A.J. Styles: From Phenomenal To UnFourtunate

This time last year, A.J. Styles was the TNA World Heavyweight champion. He was TNA’s main face and he was widely considered to be the best wrestler in the world. He had just defended his title at Turning Point against Samoa Joe and Daniels in one of the best matches of 2009.

Fast forward one year and Styles is a wasted heel, holding a worthless belt and lost in Ric Flair’s Fourtune faction. Styles has spent the last few months in an endless feud with EV 2.0, walking around in a suit and cutting promos.

It all started going wrong for the phenomenal one at the beginning of 2010. Styles had some great matches with Kurt Angle including their title match at Genesis. However this coincides with the arrival of Ric Flair in TNA. Flair took Styles under his wing and then began A.J's fall from grace.

Now a heel, A.J. would go on to defend his title at the next three PPVs, beating Samoa Joe, Abyss and The Pope. But with his new arrogant, cocky character, his matches just didn’t seem as special as those prior to Flair’s arrival. Finally, with Rob Van Dam’s debut, the company had a new main face, and A.J. would go on to lose the title to Van Dam on Impact.

This would seal Style’s fate because after Fourtune's formation, A.J. would slowly start to slip down the pecking order in TNA. Now with the addition of Immortal, Styles has found himself even more lost in the organization.

Quite simply, the problem is that they are using Styles completely the wrong way. He is a natural face due to his high flying style and never-say-die attitude. This was proved when he was leading the TNA frontline against the Main Event Mafia. He's a man in the prime of his career and creative needs to stop wasting his talent.

TNA needs to realise fans don’t want to see Styles on the microphone, they want to see him doing what he does best—and that’s being phenomenal in the ring.