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Never rest, never rust.
-The Phenomenal One

"I am the face that runs the place!"
Styles's Badass Boast after beating John Cena (clean!) at SummerSlam 2016

No, they don't want none! No, they don't want none! They running scared! No, they don't really want none!

Allen Neal Jones (born June 2, 1977) is an American professional wrestler trained by Rick Michaels who debuted in 1998 with National Championship Wrestling in Georgia as Mr. Olympia. NCW would then merge with NWA Georgia to become NWA Wildside, where he would take up the name he is much better known by, AJ Styles. AJ's exploits would earn him recognition from WCW, who briefly repackaged him as Jason Styles, then brought in his rival Air Paris and changed Jason's name to Air Styles with hopes to turn the two of them into a hot new tag team. It was not to be since that company went under, but AJ would come to be known best for his time working for TNA, being one of the four people (besides Jeff Jarrett, James Storm, and Abyss) who have worked for TNA continuously since its very first PPV up to the move to the second Impact Zone in the Spike TV era.

While Ring of Honor had already done two shows, he was at one point considered one of those responsible for building that promotion up too, being its first Pure Wrestling Champion. Unfortunately for ROH, he, tag team partner Amazing Red and a few others, were barred from continued work with Ring of Honor by TNA. He would eventually be allowed to make a few limited returns to Ring of Honor though, given the erratic relations between the two companies up until his TNA contract fell through, allowing him to show up whenever he pleased.

Among his many other wrestling accomplishments, he is an IWA Mid-South Heavyweight Champion, Pro Wrestling Guerilla Champion, an NWA Wildside Heavyweight Champion, a Ballpark Brawl Natural Heavyweight Champion, a 3X NWA Wildside Television Title belt holder, 3x NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a 4x NWA World Tag Team Championnote , a 2x TNA World Heavyweight Champion, a 6x TNA X-Division Champion, a 2x TNA Legends/Global/Television Champion and a 2x TNA World Tag Team Championnote , a Junior Heavyweight Champion in the New Korea Pro Wrestling Association and a Cruiserweight Champion in Australian WWA. He returned to New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2014 and added two IWGP Heavyweight Title reigns to his resume, picking up the FWE Heavyweight title while he was at it.

During WWE's Royal Rumble 2016, AJ made his WWE debut. He later earned his first title shot with the company, challenging Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Payback. During the 2016 Brand Extension, AJ was drafted to Smackdown Live as its no. 2 pick. He would quickly win the the WWE World Championship at Backlash and hold it for the rest of the year, before dropping it to his rival John Cena at Royal Rumble 2017. He won his second WWE Championship by defeating Jinder Mahal in the November 7, 2017 episode of Smackdown in Manchester, England (the first officially-recognized WWE title change to occur outside of North America and the first time the WWE Championship changed hands on Smackdown since 2003). He is also a two-time United States Champion, after defeating then champion Kevin Owens at a WWE Live Event, dropping it to Owens at Battleground and winning it back in a Triple Threat match with Owens and the returning Chris Jericho, then losing to Baron Corbin in another Triple Threat match with Corbin and Tye Dillinger at Hell in a Cell. He would also capture the Intercontinental Championship on June 12, 2020 by defeating Daniel Bryan on a tournament for the vacant championship. Several months later, at WrestleMania 37, he got to win the Raw Tag Team Championships from The New Day along with his new partner Omos, also cementing himself as the only man to be a Grand Slam Champion in both TNA and WWE.

Don't confuse him with A.J. Lee. And no, he is not related to Joey Styles.


"The trope list that A-J-Styles Built":

  • The Ace
    • He's strong and fast, an excellent high flier, and he's got some great technical chops, Jack of All Stats + Lightning Bruiser = The Ace.
    • He was the ace of the whole NWA, particularly Wildside, before even going to TNA. Within TNA, aside from beating Tommy Dreamer in an "I Quit" match, kicking Kurt Angle's ass more often than not, and being one of the best parts of every TNA every night, Styles also happens to be the company's most decorated wrestler, having been a four time Triple Crown Champion and Grand Slam Champion. Even more notably, he's the only wrestler to have ever won ALL SIX of the title belts ever made eligible for Triple Crown and/or Grand Slam status in TNA's history.note 
    • After Paul London was injured, AJ Styles earned a shot at the ROH Tag Team Championship belts by himself against three other teams — the Backseat Boyz, Carnage Crew and the Spanish Announce Team!
    • Despite never being a full time part of the International Wrestling Cartel's roster, he was the first person to win the IWC's Match of the year three years in a row. A time limit draw with Colt Cabana in 2003, defending the Super Indy Title against Christopher Daniels in 2004 and defeating Matt Hardy in 2005.
    • Paul Heyman himself was singing praises after AJ's match with Brock Lesnar, calling him "the greatest talent of his generation".
    • In fact, with Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels both long retired, AJ is generally recognized as a serious contender for the title of "Best pro-wrestler in the world".
    • He is the only wrestler to be a Grand Slam Champion in both Impact Wrestling and WWE.
  • Accidental Marriage: Karen Angle seduced AJ in order to screw over Christian, and Kurt Angle further "loaned" his wife to Styles so she wouldn't distract him from focusing on what was important to him at the time (defeating Samoa Joe). Due to some poor planning and unfortunate placement on all their parts...
  • Action Dad: He has four children, each with his same first and last initials and with their birthdays tattooed on his side. Several world championship rivals have made mention of them during feuds with AJ. Daniels in TNA in 2009 once told AJ to tell his kids that Uncle Chris is a better friend and wrestler than him, while Bully Ray in 2013 threatened to replace AJ in his wife and children's lives after taking him out. Samoa Joe would repeat the same as Bully did in WWE with much more intention, repeatedly calling out the name of AJ's wife Wendy while claiming he would become her and the kids' new Daddy to get into AJ's head. This one stuck with Styles so much that he tried to pay this tactic forward to The Undertaker when he feuded with Taker alongside The OC, an act that got AJ buried alive and ended The Good Brothers' run in WWE.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent
    • Michelle McCool is sort of a Distaff Counterpart to him. Starting in 2009 when Michelle started using the Styles Clash, which she renamed the Faith Breaker, as her finishing move. Later became more apparent when she and Layla started wearing hooded robes as part of their LayCool entrance. Oddly extends to Real Life as well, since both are devout Christians from the Deep South. Fittingly enough, Michelle's once-duplicitous character and similarities to Styles became a talking point for Styles' feud with her husband The Undertaker, which turned out to be Taker's last feud.
    • He faced John Hennigan in a two out of three falls match at Family Wrestling Entertainment on March 11th 2015. The two had frequently been compared to each other while Styles was in TNA and Hennigan/Nitro/Morrison was in WWE.
  • Always Second Best: In Up, Up, Down, Down, for some reason, if Styles enters a UUDD tournament and he manages to get to the finals, he will end up losing and thus finish second in the tournament. It's almost a Running Gag now, considering just how many times it's happened.
  • Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better
    • The basis of his feud with Jason Cross in NWA Wildside. The two were the same size but Jason was (slightly) younger and managed by Jeff G. Bailey.
    • Luke Hawx claims he can teach AJ the proper way to do the moves AJ invented.
  • Arch-Enemy
    • Jeff G. Bailey who directed wrestlers at Styles in NCW but tried to get on Style's good side and for a while, succeeded, in NWA Wildside. Prince Nana, manager of The Embassy, in ROH.
    • In TNA it's a little harder to discern, seeing as AJ has been in the promotion since the very beginning, meaning he's feuded with just about everybody. Nonetheless, Christopher Daniels probably has the strongest claim, simply because of how many times him and AJ have feuded over the years, more or less due to Daniels's jealousy, and the fact that the other half of the time, him and AJ are best friends. Daniels went as far as conspiring with Frankie Kazarian on various ways to ruin AJ's life.
