AJ Styles Praises AEW Star, Recalls An Incident With Billy Kidman In WCW
AJ Styles was recently back on his Twitch stream, and he talked about a number of topics including the recent match between "Hangman" Adam Page and Frankie Kazarian on Dynamite. Kazarian and Styles are no strangers to one another, as they both spent several years in TNA and worked many matches together. Styles went on to say that he's not at all surprised to see such an incredible match from Kazarian, but he's shocked that he seems to be better than ever at this stage in his career.
"What a match," Styles said. "I don't know how Kaz is doing this stuff, man. This guy is in unbelievable shape. He's so good, he's great! I'm not at all surprised to see him put on that type of performance. He's unbelievable."
In talking about his TNA colleagues, Style revealed that he still keeps in regular contact with Christian, and shared a backstage story from their time in TNA to highlight how much respect he has for Christian.
"I still get to see Christian at the WWE shows, which is great," Styles said. "That guy is so awesome. I'll tell you guys a story from way back when, from when the Christian Coalition came to TNA. There was a meeting that we had that was just amongst talent. There were some really weird things happening at the time, but they were like, 'If anyone wants to leave, now's the time,' and I was sitting there and immediately looked to see what Christian was going to do. I promise you, had he gotten up, I would have went with him.
"That's how frustrating everything was at the time," Styles revealed. "I told him that, too. I was like, 'Man, I was waiting to see what you were going to do.' There are very few people that I've ever gotten in the ring with that took charge like him. Total ring general. Christopher Daniels is another one of those. He was just on it, man – knew my moves, and his moves, and would call it on the fly. He's one of the best I've ever shared the ring with and I'm not afraid to admit that."
Styles was asked by a fan what the reason was that he initially quit performing the Shooting Styles Press, a shooting star press to the outside, and Styles revealed at first it was because Billy Kidman had a major problem with him using the move. That's actually where his use of the Spiral Tap came into play.
"I don't know if I've ever told you guys this, but I was in WCW if you guys didn't know that, and I did the Shooting Styles Press, which is like a gainer to the outside," Styles said. "Billy Kidman, who was working there, was like, 'What the heck!?' He even called me AJ Steals, which kind of pissed me off. But he was Kidman, so what could I do? I ended up testing out the Spiral Tap without ever hitting it on anyone because I wasn't sure how that would go.
"The higher-ups asked me if I still wanted to do [the Shooting Styles Press]," Styles added. "I was like, 'You know what? No, I'm just going to do something that he can't,' and that's when I came up with the Spiral Tap. That's why started doing it. Once you stop doing a move like that, though, your body just forgets how to do it. It just does."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please give a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.