News The AJ Styles Possibly leaving TNA discussion thread

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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.

Pwinsider.

Merging this with the other AJ leaving thread.
 

Action Jackson

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The writing has been on the wall for a while. TNA is on the downside. I feel like Dixie Carter's rapidly fading looks are something of a metaphor for the rapidly fading company.
 

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:facepalm:

Only 6 days to do something, TNA.

(ok I realize they can sign a new contract in January too, but it'd better if they sign it right away)

Also, lol @ "rapidly fading company".

:george:
 

Action Jackson

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Well they're not exactly rapidly rising like a nice loaf of bread. Dude, is that a recent pic of Shark Boy? He's gettin' chunky.
 
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Well they're not exactly rapidly rising like a nice loaf of bread. Dude, is that a recent pic of Shark Boy? He's gettin' chunky.

Well I can't make my case for them rising, but you also can't make a case for them fading AS the ratings have been basically the same old, same old; and business now seems to be back to usual after the road experiment ended. They still have nearly 50 wrestlers under contract, TV deals in 120+ countries, they're still going to the UK tour for TV shows (in 2014 even for 2 PPVs), they're still on primetime on TV, they'll still ocassionally go on the road to tape some TV or PPV monthly or bi-monthly etc etc.

I can't see anything out of ordinary going on in TNA atm to make me believe they are "fading". Even AJ Styles leaving won't make that kind of impact on the company as they'll be doing the same without him. Lets be frank, AJ Styles is a non-factor in ratings, and barely even in PPV buys.

And yeah, Sharkie did gain some weight recently, this is from March 2013.
 

Action Jackson

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Does he still do the Stone Cold stuff? That was awesome.
 

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Straight up, he leaves? i quit watching. I don't care that my opinion doesn't matter, dude built the company and isn't demanding anything outrageous. If they don't want to meet it, fuck that cunt and her family that runs it.

If you shit on your top stars, not even offering them as much as your shit GM you EVEN CONSIDERED GIVING YOUR BELT TO, while ignoring the matches your top stars have actual matches, it just shows the TBS effect. Do what you do TNA, the fans aren't getting any MOTY candidates when you leave Roode and Aries away from the title, Magnus might get you Euro money but he will be a dogshit face champ, and I have no interest in the majority of other threads.

Put it this way, look at it. BI jobbed to Storm and Gunner 2 times in the last couples months, while the Bromans are 3-0 against them. TFA out of buildness, one year time.
 
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Straight up, he leaves? i quit watching. I don't care that my opinion doesn't matter, dude built the company and isn't demanding anything outrageous. If they don't want to meet it, fuck that cunt and her family that runs it.

THIS.

The other part of your post I don't care about.
 
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TNA is having a down period

-OH MAH GERD! TFA SHUT DOWN TOMURROW!


Anyway yeah fuck you Dixie, he deserves the pay raise.