    • In New Japan he, Kazuchika Okada, and Hiroshi Tanahashi were all big time rivals for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship with allies in their corners.
    • The closest he had in ROH since leaving TNA is Adam Cole. This started with Cole's attack on AJ with the ROH World Championship title belt, then expanded into a stable war as Cole established The Kingdom and AJ's Bullet Club allies started backing him up in ROH. Even so, as late as January 2016 members of Nana's Embassy assaulted Styles in WrestleMerica, only to run into the same problem The Kingdom did.
    • His arch-enemies in WWE during his heel run in 2016 were John Cena and Dean Ambrose. He and Cena were the top superstars in TNA and WWE respectively for almost 12 years and when the two finally faced each other in the WWE, Styles wanted to see who is the better man among them, even bring in his old Bullet Club buddies (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) to beat him up. The two have two awesome matches at Money in the Bank and SummerSlam 2017 with Styles defeating Cena both times. After declaring that he is the face of SmackDown Live, he challenged Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Championship, winning it at Night of Champions. He would then defended the Championship at No Mercy against both his rivals. With Cena out of the picture for months, he and Ambrose continue their rivalry, with Ambrose helping James Ellsworth defeating Styles a total of three times. Ambrose's hatred for Styles and for not helping him in Survivor Series during their tag team match forced Ambrose to return later on and helped his former Shield teammates to eliminate Styles. After Styles successfully defeated Ambrose again at TLC, Cena made his return and challenged Styles, successfully defeating him at Royal Rumble 2017.
    • After turning face, he entered a feud with Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin for the United States Championship.
    • Shinsuke Nakamura, a rivalry that began since their time at New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as both men were involved in rival stables and ultimately faced each other at Wrestle Kingdom 10, with Nakamura winning. After winning the 2018 Royal Rumble, Nakamura challenged Styles at WrestleMania 34 in which Styles won. Nakamura turned heel after the match and often punched Styles below the belt in all their following encounters. After more matches that ended in no-contest, Styles ended the feud at Money In the Bank in a Last Man Standing Match.
    • He and Samoa Joe have fought numerous times for 10 years during TNA, most of which Joe won. At the summer of 2018 in WWE, Joe challenged Styles for the WWE Championship and the feud even brought Styles' family into the mix.
    • Daniel Bryan, a rivalry began on October 2018 but both as a face. They supposed to face each other at Crown Jewel but instead they wrestle at Smack Down Live. Styles and Bryan had a rematch for WWE Championship on November 13 episode of WWE SmackDown Live where he lost the title following a low blow and Bryan turned heel. Styles received a rematch at TLC (2018) but failed to win the title. After TLC (2018), Styles character more aggressive including attacking Vince McMahon and Bryan from the back. Styles got another opportunity for WWE Championship at Royal Rumble (2019) after win fatal 5 way match at WWE SmackDown Live. At Royal Rumble Styles failed again to win the title after Erick Rowan attacked him and help Bryan to retain the title.
    • Randy Orton after Orton provoke Styles that he's come from Indie Wrestling while Orton is more successful in WWE than him.
    • Ricochet after his second Face–Heel Turn in 2019.
    • The Undertaker, after Taker defeated Styles in a gauntlet match for The Tuwaiq Trophy and continued the feud until WrestleMania 36.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: The Styles Clash looks great as a finisher, but very few wrestlers can be trusted to take it safely, as it requires them to arch their neck instead of tucking their head like they’re trained to do.
  • Badass Biker: Was occasionally seen riding a Hayabusa-style moped during his last year in TNA as the lone wolf. Then he joined Bullet Club and became a good part of the reason they're said to be inspired by the trope.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: A trademark of Fortune in general, especially under Flair.
  • Bash Brothers: The Amazing Red and Alexis Laree in Ring of Honor, whom he allied with to fight the Prophecy after Paul London was injured. Paul didn't approve of these new partners. Also when he teamed with former Prophecy leader Christopher Daniels. Then with Christian's "Problem Solver", Tyson Tomko. Tomko and AJ would eventually desert Christian Cage.
  • Berserk Button: When Joe involved and make a personal problem on Styles family.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Was part of one with Karl Anderson as the leaders of Bullet Club in his New Japan tenure.
  • Big Damn Heroes: At the climax of the 12th February 2019 episode of SmackDown, AJ ran out to rescue Kofi Kingston from Samoa Joe, who had been pinned by Kofi in the gauntlet match and was choking him out with the Coquina Clutch in revenge. Unfortunately, AJ then found himself in the unenviable position of having to fight the man he'd just rescued since he was the next entrant in the match, as much as it pained him to do it.
  • Big Guy, Little Guy: First when he teamed with Tomko, then later when picked up the over seven-foot-tall Omos as a bodyguard.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": Prone to directing them at the fans of Zero 1, which was funny because they crowd was so sedate already.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: Subtle, since AJ was always bursting with praise for TNA but if one read through or listened carefully enough to his "shoot" interviews, he had some comical criticism too. A recurring one regarded the difficulty of running with ladders, doing so in "the king of the mountain" concept match in particular. Another was Rob Van Dam being given the world title despite having little interest in putting over wrestlers he had not approved of prior to joining TNA. Another was deconstructing the idea that TNA gave him a lighter schedule than the other companies he had worked for. If you want onscreen examples, look no further than Christian's Coalition or Fourtune.
  • Bookends: He started his second WWE Championship reign on an episode of SmackDown, which was also the go-home show for Survivor Series. The following year, that reign ended on an episode of SmackDown, which was the go-home show of Survivor Series.
  • Boring, but Practical: In a match with Randy Orton, he hopped up on the top rope and jumped up in preparation for a high flying move, noticed Randy jump up for the RKO (preparing to catch AJ in midair) and simply dropped straight back down onto the ring apron, allowing Randy to just land flat on his back.
  • Brick Joke: In 2016, both the fallout from Wrestle Kingdom 10 and the setup for WrestleMania 32 featured a guy from Winnipeg betraying AJ Styles.
  • Bring It: AJ screamed it at Low Ki when he made his Ring of Honor debut, and Low Ki did in fact bring it.
  • Broken Pedestal:
    • TNA to AJ, in Real Life. By the time AJ left TNA, he had a huge chip on his shoulder and "didn't shed one tear" when he bounced. AJ was the heart and soul of TNA — fans, critics, and wrestlers alike will tell you that. He busted his ass for that company, spent the prime of his career there, never causing trouble, never being an embarrassment like others had been. Even at the company's lowest, he was always bursting with praise. He gave everything to TNA. And how did they repay him? By sticking him and his equally loyal and hardworking coworkers in midcard hell, having him repeatedly job to over-the-hill wrestlers and WWE rejects, and shunted aside for Hogan and his lot, even when it was clear that what they were doing was killing the company he loved so much. And when he's one foot out the door, they try to get him to come back with an offer that constituted a forty percent pay cut. Nobody will ever blame AJ for finally having enough and leaving.
      AJ Styles: For a guy who'd been a staple of that company for 11 years, who busted his tail, never got in trouble, never did anything to embarrass your company, and what [Carter] offered me was enough for me to go, "I'm not working here." I loved that company. I did. I put everything I had into it.
    • TNA may have just nuked the bridge into oblivion. This article, posted on their website two days before AJ's rumored debut at the Royal Rumble, reveals that there were contract negotiations between the two parties. While it was in TNA's best interest to signal to fans that they at least tried to bring AJ back, the article instead came across to many as trying to throw AJ (along with Luke "Doc" Gallows and Karl Anderson) under the bus. Consequently, TNA looked like a petty, desperate, unprofessional organization trying to ruin the prosperity of a performer that helped build their company from the ground up with little in return, in some dim hope of getting publicity. The chances of AJ returning to TNA after this are slim at best.
