Bruce Prichard recalls TNA officials’ negative perceptions of AJ Styles

From the WWE Network’s Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard has been released, with Prichard discussing AJ Styles’ TNA run.

“I had never worked with AJ beyond his tryout matches for WWE so immediately I’m hearing the negative. I hear that, ‘AJ, he just wants to wrestle his matches and do all these high spots, he doesn’t listen, doesn’t want to change, doesn’t want to grow. He’s a pain in the ass. We’re trying to build him into a bigger star and he’s bucking us at every single opportunity.’

The feeling was that AJ just wasn’t willing to do what it took to become a star. For example… they wanted AJ to bleach his hair blonde like Ric Flair. AJ didn’t want to do that. They wanted AJ to wear robes like Ric Flair but it looked like something that his daughter put together. It just wasn’t a good look and AJ wasn’t comfortable being Ric Flair. He didn’t want to talk about being up all night with the women. AJ’s happily married and a very religious guy. He didn’t want that perception. Every time you suggest something new to AJ, he doesn’t want to do it. Unless it’s just wrestling a match with one of his buddies, he doesn’t want to do it.”

He added, “I learned early on in my career that you try to judge people on how they treat you. And I tried talking to AJ and found that he was pretty receptive to things. He had good reasons why he didn’t want to do some of the things suggested to him. So, now all of a sudden I’m trying to find a way to get into AJ, in a way to pitch him ideas and try to do some different things with him which he was open to, at least with me.”

(Pro Wrestling & MMA World)