Why Does Styles Stay Loyal?

On this week’s TNA Impact broadcast, we saw “The Whole F’n Show” Rob Van Dam beat A.J. Styles for the TNA World Heavyweight Title. While I am not going to say that RVD is unworthy of the belt, I am going to question the timing of such a move.

Rob Van Dam has been in TNA for all of two months now, if that long. Yes, he is a veteran of the wrestling business, and he is a former world champion—not that his one title reign really counts for that much since he got screwed out of it anyway. Well, Styles is also a former World Champion, Tag Chhampion, X Division Champion. A.J. Styles is also an eight year veteran and loyal employee of the TNA brand. So why is it that without any fued, any publicity, any respect for him as a champion, the backstage geniuses in TNA took the strap off of him?

In TNA, in the last three to four years, I’m not sure there is another wrestler who is as damn good as Styles that has been treated with such casual disrespect by the bookers and creative staff. Christopher Daniels is up there pretty high, but not at the Styles level. It is taken for granted in TNA that A.J. Styles will grin and sell any crappy angle they toss him into. Do we all remember when Styles was Kurt Angle’s bitch? How about his crush on Karen Angle—as if she had any friggin business being on Impact to begin with.

Even Styles himself finally got pissed off at Vince Russo and complained about how poorly he was being booked as the TNA Champion. I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the hell A.J. Styles continues to be loyal to a company that has strayed so far from it’s original style and purpose. I cannot see why he continues to grin and put up with the garbage he is asked to do. I don’t see any career benefit for him to stay in a company that does nothing but bitch him around.

While I am also unenamored with the WWE product as of late, I will admit that the opportunities in WWE may be greater for Styles than the ones he is being given—or rather not being given—in TNA. A.J. does not need Ric Flair as a sidekick to get him over. Styles is already over, and he’s a better wrestler than Flair could have ever hoped to be in his prime. Maybe he doesn’t have the Nature Boy strut or the level of mic skills that the Nature Boy does, but he is far from bad on the mic. He’s better than a lot of guys in TNA as far as mic skills go. Let’s count them: Matt Morgan, Abyss, Jay Lethal, alex Shelley, Chris Sabin. Do I need to continue?

Another point I’d like to make is that RVD apparently thinks he’s too big to be wrestling guys from TNA. Last year in a radio interview, RVD wondered how people could possibly want to see him wrestle guys like Christopher Daniels after he was wrestling and beating guys like Booker T and Triple H. Here’s a newsflash. Those guys are old news. Yes, they are respected veterans, and rightfully so, but the future is coming. The wrestling business has to evolve, just like any other business. You can’t stay on top forever, so why not try to give a push to somebody who deserves their shot. Terry Funk did it for years.

I understand that RVD has always been openly arrogant about his skills in the ring, and ten years ago he could do that and get away with it. For the last three years however, RVD has been picking and choosing where and when he wants to wrestle, which is certainly a privilege of being as big a name as RVD is. The fans—or rather the marks—haven’t seen him unless they are “smart marks” and follow him on the internet and in Europe and Japan. I suppose that’s part of the reason he can just come back and be handed a belt after so little effort or time in a company he has never previously worked for.

My view is that if you’re going to be the champion, you need to put in more of a full schedule than the one RVD is signed to, and you’re matches need to be of a better quality than Van Dam’s have been up to this point in TNA. Much like the Dudleys—or Team 3D if you prefer—he looks a bit complacent in the wrestling ring, but if you’ve seen any of the matches he’s been wrestling in Europe or Japan, that shouldn’t be a surprise to you. Also, he’s not doing any house shows at all. Does it make any sense to be doing house shows all over the country and not having your World Heavyweight Champion at any of them? Of course it doesn’t.

I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as pissed about this if Styles hadn’t been bitched around so much in the past few years, and if the TNA braintrust had given RVD and Styles a well publicized and well-planned fued that culminated in RVD beating A.J. Styles. As it stands, I hope like hell that Styles is going to get more time in the ring with RVD to show that he is every bit as good as RVD. This is a dream fued for any wrestling purist such as myself and for it to be a one shot deal would be not only a disappointment to the fans, it would be a blatant show of disrespect to A.J. Styles. It would be another instance of TNA disregarding and mistreating guys that have been with them and stood behind them for years now, but that’s something that TNA has gotten extremely good at in the last couple years, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising.