The reaction to TNA airing their dirty laundry in public, namely issuing a statement on their website that AJ Styles (along with Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows) backed out of a deal to return to the company last month, has been fascinating.
TNA didn't help themselves with their vague and confusing phrasing of what transpired, claiming that a handshake and written deal between the three wrestlers and TNA was agreed upon and signed by all at a meeting on Dec. 14th. This allowed the wrestlers to save face by having their representative quickly point out that "no formal contract was ever signed." However, it's important to note that so far they haven't publicly denied signing a non-binding precursor to a finalised contract like a letter of intent, deal memo or term sheet.
Later, Styles' agent Bill Behrens claimed that negotiations between the two sides broke down due to TNA failing to present a finalised contract in timely fashion and that the company was aware of "other interest". However, TNA sources maintain they were in the dark about the group's negotiations with WWE and that the trio suddenly broke off all communications in late December, hence their unhappiness with how Styles et al. handled their business.
The latest on this story, according to Dave Meltzer on his latest Wrestling Observer Radio show, is how AJ Styles' friends are unsurprisingly furious at TNA for the timing of their exposé of his alleged duplicity, fearing it could jeopardise his rumoured debut in tonight's Royal Rumble match, going so far to brandish Dixie Carter "a woman scorned":
"Most of the people in wrestling that I have been in contact with that are close to this story or not even close to this story just are very negative on TNA for how they portrayed this and just doing it and the timing of doing it right before the Royal Rumble because obviously they are under the impression AJ is going to debut at the Rumble and they were trying to screw that up by putting doubt on, you know, by claiming that they had something signed with him. That's kind of the feeling, it was like a woman scorned. Very much that's the wording, a woman scorned type of thing."
I won't disagree that the calculated timing of TNA's revelation was in poor form, clearly designed for maximum damage and public embarrassment, but what does Dixie Carter's gender have to do with all this? The sexist language used to demean Carter is equally as uncalled for.
As far as dirty moves go within professional wrestling, it isn't close to making sure CM Punk received his WWE termination papers on his wedding day, a vile act, but not one that anyone would denigrate Vince McMahon's gender for. In fact, he'd likely be praised internally for his masculinity and acting like an "alpha male", exposing the hypocrisy that still pervades this business.
Unfortunately, professional wrestling is still a vengeful industry where the kneejerk reaction to being wronged is to issue a receipt. Dixie's receipt for, in her mind, AJ Styles acting in bad faith by using TNA's offer as leverage to get a better deal from WWE, was to publicise at the most detrimental time possible his treachery. The receipt for this by AJ's side is to depict Dixie Carter as a vindictive, petty jezebel, because we all know "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", right? Yet the male leaders in this profession often act just as callously and spitefully, which somehow is forgotten by wrestling's foremost journalist when repeating his sources exact wording. Sadly, no party come out smelling of roses in this he said, she said mess. It just makes wrestling as a whole look bad.
Showing that both sides are likely playing fast and loose with the truth, not just TNA, Styles' side is denying Mike Johnson's claim that the Bullet Club trio were unhappy with the relative lack of merchandising royalties paid to them from New Japan despite Bullet Club T-shirts selling like hot cakes, which led to them seeking outside deals. However, Meltzer wouldn't go so far as to corroborate the detail that they were not unhappy with New Japan over T-shirt money arguing that:
"I do believe that there was probably some unhappiness over the T-shirts and I'll probably get a lot of heat for even saying that much. It's already been written, because I had heard hints of that, but it was made very clear to me that when I even say that, there's people who have denied even that much. But the T-shirt thing and the idea that they wanted to leave, you know, is bullshit, so that I think was done to, you know, screw them in a way and make, kind of, further bad feelings with New Japan, because I mean with any of them leaving there's always a little bit of bad feelings when you leave especially with Karl who was nobody who was there for years and years and year and got to a certain level, AJ who they revitalised his career, but it's still business and I mean none of them did anything wrong and it's the fact that four guys gave notice at the same time. That's a hard blow, because it screwed up New Japan's, you know, the way they book month's in advance, it screwed up a lot of plans, so it would be very easy to have New Japan be mad."
I also believe that Styles et al. were upset with New Japan over the lack of compensation for Bullet Club T-shirt sales, because I had heard that story from a non-TNA source long before Mike Johnson made it public, likely because they were privately griping about it so much. It's also seems incredulous at this point to portray the trio as not looking to leave New Japan full-time, as they were actively negotiating with TNA for at least several weeks and the evidence clearly suggests that they then used that offer as negotiating leverage with WWE, not with New Japan. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it seems that misleading narratives have been and are still being pushed by both sides here.
Although it's certainly understandable that Styles, Anderson and Gallows want to maintain positive relations with New Japan in case their WWE runs turn sour, maybe their side shouldn't have banked on TNA holding their tongues and being able to control the media narrative? After all, they certainly didn't try to maintain positive relations with TNA or if they believe they did, then they failed spectacularly.
But ultimately, this was a battle of perception that TNA was always going to lose. They've made so many high profile missteps in the past, there has been so many examples of alleged talent mistreatment, and their brand is so toxic, that this was a public fight that they shouldn't have picked. Outside of their most diehard fans, no-one was going to back TNA management in this war of words, because they'd rather see AJ Styles making big money in WWE, even if not used to his fullest potential, than slumming it again in TNA. People will ignore the sexism of AJ's backers, just like they ignore AJ's own ugly traits, because it's so hard to root for TNA with their track record.