AJ Styles' Five Best Matches, Ranked

Over the past few years, we've seen a whole host of fan favorites hang up their boots after dedicating their bodies to the business. In AEW, both Sting and Bryan Danielson called time on their careers (Danielson has only retired from full-time action). The current President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Hiroshi Tanahashi, is reaching the tail end of his retirement tour and will be having his final match at NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 20 event on January 4, 2026, and in WWE, the biggest story of the year so far has been the John Cena's final year as a WWE Superstar, with his final match happening in mid-December.

Cena's next opponent will be "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles as they go one-on-one for the final time at the Crown Jewel Premium Live Event in Perth, Australia on October 11, a match that now has extra significance as it will not only be part of Cena's retirement tour, but it will be the beginning of Styles' final run as well. Styles recently announced in an interview with Tokyo Sports that he will also be retiring at some point in 2026, with no official end date in sight at the time of writing. The former WWE Champion does have hopes that he will be factored in to the plans for WrestleMania 42 in April, but his current contract with the company reportedly ends in February. However, given the star power of Styles, it's very likely that WWE will want to keep him around for a little longer just so he gets the send-off that he deserves.

Debuting in 1998 as Mr. Olympia, Styles has become one of the most important wrestlers of his generation. While initially being set back by the closure of WCW just a few months after becoming a full-time member of the roster, and the fact that he chose to turn down a WWE developmental contract in 2002 due to not wanting to move his family across the country, these moments would ultimately become a blessing in disguise as Styles would forge his own path as the most naturally gifted wrestler in the world to not wrestle for WWE. He is synonymous with TNA Wrestling and is probably the best wrestler to ever step foot in one of their rings, and his work for both Ring of Honor and NJPW cemented his legacy as one of the best in the world.

That legacy continued into WWE when he debuted in 2016, and despite initially fearing that no one would care about him, Styles has had a Hall of Fame career in WWE alone, winning almost everything there is to win. Throughout his near 28 year career, Styles has been involved in some of the best matches of all time, and limiting this list down to five matches has been a real challenge considering that there are so many to choose from. Nevertheless, here are our picks for the five greatest matches in the illustrious career of "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles.

Many people will say that New Japan Pro Wrestling's rise in popularity as an international brand kicked off with the first match between Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11. While that match is iconic and extremely important in the story of NJPW's golden age of the 2010s, there is an argument to be made that the first real international breakthrough NJPW had as a company that could legitimately make the claim of being the best company in the world happened one year earlier.

By January 2016, AJ Styles had proved to the entire world that he could essentially walk into any company he wanted and be the best wrestler on the roster. There were some doubts surrounding Styles following his exit from TNA in 2014, and NJPW already had a main event scene loaded with world class talent, but Styles lived up to his nickname of being "The Phenomenal One," and despite only being a member of the roster for less than two years, he was the foreign ace of the company as the leader of Bullet Club and a two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

His dance partner for Wrestle Kingdom 10 was the IWGP Intercontinental Champion, the "King of Strong Style," Shinsuke Nakamura, who at the time was one of the biggest stars in the entire world. WWE fans will know Nakamura for being someone that had a lot of buzz around him but primarily sits on the sidelines these days, but back in 2016 he was seen as a God by the Japanese fans. Nakamura had made the IWGP Intercontinental Championship as important as the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and when he issued an open challenge to the NJPW roster for Wrestle Kingdom 10, Styles was the one to answer the call, setting up a dream match for the ages.

If you can recall the excitement levels surrounding Styles and Nakamura's WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 34, it's because of this match. Both men were at the peak of their powers, the charisma of Nakamura and the sheer brilliance of Styles is amplified by the Tokyo crowd hanging on their every move. For nearly 25 minutes, Styles and Nakamura showed the world why NJPW was worth watching as they traded counter for counter, strike for strike, and move for move in a match that is still seen as one of the best in NJPW history. Nakamura might have left the Tokyo Dome with the win and the title, but both men were winners on this night due to their exceptional performances.

As for the argument of NJPW's international breakthrough happening because of this match, everyone became aware of how good Styles and Nakamura were thanks to WWE signing both men in the days following Wrestle Kingdom 10. They might not have been able to recreate the magic at WrestleMania 34, but they will always have the Tokyo Dome on that famous night in January 2016.

Just over a year after Styles had rocked the Tokyo Dome with Nakamura, he had another one of his career best performances with a man no one ever thought he had a chance of beating when he signed for WWE in 2016. WWE wasn't always kind to wrestlers who had gotten over in other promotions. Whether that was something to do with Vince McMahon is up for debate, but there have only ever been a select few wrestlers who have made the jump from places like WCW, ECW, TNA, or any non-English speaking promotion and found any real success. With that said, AJ Styles is one of those select few.

From his huge ovation during his debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, to being the first real test for Roman Reigns as the WWE Champion following WrestleMania 32, Styles was making a point that WWE had to use him well, and put him in big match situations regardless of the fact that people still primarily associated him with both TNA and NJPW. So when he confronted John Cena in the summer of 2016, some fans feared that he would have his moment in the sun with the face of WWE, lose, and slip down the card almost immediately. However, not only did Styles make good on his word of beating up John Cena, but he defeated the "Leader of the Cenation" at both Money in the Bank and SummerSlam, the latter of those two victories being surprisingly clean.

Throughout the final third of 2016, Styles had defeated Dean Ambrose to become WWE Champion and defended the title against any and all comers, but as 2017 arrived, Cena had his eye on making history. At the time, Cena was sitting on 15 WWE World Championships and wanted to match the long-standing record of 16 triumphs that Ric Flair had held for decades. The third match of their trilogy was set for the 2017 Royal Rumble pay-per-view, and even though some fans saw Cena's record-equalling victory as a forgone conclusion, Styles had his number and knew how to get the better of Cena, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

It takes a lot of talent to keep the eyes of the fans fixed solely on the ring in the age of social media and high spots, but Cena and Styles had the San Antonio crowd glued to their every move. Throughout the 24 minute journey that Cena and Styles took everyone on, not once did they leave the ring. Everything happened in between the ropes and it was just exciting, if not more, than the Royal Rumble match that immediately followed it. Cena equalled Flair's record on this night, but Styles capped off one of the greatest individual years in WWE history with another all-time great performance in an all-time great match. Had this one not gone down as well, the upcoming match at Crown Jewel might not be happening.

Some people might have forgotten just how quickly Styles integrated himself into the main event scene of NJPW, so here's a quick reminder.

He debuted at the end of Invasion Attack in April 2014, positioning himself as the new leader of Bullet Club following the departure of Prince "Finn Balor" Devitt earlier that night, and attacking then IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada in the process. A month later, he wrestled his first match as an official member of the NJPW roster (he'd appeared in the past as part of TNA's working agreement with NJPW), and beat Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This then took him into the 2014 G1 Climax tournament as the champion, making him a marked man, with everyone in his block knowing that a victory over Styles would give themselves a good chance of getting a title shot in the future.

The G1 Climax tournament is one of the most physically demanding competitions in all of wrestling, and by the time Styles crossed paths with Minoru Suzuki, he was halfway through his campaign and had some mixed results. Both Okada and Tetsuya Naito had gotten the better of the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, but with victories over Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, and Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Styles was looking to enter the second half of the tournament with a vengeance and finish as high as possible. As for Suzuki, he was already at a phase in his career where he was more concerned about beating the soul out of people instead of winning championships, but he was on a three match winning streak and didn't want to make it easy for Styles.

What followed was a match that many consider to be the best of the tournament, and was even voted as the 2014 Match of the Year by the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The thing that made the match so great was the clash of styles (no pun intended). Suzuki's years of being a pioneer in the world of Mixed Martial Arts meant that he had mastered the technical game on the ground, and when wrestling someone like Styles who was more than comfortable on the ropes, this was a vital part of his game plan that was the real story of the match. Suzuki would set traps and lock Styles in holds that made it seem like there was no way out for the champion, and yet, Styles would always find a solution, much to the joy of the Korakuen Hall crowd.

Overall, Styles make fights, and AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki was a clash that was unlike anything NJPW had seen for a very long time. An out of this world athlete taking on one of the greatest technicians of all time and it was wonderful. While we've already mentioned his match with Shinsuke Nakamura in 2016, this bout with Minoru Suzuki is AJ with a point to prove and a fight to win.

The match most people associate with AJ Styles, and the match that most people think of when TNA is ever brought up in conversation.

