17 Wrestlers You Didn’t Know Worked In WWE-9

9. A.J. Styles

 

One of the faces of TNA for much of its existence (he was in their first pay-per-view match), the popular high flyer was actually under WCW contract when the company was bought by WWE. His contract and that of his tag team partner Air Paris were not picked up, though, so both went back to the independent scene, including their home promotion, NWA Wildside. With the deaths of WCW and ECW, new promotions tried to fill the void, with TNA stepping up to try to replace WCW and Ring of Honor trying to replace ECW. Styles quickly became one of the top stars in both companies, and caught the eye of WWE to a degree. He appeared on the B-shows like others before him and even got a few try-out dark matches. While impressive, he wasn’t what WWE was looking for at the time. Styles left TNA this year, claiming they attempted to cut his contracted money 40%, and WWE didn’t show much interest this time, either.