  • Casting Gag: As Charlotte Flair's partner for the second Mixed Match Challenge, considering his previous apprenticeship under Ric Flair in Fortune.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Got an absolutely epic one by calling Immortal out on everything the fans had been complaining about since the start of the Immortal storyline. You could literally hear the fandom rejoicing as the crowd gave him one of the largest cheers in TNA's history.
  • Carpet of Virility: Perhaps to go with his "lone wolf" gimmick but the formerly clean shaven Styles got a lot more hairy during the time in which he "left" TNA and stayed that way for awhile when he left for real.
  • Clothing Damage: At TLC 2016, AJ had his tights torn by a chair, exposing a part of his left buttock. This has become a source of many jokes among the fans.
  • Code of Honour: Besides Ring of Honor's, which Styles had been apart of since the days when following was mandatory, Styles also claimed the X Division, of which he was a founder, had such a code.
  • Combat Commentator: For IWA Mid-South and the 37th TNA Impact in 2005.
  • Combat Pragmatist:
    • During his time with Christian's Coalition and the Angle Alliance, AJ would go back and forth between parodying this trope and playing it straight. One moment he would be taking Adam "Pacman" Jones' money and getting it sprayed into the ring while he was counting it during a match, causing Pacman's own distraction to backfire on his team, the next he would putting on an amateur wrestling headguard heading into a grappling match with Scott Steiner, the next he would be running away from Kurt Angle during an exhibition fight and bragging about how this made him the smartest man in the arena, the next he and Tomko would be planting misdirection at Christian Cage.
    • His Fortune heel run was full of this trope, what with he and the group being protégés of Ric Flair, the Dirtiest Player in the Game. Aside from attacking opponents with steel chairs at the first opportunity, sticking a fork of all things in Tommy Dreamer's eye to beat him in an "I Quit" match, and doing a distorted version of the Styles Clash in a kayfabe attempt to break Stevie Richards' neck, he was also part of a violent weapons-filled beatdown administered by six TNA guys to the equivalent of half an ECW roster by using the standard lights-out run-in gimmick to make them think it was The Sandman or Sting coming in in order to get the jump on them.
    • With Bullet Club in NJPW, AJ would wrestle his matches cleanly himself, except for two things in his longer, more competitive matches: the occasional standard heel cheap trick at the beginning, and never failing to take advantage when his stablemates distracted or attacked opponents towards the end.
    • His first year in WWE started showing shades of this. In his Extreme Rules match versus Roman Reigns, when Reigns' cousins The Usos came down to run off Anderson and Gallows, AJ got caught in the crossfire, but kept his focus primarily on beating Roman. But as soon as Jimmy Uso directly cost AJ a pinfall and the WWE World Heavyweight Title, AJ didn't waste another moment in obliterating both Usos with a brutal series of chair shots. Despite occurring before his actual heel turn, this would establish the general pattern of how Styles works as a heel; AJ will often wrestle straight up in a match for the most part, but if the opportunity presents itself, like low-blowing Ambrose at Backlash to win the WWE World Title or hitting Cena with a steel chair to retain said title at No Mercy (the latter even being legal with the triple threat match rules), he won't hesitate to take advantage.
  • Combination Attack: Air Raid had a drop toe hold by Paris to a rolling senton by Styles, a double power bomb and a double hip toss face buster they called Crash N' Burn.
  • Commuting on a Bus: Sort of. TNA explained AJ's lack of points in the 2012 Bound For Glory Series as him wrestling less matches do to working with Pro Wrestling Elite in the UK (or, perhaps against it, the event was called Elite vs Phenomenal) and returning to Australia.
  • Conspicuous Gloves: First wore full gloves during his Elevation X match against Rhino in TNA. He later started making them part of his regular wrestling gear after his fingers got jammed.
  • Continuity Nod: Still occasionally homages Ric Flair, despite the Fortune storyline being long over and Flair at first, then both men, putting TNA in rearview. He gets particularly upset when his enemies try to compare themselves to Flair.
  • Cool Shades: His earlier runs, such as Air Raid in WCW.
  • Costume Copycat: In 2006-7, Raven was leading a group called Serotonin, who had The Gimmick of wearing masks. Styles took advantage of this to cause mischief with a bird mask, the officials in TNA attributing it to Raven rather than Styles.
  • Crossover
    • Besides the Ring of Honor's usual deals that saw AJ crossing over with TNA and CZW, or TNA's for that matter, which saw crossover with New Japan and (towards the end) Wrestle-1, he also showed up on MTV's Made alongside Taylor Wilde, Angelina Love and Velvet Sky.
    • The International Wrestling Cartel boasts that his match with Matt Hardy at No Excuses 2005 was one of the few legitimate WWE vs TNA inter promotional matches. TNA (AJ Styles) won.
    • One that particularly stood out during his supposed walkout with the TNA title, footage of him defending the belt against Judas Mesias in AAA played and he announced he would be in The Great Muta's Wrestle-1 next (where he would go on to successfully retain against Seiya Sanada). In many ways, AJ's retread of the Summer of Punk was inferior, but the one thing TNA did better is that AJ actually did take the World title to other promotions.
  • Crowd Chant: In TNA "Who's your daddy." After the Claire Lynch thing had run its course.
  • Cue the Flying Pigs:
    • Downplayed. AJ was a thought-to-be lifer for TNA, having been there since the very first show and stuck by the company through thick and thin. While his contract squabbles were known at the time, his Undying Loyalty to the company preceded him and it was thought he would re-sign. His leaving was genuinely shocking, and many fans consider it to be a sign that the company is on its last leg.
    • Despite all the rumors, reports, and even a statement on the TNA website all but confirming it true, seeing AJ debut in WWE at the Royal Rumble was absolutely surreal. Many fans couldn't believe that he was really there, and even years after his debut, those same fans who remember his time as a TNA Original still have a hard time wrapping their heads around his presence on the main roster.
    • SummerSlam 2016, where AJ Styles kicked out of multiple Attitude Adjustments from John Cena, including one from the top rope, which absolutely stunned Cena the way Cena usually shocks his opponents, then countered yet another AA into the second of two Styles Clashes, followed up with a Phenomenal Forearm, and pinned The Face That Runs the Place 100% CLEAN.
    • If you said a couple of years ago that AJ Styles would be a WWE World Champion, you'd be laughed out of the building, as the man was thought to be bound to TNA for life, and Vince McMahon doesn't like people who aren't his homegrown talent. At Backlash 2016, he's become the champion, beating Dean Ambrose for the title.
    • He wrestled Shane McMahon at Wrestlemania 33. A lot of fans thought this was going to end up in a really terrible match, as Shane was 47 years old at the time and is not a wrestler. They were all wrong, and AJ and Shane put on an incredible Wrestlemania match (including Shane doing some legit mat wrestling and A GOD DAMN SHOOTING STAR PRESS) that will definitely be talked about for years to come.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: He squashed Curtis Axel on his SmackDown debut match with virtually no effort aside from some early offense from Axel. Even took out the rest of The Social Outcasts (Adam Rose, Bo Dallas and Heath Slater) for good measure.
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Styles threatens his opponents, should they piss them off, to "put their teeth down their throats".
  • David Versus Goliath: AJ's not a particularly large pro wrestler, but early into his career in Georgia he was the Goliath versus 4'11 105 lbs Fantasy, who did manage to pin him at least once.
  • Defeat Means Friendship: Inverted during his feud with Shane McMahon. Styles won in their match at WrestleMania 33, but it is him who made a Heel–Face Turn afterwards, shaking hands with Shane on the first Smack Down! episode after Mania and burying the hatchet in the process.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: The only person in the International Wrestling Cartel considered more difficult to defeat than AJ Styles is…ironically, the only other person eligible to accomplish what he has in TNA. Abyss. Not only is AJ a two time Super Indy Champion, but he's never lost the title in a match. The only reason he doesn't have an even better IWC record are because of his overseas tours and because of TNA.