TNA is probably in the best place it has ever been at the time of writing. They have a working relationship with WWE that is giving them more exposure than ever, their Slammiversary pay-per-view in July 2025 broke the company's all-time attendance record, and it feels as if they are one good TV deal away from making the wrestling war between WWE and AEW a lot more interesting. With that said, 2005 is when TNA were truly firing on all cylinders, and the X-Division is a major part of that.

While the main event scene around this time could be described as Jeff Jarrett and any former WWE, WCW, or ECW wrestlers that TNA could throw money at, it was the X-Division that kept people coming back for more. Styles was the jewel in the crown of the X-Division, but having the likes of Frankie Kazarian, Chris Sabin, Petey Williams, Alex Shelley, Sonjay Dutt, Jay Lethal, Jerry Lynn, and Low Ki as a supporting cast made the division must-see. However, there were two men that Styles had more chemistry with than anyone else; Christopher Daniels, and Samoa Joe.

Leading into Unbreakable, Styles and Daniels had been fighting over the TNA X-Division Championship for months with Styles as the fan favorite and Daniels as the cowardly heel. Joe didn't enter the company until Slammiversary in June, but made an immediate impact by going on an undefeated streak that carried him all the way to a Super X Cup victory in August. Daniels interfering in the Super X Cup final between Joe and Styles led to the TNA X-Division Championship match at Unbreakable a three way, and just like that, the legend was born.

When Daniels enters the match, he looks down at the camera and says "This will be my finest hour," and sure enough, it was one of the finest hours Joe, Styles, and Daniels would have in their entire careers. The fact that all three men have gone on the record to say that a lot of it was called on the fly makes it even more impressive as each one of them spent nearly 25 minutes trying to top each other in the name of becoming TNA X-Division Champion, and to make it sweeter, TNA gave them the chance to do so in the main event.

You know a match is special when it has its own nickname that everyone will recognize. People will say "The Unbreakable Three Way" and you would know exactly what match they are talking about. It's TNA's X-Division at its absolute best, and there is a reason why many fans see it as the greatest match in company history, but there is one more match that we think just pips this one to the post.

This is the greatest individual performance of AJ Styles' career and it's not even close.

In the weeks and months that followed the legendary three way match at Unbreakable, Styles and Daniels would form something of an alliance out of respect for each other and their abilities, while also identifying one big problem the X-Division had; Samoa Joe. "The Samoan Submission Machine" ran through the division with a lack of respect that made him a unstoppable monster that almost united the entire division against him. There was always an unwritten code in the X-Division, but Joe could care less about the code, and when he put Daniels on the shelf with a concussion, there was only one man who could stop Joe.

Entering the match with the blood of Daniels on his trademark towel, Joe walks into this match as the absolute best and most violent version of himself. He had already dominated ROH in the years leading up to his TNA debut, but the 2005 version of Samoa Joe has gone down in history as one of the greatest versions of a wrestler in history. Joe had the best match in IWA-Mid South history with Necro Butcher, arguably the greatest match in ROH history against Kenta Kobashi, and was part of the aforementioned three way match at Unbreakable, what many consider to be the best match in TNA history. He was an unstoppable killing machine that just so happened to be really good at wrestling, but he was against "Mr. TNA."

While Styles has succeeded as a heel, he is at his best when he is the underdog babyface, and in this bout, he is taken into the deepest waters to fight the biggest of sharks and not only holds his own, but gets you to believe that he's actually going to slay the beast. Styles bumps for Joe as if his life depends on it, while Joe will sell for Styles' comeback like he genuinely might have gone too far with the whole disrespecting the X-Division deal. The guttural roar from Styles when he's gaining some momentum will have you ripping your shirt off all these years later, Styles channels something truly special in this match that he could only ever achieve by playing the role of someone who will literally have to bend the laws of physics at times to stay in the fight.

All of this makes the ending feel so much more powerful. Joe squeezing the life out of Styles to the point where even the man the X-Division was built around couldn't defend the division from the force of nature that was the 2005 version of "The Samoan Submission Machine." This match essential viewing when it comes to the careers of AJ Styles and Samoa Joe, the history of TNA, and American wrestling as a whole. On a December night in 2005, AJ Styles had the greatest match of his illustrious career.