WWE Hall of Famer told AJ Styles he needed to change one thing to be a star
Jeff Jarrett has revealed he told AJ Styles earlier in his career that he needed to be more selfish to succeed in the wrestling business.
Styles worked for IMPACT Wrestling (f.k.a TNA) from 2002 to 2013. Jarrett, TNA’s co-founder, was a veteran of the industry when Styles was working his way up the ranks during the 2000s.
Speaking on his My World podcast, Jarrett said his own WWE pay-offs were not as high as they should have been between 1997 and 1999. Using that experience as an example, the 2018 WWE Hall of Famer repeatedly advised AJ Styles to take a stand on certain situations:
“You can be this team player to a fault,” Jarrett said. “We’ll get into AJ Styles stories. I can’t tell you, and he’ll tell you this, I can’t tell you how many conversations I had with AJ in, we’ll call it the early TNA, ‘04, ‘05, ‘06, and I’d look at him and say, ‘Dude, if you don’t get selfish, you’re never gonna arrive. I mean, never.’ I would tell him, ‘Trust me, learn from my mistakes.’”
AJ Styles worked for several companies including NJPW after leaving IMPACT Wrestling in 2013. Since joining WWE in 2016, The Phenomenal One has won the WWE Championship (x2), Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship (x3) and RAW Tag Team Championship (w/Omos).
Steve Austin had the attitude Jeff Jarrett wanted AJ Styles to have
Jeff Jarrett confirmed on the debut episode of his podcast that Steve Austin was responsible for breaking up his on-screen partnership with Debra in 1999.
Although Jarrett had issues with Austin during their time in WWE, he gave the WWE legend credit for being selfish when needed:
“That’s the real nature of it,” Jarrett added. “This business is ego-driven and egotistical, and yes, you’ve gotta have a great storyline and you’ve gotta have great marketing behind you, but also, as a talent, you’ve gotta claw and scratch. That’s why, like Steve, to his credit, he went through Hollywood Blonds [tag team], he came out of Texas, and he was The Ringmaster, and then boom, that [anti-authority character] caught fire. You’re damn right he’s gonna hold on to every bit of that spot, and rightly so.”
AJ Styles recently joined forces with Omos to win the RAW Tag Team Championships from Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods at WrestleMania 37. Styles and Omos won a rematch between the two teams on this week’s WWE RAW.
Please credit My World with Jeff Jarrett and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.