    • Considering John Cena's position within the WWE, many viewed Styles beating him clean at SummerSlam 2016 as him doing this.
  • Demoted to Extra+Redemption Promotion
    • As a face, A.J. tends to be in the upper card; as a heel, he tends to be stuck in the mid-card, playing second fiddle to other more important heels. It had gotten really bad in the early goings of Fortune, where he shared second-in-command status with Kazarian under Ric Flair. Yes, Mr. TNA, The Phenomenal One, was at the bottom of the heap and needed help to beat Rob Terry. By the time it started getting better and he and Fortune were stomping EV2.0 every week…Flair soon had them join in on Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan's conspiracy gang. AJ was literally answering to three people before Fortune decided they were done using and dealing with Immortal.
    • Was reversed later. His run in 2012 as a face was the worst of his career, losing to Christopher Daniels with his own finishing move and playing the personal Butt-Monkey to Bad Influence for months. Since his return as what can be best described as a Chaotic Neutral tweener, he has been dominant, beating James Storm cleanly and leaving havoc in his wake mostly via Death Glare. Eventually the wild card was ultimately revealed to simply be a Darker and Edgier face, winning the TNA World Heavyweight Title for his last run with the company, ultimately playing this straight.
    • Averted in his heel runs in NJPW and WWE. In NJPW he became the IWGP Heavyweight Champion twice, one of them in his first match there as more than a TNA guest, and the quickest of all the Bullet Club leaders to win said title. In WWE as a heel he beat John Cena clean at SummerSlam and became the WWE Champion within his first year, holding onto the belt for several months before dropping it to Cena who simultaneously got his runback at the 2017 Royal Rumble, but as a face lost his first WrestleMania match to Chris Jericho and has lost matches with title ramifications to the likes of Baron Corbin and Jinder Mahal.
  • Determinator: This aspect of his tends to be quite underestimated in light of his already incredible talents, but you don't get to be the face for modern American wrestlers who've never been under contract to Vince McMahon (an entirely true statement until January 24, 2016) without showing moments of superior toughness:
    • During the tournament to crown the first ROH Pure Champion, every one of his opponents targeted AJ Styles' knee, including it getting dropped onto concrete during his final match up with CM Punk. Didn't stop him from winning the whole thing though.
    • On his final night in TNA, it took the nepotistic Ethan Carter III, his minion Rockstar Spud, Lethal Joke Characters The Bro-Mans, Dumbass DJ DJ Zema Ion, AJ's ex-friends Bad Influence (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian), and finally three Death Valley Neckbreakers from Bobby Roode, combined with various abuses of referees from all the above as well as preemptive assaults beforehand on anyone and everyone who would've otherwise covered his back against them, for Dixie Carter to finally be able to help Magnus, who had made a Deal with the Devil with her, to put him down for the count and become Undisputed Champion. That's right, it took an 9-man Legion of Doom to get rid of AJ from the house that he built.
    • As The Champion of the Bullet Club in NJPW, he faced off against Suzukigun leader and all-around badass Minoru Suzuki during the G1 Climax tournament. Suzuki did everything he possibly could to break Styles and make him submit—stiffing him, tossing him into the stands, locking in vicious armbars, and even bending the man's fingers out of shape for over a minute at one point. Still, AJ not only withstood everything Suzuki gave him, he fought back and dealt plenty of damage himself, hurting and frustrating the mighty Suzuki. Even Suzukigun's Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer) came out to interfere on Minoru's behalf only to be chased off by Bullet Club's A-Team (Anderson and Gallows). In the end, Styles concluded a 16-minute classic with a Styles Clash on Suzuki for the pin, earning both points in the G1 tournament and the love of the New Japan crowd despite this being a heel vs. heel encounter. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter would name this 2014's Match of the Year.
  • Didn't Think This Through: So Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian are accusing AJ Styles of getting a drunken crackhead he's trying to get treatment for pregnant and in a shocking betrayal, she believes them and sides against AJ. Whatever, it's TNA. What was dumb was that in the face of these allegations, Styles challenged Daniels to a match on the stipulation he would admit to being the father of Lynch's child if Daniels could beat him but if (when) Styles won, he'd get a paternity test to see if he was really the father or not (he wasn't, in fact there wasn't even a baby). Phenomenal wrestler or not, that AJ Styles really worked out a bad deal for himself.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Eric Bischoff treated A.J. very badly, insulting him and even making fun of his hometown. A.J. eventually had enough and broke away from Immortal, taking all of Fortune with him, dividing Immortal's numbers and costing Jeff Hardy the World Title.
  • The Dragon: As a heel he often finds himself here.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Served as this in New Japan with Bullet Club. Karl Anderson was the de facto leader of the group (mainly due to Karl's longevity and the fact that AJ's representing the belt in the American indies while only working New Japan's major dates), but AJ was the one gunning for and holding the IWGP Heavyweight Title, making him the one to beat.
  • The Dreaded: When AJ made his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, he got put over hard by commentary. JBL even went as far as to mention that AJ had won the IWGP Championship like Brock Lesnar had, just to give a clue to the casual fans watching at home just how big a deal he was. To top it off, Roman Reigns, the then-WWE World Heavyweight Champion, reacted with shock at his appearance, and, when AJ entered the ring, apprehension, momentarily hesitating to go charging at him like he would usually do despite the visible size difference between them. AJ was a major Wild Card considering that only a select few in the current roster had ever tangled up with him in the ring before, arguably making him the biggest threat in the first half of the Rumble.
  • Even the Guys Want Him: One of the fans, the male fans, kissed Styles on the back of his head after he defeated Adam Cole at All-Star Extravaganza VI.
  • Expy
    • Another Ric Flair one, acknowledged in-universe as Ric mentoring A.J. It didn't really work.
    • So TNA made him one to Sting. Particularly Sting from 1997.
  • Eye Scream: As a Heel he loves going for the eye, a standard heel trick, except he does it with objects, like pens and forks.
  • The Face: Of TNA as a whole for 11 years, and of the stable Fortune for at least one of those eleven. After leaving TNA and going to Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he would become this as a Dragon-in-Chief / co-leader for the stable Bullet Club. As alluded above, prior to January 24, 2016, he was at least a great candidate for the face of modern-era American wrestlers who've never been contracted to or "made by" WWE.
  • Face–Heel Turn:
    • In 2016, on the May 30 episode of Raw, he welcomed back a returning John Cena, only to attack Cena with the help of Gallows and Anderson, turning him heel for the first time in WWE.
    • In 2019, on the July 1st episode of Raw, Styles challenged Ricochet for the United States Championship which Styles won; however, a second referee reversed the decision after it was pointed out that Ricochet had his foot under the rope. After the restarted match ended with Ricochet winning and retaining the title, Styles, Gallows and Anderson brutally attacked Ricochet and turned heel after a two-year face run.
    • In 2024, Styles would interfere in the 2024 Elimination Chamber match by attacking LA Knight with a chair and performing a Styles Clash on him with it, turning heel for the first time since December 2021.
  • The Fighting Narcissist: What he became while Jeff G. Bailey was managing him in Wildside.
  • Final Boss: Styles is Undertaker's final opponent in the latter's 30 years long career. And unlike most wrestler's final opponent, Undertaker is victorious in his match with Styles at WrestleMania 36.
  • Fingore: Thankfully, his hands still work, but his wedding ring cannot fit over his fingers anymore due to jamming them.
