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Where does AJ Styles rank all time?

7K views 93 replies 64 participants last post by  Mr.Amazing5441 
#1 ·
Won championchips in Roh,Tna,New japan and wwe. The 4 biggest organisations of this generation. Face of tna when tna was at its peak. One of very few gaijins to become iwgp champion.

Had one of the best first years in wwe history.

I would place him in the top 30. Might do down to top 15 once its all said and done. Next to Cena he,s the greatest wrestler of the past 15 years.
 
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#17 ·
Unfortunately for AJ, the "best all time" really comes down to WWE and WCW wrestlers, just because of how insanely popular those promotions were/are. No need to talk about ROH/TNA/NJPW/etc, they are legit promotions, just not on the same level. It's like hockey. Can a Russian hockey league player really crack the best all time list if they never played in the NHL? Not really, but they might place somewhere. As such, I voted top 20. From an in ring ability standpoint, he's great. And when they let him be a fun heel, he's wildly entertaining. It's too bad it took so long to get to WWE, because he would of been on the uppercard for years dazzling crowds.
 
#66 ·
Top 10 easily, he's been the best in the world to close to it for more than a decade. He's been NWA, TNA, WWE, and IWGP champion and is the pioneer of a revolution with the x division and it's emergence.

He is the single most important performer in wrestling since the attitude era when you look at overall longevity and consistency of greatness.
 
#77 · (Edited)
Do you know that wrestling didn't begin in 1984 and wrestling is not only in USA? There are more than 100 wrestlers above him, some of them are: Jim Londos, Lou Thesz, Frank Gotch, El Santo, Rikidozan, Antonio Inoki, Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, Riki Choshu, Bill Longson, Ed Don George, Earl Caddock, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Farmer Burns, Tom Jenkins, Tatsumi Fuinami, Mitsuharu Misawa, Joe Stecher, Earl McCready, Mil Mascaras, Blue Demon, El Solitario, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Verne Gagne, Bruno Sammartino, Nick Bockwinkel, Atlantis, Dick the Bruiser, The Crusher, Abdullah the Butcher, Terry Funk, Dory Funk Jr., Gene Kiniski, Perro Aguayo, El Canek, Dr. Wagner, Jack Brisco, Andre the Giant, Bert Assirati, The Destroyer, Red Berry, Freddie Blassie, Bruiser Brody, Stan Hansen, Bobo Brazil, El Canek, ***** Casas, Gorgeous George, Cavernario Galindo, Billy Graham, Karl Gotch, Gory Guerrero, Bret Hart, Danny Hodge, Don Leo Jonathan, Rayo de Jalisco, Ray Mendoza, Killer Kowalski, Jerry Lawler, Shinya Hashimoto, Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, John Cena, Stanislau Zbyszko, Kurt Angle, Triple H..........and some others
 
#13 ·
In ring I will go far and say top 3 or atleast top 5 and the fact that the biggest dream match at the moment is him vs Shawn Michaels says alot.

Overall I will say 15-25 like somebody here said.

I don't if he would be treated the same but imagine him coming 10 years earlier in the WWE.
would have been lost in the shuffle pal, aj didn't become truly great until he left tna imo
 
#28 ·
You can make an argument for hiom being high on the list or not on the list at all. IMO while he is great in the ring he leaves a lot to be desired on the other side of the equation. He worked "heel" in TNA and WWE and never drew heat so he isn't a good heel, he's always been a generic babyface who gets cheered for his ring work. He isn't a particularly good promo, but is passable enough that it isn't offensively bad. He has never been a big draw in any way. He was fourth or fifth at best for that while in New Japan, He isn't a major draw in WWE and in TNA despite him being their guy they brought in guys like Angle, Hogan, Nash, Hardy in their attempts to draw audiences. To me he is at the Chris Benoit level in terms of where he sits all time. A good solid hand that can work with anybody, but is never the guy or even in the running for the guy. So probably top 30 for me.
 
#54 · (Edited)
I'm surprised folks are ranking him so high tbh. I guess it depends on what you value more out of drawing ability, in ring work, roundedness, being a "sports entertainer", influence, legacy etc etc. But off the top of my head...

You have your obvious big draws like Hogan, Austin, Rock, Flair, Cena, Bruno, Andre

Then you have your tier 2 kinda guys who arent on Mt Rushmore but were big - Savage, Trips, Piper, Taker, Angle, Sting, Batista, Brock, Edge, Kane, Big Show, Jericho, DDP etc.

Then when it comes to in ring workers you've got Bret, Shawn, 3 of the four pillars (sorry Taue), Steamboat, Benoit, Dynamite Kid, Dean Malenko, Eddie, Owen, Akiyama, Nakamura etc.

Then you've got guys who had a major albeit short lived impact- Warrior and Goldberg

Then guys that were very well rounded and could have been a lot bigger - Razor Ramon, Jake Roberts, Rick Rude, Booker T, Scott Steiner etc.

Then if you look to major all time stars in Japan you've got Baba, Inoki, Rikidozan, Muta, Chono, Tanahashi, Hansen, Choshu, Onita etc etc.

Look towards the pre-Hulkamania days and the territories and theres Dusty, the Funks, Harley Race, Buddy Rogers, Bockwinkel, Lawler, Billy Graham, Kerry Von Erich etc etc.

Then even from more recent times theres Punk, Bryan, Omega, Okada, Naito etc.


As much as I like the guy, I think the competition is just way too stiff for him to be anywhere near the top of the list unless he is being judged solely on in ring work. There are quite a few guys that are in the same ballpark as him in in ring ability and an absolute fuck ton who had a bigger impact and/or were more well rounded.
 
#56 · (Edited)
AJ has made it to the top of every company he's been in and you're underselling his impact on the business. In a few years when you see the AJ generation inspired kids, you'll realize this. The fact he did as much as he did outside of the WWE with no genuine #2 says it all about his quality. Now that he's on the biggest stage with more eyes on him than ever and is one of the biggest stars in the company in the space of year. Hell he's the face of SD and his merch sells really well, he's the second or third in terms of merch sales for FT's, as a heel.
 
#76 ·
He's just another guy from the indies with a gimmick that's "I have great matches" he really offers nothing character wise and his promo's annoy the shit out of me. I would even say his in ring skill is overrated, his matches are like watching a video game. It's basically really flashy moves for the first half finisher spam for the second half. He's popular now, but the moment he retires they'll jump onto another "GOAT" just like they did after Bryan retired.
 
#79 ·
Top 100, maybe Top 50 at a push.

I love the guy but comparing him to wrestlers of the past he doesn't quite match up imo. Purely as an in ring performer he would be a possibility for top 20.

Anybody voting top 10 or 20 as a complete package is off their f*cking head and must be really young or an uber AJ mark.
 
#12 ·
Not even in the top 100. Maybe 500 at a stretch.

Kofi, Miz, The Hurricane, Dolph, Test, Farooq, Lashley, Eugene, so many more are higher than him. Even the likes of Disco Inferno and Tommy Dreamer.
They've made more money and have more of a name to the non-wrasslin demo. They're all bigger names than him and accomplished more. NOTHING outside WWE matters. Understand that.
 
#71 ·
:gtfo
 
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