WWE News: Update On AJ Styles And Bullet Club Members Coming To WWE, TNA Offered Huge Money To Sign Them
We all know by now that WWE is attempting to bring in AJ Styles, Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson out of New Japan Pro Wrestling. AJ is being teased for the Royal Rumble, but it is also known that he is set for WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown this week. So he will have to debut at some point soon. Meanwhile, the others are set for WWE NXT by March.
However, this may not have happened if they took TNA Wrestling up on their offer to come in. TNA was attempting to sign a ton of talent for their Pop TV premiere earlier this month. They managed to sign Mike Bennett and Maria out of Ring of Honor, and more very well could be on the way from the independent scene. However, they were not able to sign many of the people they targeted. They targeted a lot of people, it seems.
Three such men contacted were AJ Styles, Doc Gallows, and Karl Anderson. The Bullet Club members were considering their options once their deals with NJPW came up. TNA felt they could sway them to come in by offering pretty big money to sign. In fact, according to Wrestling Inc., Anderson was offered a $200,000 deal to sign with TNA but turned it down for the WWE offer that came his way.
TNA was also willing to offer a similar deal to Gallows as well. AJ Styles never seemed to consider anything offered by TNA, even though they were said to have offered a relatively good contract. It was said recently that WWE offered AJ Styles a life-changing amount of money to come in. Many believe the only place he would have left NJPW for would be WWE.
WWE needs him as well, especially now. With the vast amount of injured talent, AJ Styles could be a huge help to the roster. On top of this, if he does a great job while he’s in a top position, and this could lead to it being a permanent spot for him. Imagine the matches he could have with some of WWE’s best talent once they are back. Daniel Bryan, John Cena, Cesaro, Randy Orton, and Seth Rollins could all give us great matches with Styles once they return to action. He could even work well with some guys still around, including Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Chris Jericho, Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens, Neville, or potentially the one we all want to see — Finn Balor.
Even if Styles just has top-tier matches with no titles involved, it would be fun to see since fans have wanted him to be with the company for so long. Styles is rumored to be part of the Royal Rumble, but it is uncertain when he will come out or how long he will stay in. A lot of WrestleMania matches can be made out of this match, so it would not be shocking if WWE had Styles start a program with someone through the Rumble match.
Many will be upset once Styles is eliminated from the match, so it would be good to give him a good 20 to 30 minutes of time in the match and have him go out near the end. This would set up a WrestleMania match quite well. We all know going in that he isn’t going to win, as there are others, such as Bray Wyatt, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, and Roman Reigns, who all make more sense than AJ Styles due to current storylines.
As for TNA and their efforts to sign Styles and other people out of NJPW, it looks very unlikely that they will manage to get anyone from Japan. The first reason is because they offer better money with a better track record for paying on time, and they also offer more money than what TNA is willing to give. There is a person on the TNA roster set for a major push that is only making $60,000. While this seems like a lot of money, it is nothing compared to what others are making, even down in WWE NXT.
AJ Styles most likely told his former Bullet Club brethren that it was not worth taking, regardless of the money. WWE most likely outbid any TNA offer as well.
[Image via ROH Wrestling]