  • Finishing Move: The Styles Clash, a move AJ created when he botched a powerbomb. Jimmy Rave claimed he was really the one to create the move, leading to them having a match with the loser no longer being allowed to use it in Ring of Honor (AJ won). Then there is the springboard 450° splash fans dubbed the Superman. Less notable are the Calf Killer (a compression lock with his shin that's actually banned in a few real sports) and a corkscrew senton he calls Spiral Tap. Once joining WWE, the springboard forearm smash he used before as a Signature Move reached finisher status (his primary finisher at that) and became the Phenomenal Forearm.
  • Fleeting Demographic Rule: AJ's "leaving with the title" storyline with Dixie Carter is clearly a rehash of CM Punk's famous "Summer of Punk II" storyline which catapulted Punk to super stardom. As such, the storyline didn't work for several reasons. For one, this trope is also known as the Seven Year Rule, and Punk's storyline occurred in 2011 — meaning that everyone still remembers it since it has only been two years since then, causing all the fans to (rightly) call it a rip off. Then there's the fact that AJ's notorious reputation as a company man, which only hurts the storyline since he doesn't blur the line between reality and kayfabe as nearly as well as Punk, who is well known for his managerial disputes and his difficulty to work with. Plus, the role of Vince McMahon has been delegated to Dixie Carter, who, to be quite honest, should not be on television. However, what killed the storyline were AJ's own contractual disputes, which, like Punk's at the time, were legitimate. Unlike Punk, AJ didn't re-sign (something that was actually shocking considering his reputation), forcing them to take the title off him in a highly contrived way and kill his career in TNA.
  • Foreign Wrestling Heel
    • In Pro Wrestling ZERO1, enough to unseat Low Ki's position as such.
    • He was briefly hired by La Legión Extranjera in AAA.
    • Has become one in New Japan teaming up with Bullet Club, a Stable of Gaijins who use underhanded methods to win.
  • Foreshadowing: When The Usos outright screwed Styles out of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship title after he hit Roman Reigns with a Styles Clash onto a steel chair, he snapped and hit his breaking point with the Club vs. Bloodline feud and destroyed Roman and the Usos with the chair before getting himself pinned off a careless Phenomenal Forearm attempt countered into a Reigns Spear. The next night on Raw, he praised Roman and then blamed Anderson and Gallowsnote  along with the Usos for costing him the match, opening himself up to a pointed accusation from his friends that he'd changed and become soft, then tried to insist they were still brothers only to be rejected in a scene that made him look foolish and erratic. Then came the following week with John Cena's return and it became clear that his Rage Breaking Point wasn't just with Roman Reigns.
  • Gratuitous Japanese: Some of his WWE ring gear has kanji, which is probably a subtle nod to his past in Japan. Fellow former BC members Gallows and Anderson feature the Japanese characters much more prominently.
  • Groin Attack: How he won his first WWE Championship. Fate happily paid him back during his second WWE Championship reign, where he was an absolute magnet for these, mostly during his feud with Nakamura. By the time he lost the title to Daniel Bryan due to another one of these, fans straight-up were wondering why he hadn't taken to wearing a cup already.
    • At one point during his title feud with Dean Ambrose, a mini-fight broke out during a promo segment. Styles tries to hit the Phenomenal Forearm and gets crotched on the top rope when Ambrose kicks his leg out from under him. Dean Ambrose, being Dean Ambrose, grabs hold of the rope and yanks it back and forth for several seconds while AJ bounces and writhes in pain. If that wasn't bad enough, AJ stayed stuck there for several minutes after the show went off air, through the entrances of John Cena, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins, who all took their sweet time getting to the ring, and who all bumped that particular rope during their entrances. In his next WWE Championship run as a face, the gag would only continue with Shinsuke Nakamura taking a page from fellow CHAOS stablemate Toru Yano and hitting Styles with an emphatic low blow every chance he gets.
    • This has happened so much someone was able to make a montage of it.
  • The Hero: Formerly to Ring of Honor as a Face, particularly against Christopher Daniels' Prophecy. Then in TNA against such rogues as "The Kings of Wrestling"/Planet Jarrett, The Main Event Mafia and Immortal.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Christopher Daniels. They've even named their children after each other.
  • "I Am" Song: His entrance theme, and it could easily be the Trope Codifier - the original version of the song (And several remixes) is actually called "I Am" & it has actually been remixed to purely focus on the "I am, I am" refrain of the chorus on one occasion, with this now being the only part of the original theme that remains. Heck, even Fortune's theme was a "We Are" song—the team version of this trope.
  • I Coulda Been a Contender!
    • Having wrestled exclusively for TNA for his physical prime and been promoted as their top face, Styles nevertheless has had a checkered career. This was perhaps inevitable since TNA's paradigm has little use for consistent babyfaces. Over the years, Styles has been swerved by Sting, buried by Hulk Hogan after making unkind real-life remarks about him, reenacted the Montreal Screwjob with Kurt Angle, became a protégé of Ric Flair (a gimmick which died early, as the "New" Nature Boy label didn't stick), got pinned clean by Nash(!) for the Championship belt, got laid out by Dixie's hubby (with one punch), and through it all more or less remained a midcard wrestler.
    • He was obviously planned for bigger things in ROH but TNA pulled him out of the promotion while he was still the Pure Wrestling Champion. By the time AJ Styles came back, the show had gone on without him and he ended up repeatedly jobbing to former protége Jimmy Rave.
    • To be honest, for AJ it's "I Shoulda Been a Contender," since it's generally agreed upon that he should've been the face of TNA, and that the only reason he isn't is because of booking and TNA's incompetence, something that is no fault of AJ himself.
    • As the company circled the drain in 2015, TNA offered AJ an olive branch (along with a hefty sum of money) to wrestle one last match at Slammiversary in exchange for being inducted into their Hall of Fame. AJ, wanting to prioritize his ROH and New Japan career and likely remembering the way he was carelessly written out of Impact, turned them down flat.
    • The 2017 "Tournament Of Honor" saw ROH poll fans on who would be world champion if everyone who ever worked for them was available. Styles easily qualified for the bracket and was the overwhelming favorite win it next to Bryan Danielson, who he just barely edged out for the most votes. Fans seems to feel the same way he felt about never getting that belt.
  • In the Hood: He peeks out from under it briefly during his entrance. He even got hooded versions of Ric Flair's robes.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: His TNA career. The fans refused to boo him even as a heel because he was such a nice guy and genuinely great wrestler who had to put up with a lot of shit. Even during the last leg of his career there, he did what he did because he had to put food on the table for his family. AJ never managed to become a real heel until he quit TNA and went to New Japan to join the Bullet Club.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain
    • As a member of the Angle Alliance. He very rarely won a match, and it got to the point where you just felt bad for him taking second-banana to Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, etc.
    • His alliance with Ric Flair seemed to become this for a couple of months after he lost the world title belt in 2010. Then came the formation of Fortune.
  • Insistent Terminology: Inversion. No matter how much of a central focus he is within a stable, he always balks at being called the leader. Ric Flair being the Team Dad was an obvious firewall in Fortune, but with regards to Bullet Club during his run there and especially The OC, he's had to rebuff the popular consensus that he was the leader many a times. It's worth noting that official sources were just as likely to call Karl Anderson the leader since he was the one the guys trusted as a mouthpiece following Devitt's departure from NJPW, yet Anderson never called himself the leader either. Ultimately, AJ revealed he considers Devitt to be the one true leader since he's the one who founded it.
