Arn Anderson reveals John Cena ‘NEVER’ wanted AJ Styles in WWE
Photo Credit: WWE
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Everybody knows AJ Styles is one of the best wrestler in the world and there’s no doubt on his accomplishments. When AJ Styles debuts on Royal Rumble, we still remember the crowd roar after they saw ‘I am Phenomenal’ in the titantron. Even Vince McMahon have to change his mind after watching the crowd reaction about AJ Styles.
WWE Signed him for NXT but because of the reaction he directly debuted on main roster.
Former WWE producer and current AEW manager Arn Anderson reveals on his ARN podcast, that John Cena felt that WWE did not need AJ Styles in WWE and they needed their own stars to build in NXT.
Anderson recalled a time when Cena was running out of opponents and that time TNA (now known as IMPACT Wrestling) was doing pretty well. Anderson pitched an idea of bringing TNA wrestlers like AJ Styles, Bobby Roode and James Storm into WWE, so Cena could get a easier schedule and many new opponents. But Cena reacted very differently and he chose NXT talent instead of TNA guys.
Below is the portion of his podcast:
“I was pleasantly surprised. I pushed for AJ. There was a point in time when Cena had run out of opponents. I was on that whole ride with John for all those years, over a decade I should imagine. I was sitting there and I was talking to him, and it was when TNA was doing well.”
“I remember I was sitting there with Cena one afternoon. I was sitting backstage at a table. I said, ‘You know John, it would really beef up the company if we would go out and steal Bobby Roode, AJ Styles, and The Cowboy — James Storm. If we just brought those three guys in, it would give you a whole plethora of new opponents. It would give a lot of guys new opponents.’ That’s just those three guys, and I singled them out because of their work and their psychology. I knew I could have been a fit helping them, and they would catch right on and they would be a very, very, good fit. John said, ‘Hey, we got NXT, we make our own stars.’ I am sure he was just transferring Vince’s psychology to me when he said that. I knew what those guys could do in a match for John if you gave them 6 to 9 months to come in and get over.”
We think that Cena changed his mind after working with Styles in WWE.
You can listen the entire podcast below:
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