WWE Star AJ Styles Names His Favorite Opponents To Share The Ring With

"The Phenomenal" AJ Styles has wrestled virtually every big name there is to wrestle during his near 30 year career. He has been a main event star in WWE, TNA, Ring of Honor, and New Japan Pro Wrestling, while also having an extensive catalogue of major independent matches, meaning that if a fan named any random wrestler from the past 30 years, there's a good chance Styles has crossed paths with them at least once. During a recent appearance on the "No-Contest Wrestling" podcast, Styles was asked about his favorite opponents, as well as the performers who he felt most comfortable being in the ring with, both from a quality and safety perspective.

"The first name that pops up is Finn Balor, like when I get in the ring with him, and I've been in the ring with him several times, but here recently as a tag team and it's just like 'man this is going to be so easy.' Being in the ring with this guy, I don't have to worry about anything, and it's just like that. This is just one of the guys, and there's several of those guys. Jimmy and Jey Uso, you don't have to worry about those guys, like we know we're going to have a banger you know? Like there's a couple of guys, like I don't know John [Cena] and I have so many great matches, I really don't. I'm being honest because we're nothing alike, but we have this timing together in the ring that I've had with very few guys."

Styles went on to say that he was extremely proud of the match he had with Finn Balor at the 2017 Extreme Rules pay-per-view, not just because he felt like it was great match with someone he had never wrestled up until that point, but that WWE trusted him with stepping in on short notice as Bray Wyatt was meant to be Balor's opponent. Styles would also name Dean Ambrose, now Jon Moxley in AEW, as another man he loved to work with, citing their feud over the WWE Championship in 2016 as one of his favorites from his early WWE career.

Given how long he has been in the business, it's only natural that Styles has developed some strong friendships with a number of wrestlers. With those friendships comes an extra level of trust as Styles is able to go the extra mile as he knows he is in safe hands no matter what he or his opponent does in the ring, leading to Styles namedropping two of his greatest rivals from his TNA days, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels.

"When you get in there with your best friends, now they're allowed to hit you harder. Like when I'm in there with [Samoa] Joe man, just come at me dude, I'm going to let my body do whatever it's going to do when you hit me you know? I love working him because he looks more violent than he is. Christopher Daniels is another one of those guys, just amazing, and I can go on and on about so many guys that just like 'Oh my God dude, did we just have a five star match on accident?' Because it was just timing."

The most famous match between the three men, the Triple Threat match at the TNA Unbreakable pay-per-view in 2005, recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, which Daniels acknowledged in a recent post on social media. Styles, Joe, and Daniels have all been asked about the match separately over the years and how it constructed, but all three men have revealed that a lot of the bout was called in the ring, and that none of them ever thought that it would have the legacy that it's gone on to have.

Please credit "No-Contest Wrestling" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.