  • Ironic Echo
  • Irony: One of the main reasons the rehash of the famous "Summer of Punk" storyline fell flat is because AJ was a well-known company man, but that's not what killed the storyline all together. The reason it worked the first time around is because Punk, issues with management and all, did end up re-signing. AJ, who was a well-known company man (keyword here being "was") didn't, having finally gotten sick of the bullshit the company has put him and his colleagues/friends through over the last decade. This led to one of the most over-booked matches in the history of TNA (which is really saying something), in order to take the title off him while still trying to keep him strong, making the entire storyline a failure and leaving the company grasping straws. Meanwhile, Punk's match with Cena for the title is widely regarded as the best match the WWE has had this century. His departure also started a gradual exodus of long time TNA talent (including Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe), which reached its pinnacle in the summer of 2015 as several wrestlers such as James Storm and Austin Aries requested their release from the company. Meanwhile, Punk's storyline allowed him and Daniel Bryan to kick down several doors in the WWE, leading to a gradual income of young, prominent talent from the indies being signed (also including Samoa Joe). The parallels have not been lost on anyone. However, the greatest irony is that the culmination of these events led to AJ signing with WWE, causing the Internet to go nuts.
    • Also ironic is that WWE, where many assumed he'd have a hard time because of the backstage politics (something that implicitly kept him away from WWE for most of his career), gave him the immediate recognition and respect that his 'home' promotion of TNA never gave him after almost ten years there. There, he was constantly being jobbed out or playing second fiddle to former WWE guys despite his loyalty. In WWE, he came in and was put over the long-running company standard bearer within six months.
  • It's Personal: When he returned to ROH in 2014 he expressed his frustration at never getting to be ROH World Champion. However, he was willing to turn down a shot at the title to get at Adam Cole, who had hit him with it from behind (a big no no in ROH code, in case you're wondering. He was IWGP Heavyweight Champion anyway so not having the ROH belt didn't hurt too much). Styles would get his revenge on Cole at ROH All Star Extravaganza VI and indeed may have been set back on a title shot, had Michael Elgin not went on to lose to Jay Briscoe.
  • Jack of All Stats: His arsenal is composed of various types of moves. Even his finishers consist of a power move (Styles Clash), a submission hold (Calf Killer/Slicer/Crusher) and some aerial ones (Spiral Tap, Superman and Phenomenal Forearm).
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While he was doing it mostly to turn the mind games back on Dean Ambrose and James Ellsworth, AJ brought it up in a promo on the November 1, 2016 edition of Smackdown that Ambrose merely drew out more punishment on Ellsworth by constantly throwing him back in the ring during his championship match, even when it was clear that Ellsworth had no fight left in him; AJ actually wanted to show mercy and keep it short, but Ambrose's constant interference would only exacerbate the situation to the point where AJ was DQ'ed for an excessive beatdown on Ellsworth.
    • Strawman Has a Point: His complaints about Ambrose's antics tend to fall on deaf ears when he himself is a Combat Pragmatist who takes advantage of a situation, but he was right to be indignant when Daniel Bryan put him in a match versus Ellsworth, with Ambrose as the would-be biased special referee, and couldn't lay a hand on said referee or he'd be fined and suspended, a no-win situation, which he aptly pointed out...only to be shot down rather bluntly by Shane, who's typically the Only Sane Man during backstage promos rather than be outright biased.
  • Jobber: On various WWF B shows. WWE would later offer him a developmental contract but it was too little too late.
  • Joisey: During a TNA/Jersey All Pro Wrestling cross promotional event, AJ Styles tried to have all of TNA's "backstage passes" revoked on the grounds he didn't want to deal with any of New Jersey's people.
  • Large Ham: Though not the largest in the business, when compared to the non-Ric Flair members of Fortune he's pretty over the top, Ric Flair's mentoring had improved his previously lacking promo skills.
    "AJ Styles is going to make Tommy Dreamer say "Stop it A.J., stop it, I Quit A.J., I Quit!" In AJ Styles's House."
  • Laser-Guided Karma:
    • After pretty much unleashing his wrath on John Cena for the second half of 2016, he got a dosage of this at the 30th Royal Rumble a year later when the latter defeated him. Not only did AJ lose the WWE Championship to Cena, he also helped his rival get his 16th championship run in one night.
    • AJ won his first WWE Championship by low-blowing then-champion Dean Ambrose. His second reign with the title saw him being constantly low-blowed during his feud with Shinsuke Nakamura and then losing it to Daniel Bryan several months later thanks to another low-blow. Even though he was a face at the time, even his biggest fans admitted that he had it coming.
  • Legacy Character: He was the third Mr. Olympia.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: In the Fatal Four Way Ladder Match at Hardcore Justice 2012, AJ let Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle beat the piss out of Christopher Daniels and then came in at the last moment to get up the ladder and win the match.
  • Light Is Good
    • As a face, A.J. goes to the ring with a pure white outfit surrounded by a shower of sparks with an entrance video that's red with a white background.
    • He seems to recognize this. He's always had an affinity for blue, and he tends to wear dark blueas a heel, and light blue as a face.
  • Lightning Bruiser: A guy as acrobatic as him should not be able to pick up Samoa Joe or Abyss, or be able to casually stand up while caught in a jujigatame. Hell, AJ Styles has snatched Low Ki out of mid air, while Low Ki was in the middle of a phoenix splash!
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He's known for his "soccer mom" hairstyle in his WWE run. Keep in mind that he was already pushing forty when he made his debut in the company.
  • Made of Iron: He's been dropped on his head a disturbing amount of times during his TNA tenure but still moves around well and seems to have not suffered long term mental damage from it.
  • Masked Luchador: Mr. Olympia.
  • The Mentor: To Seth Delay in NWA Wildside and Jimmy Rave in Ring of Honor.
  • Mr. Fanservice: So he may wear his wedding ring around his neck but that doesn't stop him from getting a huge pop for showing off his bare chest and abs.
  • Mythology Gag: Currently refers to SmackDown Live as "The House That AJ Styles Built!", a distinction that was originally TNA's.
  • Nice Guy: Outside of Kayfabe you'll never hear him say anything negative about anyone. On the contrary, he's so modest that he tends to put over his intended opponent by praising him.
  • Noble Demon: Even at his worst, he still has some scruples he's unwilling to reconsider, such as mostly facing off againat his opponents squarely and not actively calling his stablemates to cheat on his behalf.
  • Oblivious to Love: A non romantic example was with Paul London, who considered AJ to be his best buddy and didn't like him hanging out with other people. In real life he reportedly is like this, not noticing many women actually into him, according to Jeremy Borash.
  • Older Hero Versus Younger Villain: His feud against Kevin Owens, Baron Corbin, Jinder Mahal, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe and Daniel Bryan.
  • Older Than They Look: He's pushing 40 and nearing his planned retirement age of 42, yet doesn't look — nor move — anywhere near that old or finished.
  • Out of Focus: Noticeably since his 2016-2017 push and subsequent championship reign, where he was basically The Hero for WWE Smackdown. Rumor has it that this was at Styles' own request, as the requirements and commitments that come with being a main-event champion made for a hectic and extremely taxing schedule for anyone, let alone a guy pushing 40 with a wife and several young kids.
  • Parental Substitute: He had first Christian Cage (though more of a big-brother type) and then Ric Flair as his in TNA.
  • Perky Female Minion: Jade Chung, after she left the Embassy, as Styles was still fighting it and occasionally doing so alongside Roderick Strong.
  • Pet the Dog
    • He may be a smarmy arrogant showboat as a heel but he is loyal to Ric Flair, and his company, and the fellow members of Fortune.
    • Even as a heel he is portrayed as a consummate family man; he got injured once making sure his kid was alright. This gave the Claire Lynch storyline extra punch since his reputation was so sterling.
    • His lone-wolf darkhorse gimmick, which came partially as a result of said Claire Lynch, was eventually explained that since the rest of TNA didn't care about all he'd been through, he decided to focus only on winning matches and making money for himself…and his family.
  • Poor Communication Kills: A non-kayfabe example; in the year since leaving TNA, there have been several instances of this regarding the execution of the Styles Clash, where whether through negligence or clumsiness on AJ's part or flawed positioning on his opponent's part (the latter more frequently than the former), guys have been taking the move awkwardly headfirst, at times resulting in injury. Fortunately this got ironed out by 2015, however.
