A.J. Styles Talks About Being Held Back in TNA, Keeping His Name in WWE

Current WWE Champion A.J. Styles recently spoke to ESPN.com about his upcoming match against Samoa Joe at SummerSlam.

On he and Samoa Joe being held down in TNA/Impact Wrestling:

“When I say ‘cockroach-infested’ that means, ‘Listen dude, we went through a lot of crap, we’ve worked in a lot of places to get to where we’re at, mainly with TNA.

“The guys that TNA didn’t want to push to the absolute tippity-top are also the guys in one of the biggest matches in SummerSlam for the WWE championship.”

On being able to keep the name "A.J. Styles" in WWE:

“When Triple H and I were talking, he said, ‘I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep your name.’ I said, ‘That’s fine, I’ll be any name you want me to be called, except I do have this huge A.J. tattoo on my side so that might be a problem.'

“I think it worked out for the best because we weren’t taken and being changed into something else. We were the same characters that they saw from different companies and that they were familiar with and people were already invested in. I think that was a good move by WWE.”