AJ Styles on NJPW run: ‘The creative changed everything for me’

AJ Styles reflected on his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated. 

Styles defeated Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling Dontaku 2014. He'd wrestled a handful of matches for NJPW in 2008 as well but 2014 was the beginning of his full-time run with the company. 

Flanked by his Bullet Club stablemates, Styles would trade the title back and forth with Hiroshi Tanahashi before eventually dropping it back to Okada at Dominion 2015. Styles told SI.com that winning the IWGP title the way he did put him on the map. 

He said:

The creative changed everything for me. If I were bringing somebody over to be in my company, the last thing I would do is have them win the heavyweight championship as soon as they got there. But that’s what they did. And it worked. It put me on the map immediately.

Before arriving in NJPW, Styles had been with TNA Wrestling for 12 years, having helped form the beginnings of the X-Division along with names like Jerry Lynn and Low Ki. He'd go on to become a five-time world champion in the company but after contract negotiations broke down at the end of 2013, he left and became a key player in Bullet Club's rising popularity. 

Styles continued:

New Japan was getting hot, real hot, and that’s when I got there. I got to be in the ring with incredible talent like Shinsuke, Okada, and Tanahashi. Those guys, they’re big time. And there were no handcuffs. Whatever I wanted to say or do, I could.

After dropping the title back to Okada and then losing a rematch at King of Pro Wrestling 2015, Styles lost an Intercontinental title match to Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 10 and then was written out of the Bullet Club story in an angle at New Year's Dash the following day. 

In 2016, several key players in NJPW signed with WWE. Styles and Nakamura left and were later joined by Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. 

When I heard Shinsuke was leaving, he didn’t even know I knew. Nobody knew, I’ll put it like that–and that’s when I spoke about it with Gallows and Anderson, and we all decided to leave.

Another key person in Bullet Club's history, Tama Tonga, has also joined WWE recently. Tonga has aligned with Solo Sikoa in the Bloodline and will wrestle Kevin Owens and Randy Orton at Backlash. 

Styles noted that the one remaining original member of Bullet Club to not sign with WWE, Bad Luck Fale, is an NJPW lifer. 

Fale is a New Japan guy until the end. Timing is everything, and that’s why Tama is in WWE now.

Styles is set to headline WWE's PLE in Lyon, France on Saturday. He'll challenge Cody Rhodes, another former Bullet Club member, for the WWE Championship. Styles says that the match is a chance to show he can still be "the guy" in WWE. 

It’s my opportunity to show I can still be the guy, make sure everybody looks great, and make it entertaining. That’s not added pressure. It’s exciting. I know the fans are going to be nuts. I’m going to get those butterflies. That energy, I’m excited just thinking about it.

Styles mentioned during the contract signing on SmackDown recently that he was very close with Cody's father, Dusty Rhodes. Styles wrestled Dusty three times in the fall of 2003, even successfully defending the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against him at NWA-TNA #66. 

I was wrestling a legend. I was stoked to be able to do that. We spent more time together out of the ring. When Dusty was in charge of creative, we’d talk a lot. He would tell me about his son who wrestled in high school. I wrestled in high school, too. And that was Cody. I almost went to one of his matches. Imagine that?