  • Popularity Power: Regardless of whether he's a Face or a Heel, A.J.'s such an awesome wrestler that he will always get the loudest pop. Even applies in WWE. His shirt sold out within less than an hour of his debut and his new entrance theme cracked iTunes' top 100 chart within a day of being uploaded.
    • A.J. Styles became a star totally without Vince McMahon's involvement and spent most of his career as the torchbearer of a company WWE don’t even admit exists. If literally anyone else in that situation signed with WWE, they would be a perennial Jobber buried deep in the midcard. Styles was put in a main event slot immediately, held the championship for over a year and pinned John Cena clean, he’s that big of a draw.
  • Power Stable
    • Christian's Coalition, The Angle Alliance, The TNA Frontline, Fourtune (later Fortune, when keeping it down to four members proved too difficult).
    • The Threat in Independent Wrestling Revolution.
    • A hanger on to Generation Next in Ring of Honor. He wrestled the rest of them several times but was still seen as a dependable ally since he was feuding with Prince Nana's Embassy.
    • Fortune would be absorbed into Immortal for a time (because TNA loved giant stables) and AJ was also one of the many involved with TNA's "Sports Entertainment Xtreme".
    • With Bullet Club in New Japan.
  • Power Trio:
    • Amazing Phenomenon with Amazing Red and Alexis Laree.
    • Also part of Christian's Coalition with Christian Cage and Tomko, as well as Angle's Alliance when Kurt Angle stole Christian's spot.
    • Since his return to the indies and entering New Japan, he's proven to have some incredible chemistry with fellow Bullet Club members The Young Bucks.
    • Despite being kicked out of Bullet Club in New Japan, they remained close enough that Karl Anderson and Luke "Doc" Gallows' first course of action upon following him into WWE was to attack his enemies and reunite with him as The Club, their trio later becoming known as The OC.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: It's customary for him to be announced as "The Phenomenal... A! J! Styles!"
  • Real Men Love Jesus: His status as a devout Christian is a cornerstone of his face persona and doesn't stop him from beating the hell out of his opponents.
  • Real Men Wear Pink: The acrobatic skills that became AJ Styles's signature? Came from helping his wife out in competitive cheerleading. He was also TNA's flagbearer for breast cancer awareness, often having some pink design included in his attire at many Bound for Glory events.
  • Recycled Soundtrack: Almost happened. According to Road Dogg on Table For 3, AJ's WWE theme song "Phenomenal" was recorded for James Storm. Storm however, left NXT before he could use it.
  • Red Baron: "The Phenomenal One", "The (New) Face That Runs the Place", formerly "Mr. TNA"
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni in most cases, he even wears blue usually. However, he's the red oni when paired with Amazing Red, as backwards as that may seem.
  • Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?: He likes to remind people that he #BeatUpJohnCena, and commentators point out how, given Cena's standing in WWE, it's an accomplishment akin to winning a world title.
  • The Rival:
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Once the truth of what he and Dixie Carter were really up to came out, he proceeded to do this to Christopher Daniels and Kazarian.
  • Sacrificial Lion: In the Fortune vs. Immortal feud, A.J. had finally regained his chutzpah, turned face and was bringing the fight to Immortal with a vengeance... until Bully Ray superbombed him through a table which paralyzed A.J. Considering A.J. was Fortune's leader, the group was looking rough until a certain individual decided to return.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He did not leave TNA on good terms, in fact he describes his departure as "the best move of my entire career". Harsh words from the man who was seen by many as the face and outstanding talent of the company.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: One of the few good things to come of his 2010 heel run; if you're hanging around the Nature Boy, you'd better keep up in the wardrobe department.
  • Signature Move: The Pelé Kick, which became a meme thanks to Don West's overacting. Any other instance of the move being used in the USA and even many back flip kicks that only superficially resemble the one AJ does, tend to be called "Pelé". Equally known for his flipping body press over the top rope to the outside. Part of what put TNA on the map were video clips of AJ doing what was previously a rarely seen move almost weekly. Equally impressive but less known is his Fosbury Flop. Another signature move he started using after his character and look became more rugged is a combo called the Phenomenal Blitz (two punches followed by a shoot kick followed by a backfist followed by a lariat). Some other moves he is known for are a Springboard Forearm (which later became a finisher in WWE as the Phenomenal Forearm), Cliffhanger (Crucifix hold dropped into a DTT), Phenomenon (Spring Board Moonsault into an inverted DDT), Starmaker (High-angle belly-to-back Suplex) reverse frankensteiner, inverted stf, Rack Bomb (Backbreaker rack dropped into a powerbomb) the Stylin' Crab, Shooting Styles Press (top rope to outside), Sweet Styling Music, Styles Suplex Special (German followed by a belly-to-back wheelbarrow facebuster)...
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Dean Ambrose, who compared their relationship to that of Peter Griffin and the Giant Chicken.
  • Smug Super: AJ's heel persona in both WWE and in NJPW is an arrogant, cocky, and conceited asshole whose ego is only matched by his amazing levels of skill and talent.
  • Sore Loser: As shown by Up, Up, Down, Down, whenever he plays video games, he doesn't take a loss very well. A notable case is during the locker room's yearly Madden tournament (specifically the Madden 17 finals) when he had to face Seth Rollins. He got so fed up by Rollins curb-stomping himnote  that he ended up rage-quitting before the game is over. One story shared by Samoa Joe involved both of them finding a Tekken 3 machine and Joe winning repeatedly because AJ refused to stop playing until he won.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: He was brought in to shut up Drew Gulak's Campaign For A Better Combat Zone.
  • Sweet Home Alabama: Though in Styles' case is more like "Georgia on My Mind" since he's from Georgia, he's a proud southerner, possesses a fairly thick accent, and is usually portrayed as a heroic figure; one of Eric Bischoff's Kick the Dog moments was him calling A.J. an inbred hillbilly redneck.
  • Tag Team
    • He's won NWA World Tag Team Championships with Jerry Lynn, Abyss, and Christopher Daniels.
    • He's also won TNA World Tag Team Championships with Tomko and Kurt Angle. While he and Tomko were for a while the longest-reigning champions, his reign with Angle is among the shortest, and so was their team.
    • The Future with Jorge Estrada in NWA Wildside.
    • Air Raid with Air Paris in WCW.
    • He's captured WWE Raw Tag Team Championships with his "bodyguard" Omos.
  • Take That!: Gave one to Batista when he called A.J. a Spot Monkey and not a real wrestler. A.J. said in return, "I think it's funny that a guy who takes a bump and tears his back tells me that I don't know how to wrestle."
  • Take This Job and Shove It: To TNA, in storyline and in Real Life. Unlike CM Punk's departure from the WWE in 2014, absolutely no TNA fan, current and former, blames AJ for leaving — if anything, they were honestly wondering why he hadn't left sooner. AJ was a company man who did everything the promotion asked of him, a promotion that, in spite of his talent, his popularity, his tremendous loyalty, his being their very first contracted wrestler, and the fairly nice payload they invested into him in future contracts, failed to creatively prioritize him as their top babyface. The Hogan/Bischoff era is what would finally wear him down, as he and the other loyal, homegrown talent of TNA were constantly shunted aside for has-beens and WWE rejects. These days, AJ considers leaving TNA to be "the best move of [his] career".
  • The Teetotaler: He's much less obnoxious about it than, say, his Smug Straight Edge rival CM Punk, but AJ Styles has faced pressure to drink in a few angles. The first problem with the Claire Lynch story is that she described AJ as suddenly getting drunk enough to impregnate her. Turns out he was only drinking pop, which she spiked (and she was not impregnated).
  • Terrible Trio: Despite being semi regular participants in TNA main events, AJ Styles, Christian Cage and Tyson Tomko were presented as comedy acts more often than not in backstage skits. This helped contribute to the stable's popularity.
