Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Taping

[Dale]

We noted on Wednesday that AJ Styles had not signed a new deal with TNA yet and that they were still negotiating with money appearing to be the biggest issue.

Styles was backstage at Tuesday night's Impact Wrestling tapings and returned on Wednesday night at the tapings for the January 2nd episode and a match was made against Magnus, winner of the tournament finals, to crown an Undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

That match took place at Thursday night's tapings and will air on January 9th. The match had a No DQ stipulation added to it and saw interference from a handful of stars, including Dixie Carter. The end saw Magnus get the win to become the Undisputed TNA World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Styles cut what was described as a somber promo and thanked the fans for letting him wrestle for them. He said Dixie could forget about him but he won't ever forget about the TNA fans. He said this was real life and talked about his time in TNA. Styles said goodbye before greeting fans at ringside on his way out.

There is still no confirmation that a new deal was signed since Tuesday but if there wasn't, PWInsider reports that Thursday night's tapings, which will air January 9th, could be Styles' last appearance for the company. The latest word was that both sides were still very far apart on money and that it would come down to the wire. Styles' contract expires before the end of the year.

I guess the fact that they took the title off of him at the recent set of tapings obviously points to them being a way off coming together on an agreement so for once TNA has actually taken the smart option.

 

[Deezy]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Thinking swerve here.

AJ comes back at an actual live PPV.

 

[Cwalker]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

I think AJ will be back at some point. He's been there too long to just start over on the Indy scene. It's only a matter of time

 

[Chris]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Unless WWE signs him, AJ will be back within months.

 

[Embrace Thou Maryse]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Doesn't seem right for AJ to just dissappear, he's arguably been the biggest and best part of TNA during his tenure.

 

[The Cork]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Swear to god I saw this story last week and he signed a new contract?

I wouldn't rule out WWE signing him, they are on a vanilla midget recruitment drive atm and AJ fits the mould. Wonder how he'll cope with not even being the most popular AJ in the company :

 

[AZUCAR!]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

I think AJ will be back. I think no matter what, they had to go with Magnus even if AJ had signed a new deal, since he's only just won the belt.

I can see AJ & TNA coming to terms on a new deal, and AJ returning probably around Feb time, to let him sell his injuries from the beatdown he suffered in the match with Magnus.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Look's like AJ is definitely leaving:

Unless something changes over the next few days, AJ Styles will be leaving TNA for the first time since the company was founded in 2002 next week.

Styles' current contract extension expires on 12/16, PWInsider.com has confirmed. As of 12/17, he is a free agent and has already begun to accept independent bookings via his long-time agent Bill Behrens at Showbis@aol.com.

As PWInsider.com has reported for months, Styles and TNA have been far apart on money. The two sides did not really begin negotiating until Styles' last long-term deal was close to expiring and signed a two month extension in order to continue working together while they attempted to seal a new deal.

Unfortunately, the two sides just couldn't make a deal happen. We have heard that it was a situation where TNA just wasn't able to offer Styles what he had been earning and he, feeling correctly that he had been a big part of the heart and soul of the company, would not agree to take a lesser deal. The situation put both sides in between a rock and a hard place, leading to the breakdown between sides.

In a lot of ways, Styles' exit has sent a bad signal to other TNA "originals" who have deals coming up as the message being sent is that the company, which has been cutting corners, will play hardball financially even at the cost of losing their own homegrown players. Styles was one of the company's legitimate main eventers who had been been with the company as it evolved and matured, becoming the centerpiece for the X-Division before evolving into a legitimate main eventer. While he wasn't the draw that Sting was during Sting's heyday in WCW, Styles was very similar to Sting in that he was closely branded as a TNA star and as someone who was loyal to the company - just as Sting was when World Championship Wrestling existed.

Styles officially finished up with the company last week at the Impact tapings in Orlando, Florida with appearances for episodes that will air in early 2014.

Styles is already moving forward with outside projects. He has an autobiography set to be released in the first quarter of 2014 and will be making an appearance next year as part of a talking tour in the UK. Initial dates for that tour had been announced but the tour will be pushed back as Diamond Dallas Page had already scheduled a similar tour for the same time period and the decision was made that it wasn't right to compete with something already scheduled.

Be interesting to see if he goes back to ROH, or works perhaps for Gabe for DGUSA & EVOLVE. Or he works in Mexico for AAA which is booked by Konnan, or he goes to Japan for frequent tours.

 

[punk13]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

If it's a work, TNA is doing the Summer of Punk angle better than WWE.

 

[SAIYANS]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

WWE had nothing to gain by letting Punk work other promotions or countries with their title; they would just be giving press to people that they shouldn't even waste their time acknowledging to their casual fans.

TNA has nothing to lose and it plays into their roots with the NWA and World Cup tourneys, so AJ working away from them worked

 

[Deezy]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Don't know how this was supposed to work to begin with, AAA shot extra shit for AJ to further the angle(which they didn't have to do), but TNA didnt air any of it. They didn't do much for that Muta Japan company and it isn't generating any buzz from any media company, hell it's barely a blurb on the IWC newz sites. This angle was done right? If it was done right, people would actually be talking about TNA....How many threads are active in OUR TNA section? Shows how good this angle went.

Month of Punk in 2011, got more pub from ONE appearance at a comic convention.

 

[SAIYANS]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Read that Jeff Hardy may have had an opt out in his contract as well that he can use in January. Sting deal also comes up then. I don't know the situation with Angle to comment on that well.

I do know that if wwe looked their way
Sting - money to be made
Jeff - shitload of money to be made and can have a strike rescinded since he went to rehab
Kurt - money to be made at a part time schedule like rvd
AJ - NXT guy, midcarder, maybe even a hybrid worker/agent like Finlay, CW show rumors


That said I wouldn't blame TNA for letting the 4 of them and Joe walk, as they take them nowhere

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

TNA could acquire Cena & Orton, and still nobody would care because of the "somehow worse than Russo" booking. No matter how much they try and rework the roster, the problem is not there, TNA has some very talented wrestlers that get overshadowed by over booking.

If this is not a work, TNA has made a big mistake as there is now only 2 real Originals from episode 1, Daniels & Storm.

 

[SAIYANS]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

How is it a mistake to not pay Styles what's possibly one of their biggest deals?

They ey can't justify it anymore. He has been their guy, their heart and soul in an impact zone people don't pay for tickets to watch, ppvs that sold so bad they had to put them on TV, and Bound for Bankruptcy. He's taking them nowhere and it's not like. Bret and Shawn in the 90s, this is like JJ and Steiner at top of WCW

 

[CGS]

Re: Spoilers: Top TNA Veteran May Have Finished Up at Thursday's Impact Wrestling Tap

Work or not AJ will be back. I don't see where else he will go. Dude is what now 36? He's too old to really start again elsewhere and still has a few good years left in him before he really needs to consider retirement/part time schedule. At least at TNA he will always be considered a huge star and make great money for him and his family no matter what. He'd be stupid not to return.