whaddup Gang? Its 'EatMy@$$43' here and this is my review of WWE Battleround!" Me: "Eh?" Annoying Youtube Person: "Y'know, I kinda thought that, um, maybe the match should have been longer because, um, I wanted to see more um, y'know...Follow me on Twitter, ya'll!" Repeat, ad nauseum, until all you can find is the (frankly excellent) main event (and it cuts out before the end). But by this time you're just annoyed. TNA, on the other hand, is available FOR FREE on Challenge TV. Yes, Challenge is owned by Sky, but I'm not paying for it, so I don't give a sh*t. It's on Sunday nights. Just record it and watch the whole show at your leisure whenever you like (you can even skip the adverts). TNA knows that it is pretty over with us Brits for that very reason (check out the recent Impact! taping from Glasgow - the Scots nearly tore the roof off the damn place) and it adjusts its product accordingly. TNA also knows that lapsed WWE fans (or lazy WWE fans) are a huge part of its demographic. ...But bringing 'The Phenomenal One' into WWE just might get some of those fans buzzing for the product again. Maybe they'll even put up with Youtube. Is it worth a try? In my view, yes.