Stars of the Past: AJ Styles

I chose to go a little differently picking a talent that a lot of fans might not know actually worked for Ring of Honor at one point. Current WWE Champion AJ Styles would start with Ring of Honor in April at the companies third event called Night of Appreciation. For historical purposes AJ would face off with Christopher Daniels at the Road to the Title event in June 2002 which shows how long these two actually fought each other. Though there is no doubt that AJ Styles had a longer legacy in Impact Wrestling accomplished more in that company then just about anyone, but his first few years were spent helping build not just Impact Wrestling, but also Ring of Honor. 

From the start of his run in Ring of Honor they had AJ Styles as one of the featured talents in the company; and it is interesting to think just how different his career would've been if he remained in ROH a little longer. Styles would leave ROH in 2006 and head to TNA full time where he would call home for the next 12 years before leaving the company in 2014. He would then return to ROH in January 2014 defeating Roderick Strong in his return and though he didn't stick around long this time either as he would move to New Japan shortly after his return. I will point out that at this time New Japan and ROH had just begun their working agreement so AJ did stay in the company and was able to help with the early days of Bullet Club expansion. 

Overall AJ Styles is in my opinion a forgotten member of early Ring of Honor and I will be honest that I didn't know he actually held gold in the company. AJ held both the Tag Team titles and Pure Championship during his first run with the company. Another little historical note AJ Styles would actually defeat CM Punk to become the first ROH Pure Champion. If I could pick one phrase to describe AJ Styles time in Ring of Honor it would be "What if" and I don't think anyone expected AJ to be where he is now, but the question is would you rather him be somewhere else or where he is currently.