While he's now a multi-time world champion in WWE, AJ Styles initially came into the company with some doubters, one of them being then-WWE CEO Vince McMahon. On a recent episode of "Busted Open Radio," former WWE star Nic Nemeth (aka Dolph Ziggler) recalled the story he had heard about McMahon's perception of Styles, who joined WWE on the heels of his runs in Ring of Honor and NJPW.
"When [Styles] was coming into WWE, behind the scenes, this is second-hand, but the boss-boss was like [iffy]," Nemeth said. "The way he saw AJ was he still had that 80s mentality, if you're six-[foot]-five, okay, I can go with you, you look like the Warlord, whatever the situation is. AJ is jacked, but he's not six-five. At the time I had heard that because of him having somewhat of a southern twang to his voice, that basically here is like Heath Slater telling a joke and [Vince] is like, 'Oh, that's what AJ Styles is? Okay. I can't even take him seriously,' because that's still that mentality from his brain from the 60s and 80s. Like, 'Oh, he's not from New York.' He doesn't have this accent that we have."
In the months leading up to his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, former WWE referee Mike Chioda pitched Styles' name to Pat Patterson, McMahon's long-time right-hand man, after seeing a performance of his in NJPW. Patterson mutually deemed Styles' in-ring work as impressive, though he had concerns over his height being 5-foot-11. McMahon seemingly shared those same worries. Either way, Nemeth attests that Styles eventually managed to gain McMahon's approval.
"I kind of second-hand and first heard [Styles] was fighting an uphill battle, even already coming here with all his accolades, with everything he's done, everybody knows what he's capable of. Whatever he did in his body of work while he was here, which, by the way, is effing fantastic, he won over the boss," Nemeth said.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
