Throughout his long and illustrious career, Jeff Jarrett has encountered a lot of wrestlers who have gone on to be juggernauts of the industry, particularly in recent years. Part of this is down to the fact that he founded TNA Wrestling back in 2002, meaning that a lot of stars who are mainstays on WWE and AEW programming passed through the doors of TNA at a young age. On a recent episode of his "My World"podcast where he sat down and rewatched the inaugural Bound For Glory pay-per-view from 2005, Jarrett admitted that one man was operating on a different level to everyone else in TNA, and that man was "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles.
"AJ was just next level," Jarrett said. "His athleticism you know? There would be maybe a Morphoplex executive or a Spike executiveI'll call it a non-wrestling fan that could be at one of our events, I'll call it on business, they would always comment like 'Damn that AJ Styles is athletic isn't he?' I'm like 'Yep, he does it every match, every night.' But yeah AJ's, I'll call it career decisions, I think in a lot of ways guys in the industry today should really take note of it."
Jarrett explained that Styles had been with TNA since the beginning, but after he left in 2013 over being told he needed to take a pay cut, he jetted off to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and had a run that was so good that he set himself up for a decade long run in WWE. That run will be coming to an end in the very near future as Styles recently revealed that he will be retiring in 2026 as he looks to spend more time with his family, but he did manage to make one final stop back in TNA in July 2025 when he made a special cameo appearance during the annual Slammiversary pay-per-view.
Please credit "My World" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
