AJ Styles Talks Being A Free Agent, Jeff Jarrett "Making Him," Leaving TNA, Contract Negotiations

Ed Boston from DTRTwrestling.com interviewed AJ Styles yesterday and discussed his faith, independent wrestling and being a free agent. You can watch the full interview above, here are some highlights:

Returning to independent wrestling:

The greatest thing about the independents is there's a lot of passion in that locker room, there's a lot of passion a lot of times with that promoter. They just have these expectations and these dreams that are so high that it's just a positive thing when you're there and it's fun to be a part of that.

Being a free agent again after 11 years with TNA:

At first it was a little awkward, it was a little weird, it was scary. But you know, seeing that the indy's are not dead, in fact they are very much alive. I've wrestled for Ring Of Honor which I don't call them... claim them as an independent but other then that I've wrestled two other shows that were independents but drew big crowds, and I think that's awesome. When your in front of big crowds you're able to get that extra boost of energy that you may not of had and your going to put on great matches, probably matches people didn't expect to see from that guy they considered the star.

Leaving TNA and his closest friends:

Well, I gotta tell ya man that's the hardest thing, because my best friends the guys I talk to on a regular basis, the guys that I trust with everything are still there. Samoa Joe, Frankie Kazarian, Christopher Daniels, they're still there and I miss them dearly.

Relying on prayer during contract negotiations:

There was a lot of prayer going on with negotiations, it was a big deal, my wife was definitely a prayer warrior. She was trying to figure this thing out. She may have been stressed more then I was. In the end I knew it was going to be alright no matter what happens.

Jeff Jarrett being responsible for his rise in TNA:

For him to actually make me the world heavyweight champion, to have me beat Jeff Jarrett for the world heavyweight title says what he thought of me. He basically made me the TNA guy by doing stuff like that. I've been known that ever since and I've gotta give credit to Jeff you know, because he's the one that labeled me that guy without actually saying it. He was able to make a guy and he made AJ Styles.

John Bass contributed to this article.