  • Tournament Arc
    • TNA held a tournament to determine who would be the NWA World Tag Team Champions in 2002, which AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn won.
    • In 2004 he beat CM Punk in the finals to determine Ring of Honor's first Pure Wrestling Champion then went on to beat Colt Cabana to win the International Wrestling Cartel Super Indy Showdown then went on to win IWA Mid-south's Ted Petty Invitational, outlasting Bryan Danielson and Samoa Joe in the finals.
    • Then there was AAA's Torneo de Atomicos where he teamed with Samoa Joe, Low Ki... and Homicide.
    • One he didn't participate in, the "Who Will Face AJ Styles Tournament" of Winnipeg Manitoba held by Premier Championship Wrestling during 2006.
    • In 2009, both AJ Styles and Sting won TNA's No Surrender Main Event Qualifying Tournament (not as a team, mind you)
    • He won TNA's 2013 Bound For Glory Series, little did we know that would be the beginning of the end of his run there.
    • He won the Intercontinental Championship in 2020 by defeating nemesis Daniel Bryan in the finals for the vacant title.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: Bullet Club, hands down. Even through the entire Darker and Edgier second phase of his career, AJ could easily have stayed a babyface were it not for the influence of Bullet Club. This especially applies to two of its key members, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.
    • The character shift began with his final year in TNA, basically all of 2013, in which he seemed to be a Wild Card focused only on winning to take care of his family before ultimately becoming the go-to guy in a crisis yet again only to be chased out by Dixie Carter's villainous ownership. When he went back to Ring of Honor after leaving TNA at the start of 2014, he was still very much a celebrated face, until he suddenly turned up in NJPW as a heel by joining Bullet Club and effectively becoming its co-leader with Anderson. In fact, during his tenure there, Bullet Club seemed to follow his heroic example in the United States and Anderson's very much heelish bent in NJPW.
    • After The Elite got him kicked out of The Club in Japan, he was allowed a heroic exit from both NJPW and ROH and debuted in WWE to an absolute hero's welcome in 2016, until Gallows and Anderson came in and started interfering during his feud with Roman Reigns, even attacking Reigns' cousins The Usos first in order to provoke them into backing him up. Everyone except Styles acted like a heel in the ensuing six-man blood feud, and during the final match of that feud he finally hit his breaking point, destroying The Usos with steel chairs before Reigns speared him and beat him, acting very erratically in the fallout the following night to the point even The Club seemed to brush him off, and finally setting up John Cena for a three-on-one mugging the following night. It took nine months split away from Gallows and Anderson via the WWE draft for him to finally go back to being a babyface after WrestleMania 33 in 2017.
    • And after two years as a top-level babyface, he had yet another heel turn driven by the influence of The Club in 2019. This one especially stands out, since he'd been enjoying a hitherto Friendly Rivalry with Ricochet until Gallows and Anderson, in an attempt to turn his questioning of their complacent mentality over the past couple of years at the time back onto him, started bad-mouthing Ricochet to AJ, saying he'd been insulting him behind AJ's back and thought he was better than him. This led to AJ snapping, challenging Ricochet to a title match and letting his friends help him beat down his opponent once the match was over, leading to the three rebranding themselves as The OC. This time the trope even passes forward, as the three of them may have indirectly played this role with Finn Bálor later that year at SummerSlam, catching him in his locker room before the show and offering to help against "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt. While he didn't accept the offer that night, he also never brushed it off, and The Fiend destroyed him so thoroughly he only returned two months later... on the now-televised NXT, very quickly turning heel himself and hearkening back to his own foundational Bullet Club roots. Finn even set up his first TakeOver feud as a heel by attacking Matt Riddle as he opposed The OC and trading Club signals with Styles during the night The OC raided NXT as part of the build to Survivor Series.
  • True Companions: Fortune seemed to be this in TNA until all the betrayals happened, but in hindsight his camaraderie with NJPW's Bullet Club is arguably much stronger. Of course, he then got kicked out after giving his notice and leaving the company, though even then most of The Club would affirm that they were still friends of AJ. Particularly, Anderson and Gallows quickly moved to reestablish ties with him once they followed him to WWE, and Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga's "Firing Squad" was partly motivated by The Elite's troubled redirection of Bullet Club after taking him out, to the point of retroactively claiming Styles and Bálor were still BC loyal whereas The Elite had long stopped being Bullet Club even before The Elite formally gave up the name.
  • Undying Loyalty: AJ was one of the few constants in the ever changing TNA. Was, because as of December 2013, he's no longer with the company. His leaving was taken as a sign by many fans that TNA was on death's door.
  • Ur-Example: He is the first ever Grand Slam Champion in TNA.
  • Versus Title
  • Villain Song: His NJPW Bullet Club theme, "Styles Clash".
  • Villainous Friendship: With his fellow Bullet Club members. Gallows and Anderson are the most prominent examples, (and ironically they were responsible for both his Face–Heel Turns at WWE) but Finn Bálor is another example — at SummerSlam 2019, AJ gave him a seemingly genuine offer of assistance in his match against Bray Wyatt later that night, and he seemed to remember this following his own Face–Heel Turn months later, attacking one of AJ's opponents during The OC's one-time raid of NXT and trading Bullet Club gestures with AJ.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction: In TLC 2016 Styles split a huge hole in the back of his pants during TLC match against Dean Ambrose.
  • We Used to Be Friends:
    • As said, Jeff G. Bailey was originally AJ's manager and legal consultant
    • In Korea and Australia, Gail Kim was his road buddy and tag team partner. In TNA, she was a thorn in his side that prevented him and Daniels from defeating America's Most Wanted until they had Sirelda remove it. In Ring of Honor, AJ was on fairly good terms with Homicide, who helped AJ over his student Dan Maff. In TNA, Homicide was part of LAX and had little time for gringos from Georgia.
    • The Homicide case lead up to the two of them having a "Respect" match in the International Wrestling Cartel, where the loser would be forced to admit he respected the other.
    • Roderick Strong was an ally or at least a respected coworker as part of Generation Next, but then became part of The Decade, whose mission statement was basically a personal assault on wrestlers who left Ring of Honor for larger companies.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Gave one to Jeff Hardy after his return over Jeff's showing up at a main event match drugged out.
  • Wham Episode:
    • His departure from TNA served as one for the company and its fans, as it served as a large indication as to how bad TNA was doing if their most loyal performer was leaving. When people found out Jeff Jarrett was leaving too not long afterwards, that's when fans started counting the days.
    • His debut in WWE in Royal Rumble 2016.
    • Beating John Cena absolutely cleanly at SummerSlam 2016.
    • Becoming WWE World Champion at Backlash 2016.
    • Becoming a WWE Grand Slam Champion at WrestleMania 37.
  • Wild Card: For the 2016 Royal Rumble. The number of wrestlers on the active roster, let alone in the actual match, that have wrestled with or against AJ before can be counted on one hand.
  • Worthy Opponent:
    • Generation Next in Ring of Honor, especially Matt Sydal and Austin Aries. Cedric Alexander in Premiere Wrestling Xperience after PWX: Phenomenal Debut, where they met in the main event.
    • Shinsuke Nakamura after their Wrestle Kingdom match, emphasized by their fist pump after his loss.
    • Finn Bálor after their match at TLC 2017, punctuated by a Too Sweet after the match.
    • He started to treat Kofi Kingston in 2019 as such, especially seeing how much punishment Kofi took during their gautlet match in the 12th February episode of SmackDown. Having already beaten three other superstars earlier, AJ told a clearly tired Kofi that he didn't have to continue and he had already proven himself but Kofi refused to back down and demanded AJ to fight him. In the next few weeks, AJ continue to show respect for Kofi, congratulating him for finally receiving a World Championship opportunity and was disgusted when Vince McMahon took said title away from him.

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