Bruce Prichard reveals Vince McMahon's contribution in making AJ Styles' WWE character
AJ Styles made his debut in WWE and would go on to have an incredible run with the company. After his run in WWE facing Chris Jericho in a feud, he also had feuds with John Cena and Roman Reigns, also becoming the WWE Champion within a year. His run after the 2016 WWE Draft saw him continue to dominate proceedings on WWE SmackDown until it became 'The House that AJ Styles built'.
Recently, during a podcast episode of Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, Bruce Prichard talked about AJ Styles and his run in the company, talking about how AJ Styles' avatar in WWE was the best version of his character.
Bruce Prichard on how AJ Styles' WWE avatar was his best version
Bruce Prichard talked bout the version of AJ Styles that came to WWE and confessed that when Styles made his debut in the company, he was making his debut with a different character than he had previously.
He said that AJ Styles, before, felt that he had to portray his character as a wrestler, but when he came to WWE, Vince McMahon asked him to portray the character of a bulldog, and that was actually who AJ Styles was in real-life. This made his WWE run much easier for him, as he was being himself.
He found another side of himself in WWE and that side was more compelling as a character than AJ Styles had been before coming to WWE.
"The thing about AJ is, what WWE has been able to do is they have gotten Alan, the guy behind the facade, the gimmick if you will. This is no gimmick, this is who he is. I think up until he got to New Japan, he was playing a wrestler. He was playing a part, he was playing who he thought AJ Styles should be. But when he got to New Japan, his work took over, because there's a communication gap there. I think when Vince told him, 'I want a bulldog', and he said, 'I can do that', he got to be him."