AJ Styles loves Vince Russo, says Dixie Carter ruined TNA

AJ Styles isn’t holding much back these days. We know about his interest in flat Earth conspiracy theories, and what he thinks about Paul Heyman.

We got those takes from Styles’ Twitch stream, which is also where he was shooting about his old employer TNA/Impact Wrestling over the weekend.

Before Anthem Entertainment bought the promotion and officially turned it into Impact, TNA had employed just about every controversial wrestling figure you can name during its 15+ year existence. AJ offered his opinion on two of them shooting ‘em up with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds:

“Vince [Russo], as a person, I love the guy, and we butted heads as far as him writing, even in TNA, but I realized when we butted heads, it was because he was getting things from Dixie the whole time. It must have been very difficult to work with this woman who has no idea how wrestling works and wanted everything to be done to it and it didn’t make any sense. We butted heads with him as a writer, but due to Dixie Carter getting involved a lot with creative...

“Do I believe Dixie ruined IMPACT? Well, it was TNA back then, and 100%. IMPACT, there was a time when it was really gaining ground. The problem was, Dixie wanted to be WWE-lite and that’s not what people wanted. They wanted to see something else. All she had to do was let us do what we do, it was really that simple. Had she left it to the writers, I think TNA would still be around and be bigger than what they are, but not knowing what’s best for business, she hurt TNA.”

The Russo shoutout seems surprising at first, but doesn’t shock when you think about it. Most of the controversy around wrestling’s other Vince comes from his booking. But aside from WCW where backstage politics was full contact sport, there aren’t too many performers who complain about him being untrustworthy. For most wrestlers, he’s just someone with wacky ideas. His “online wrestling commentator” persona is a whole different subject. But even there, Russo usually targets fans and other online wrestling personalities - not guys like AJ.

Regarding Carter... the Phenomenal One isn’t saying anything most people in the business haven’t said already. Dixie’s family bought TNA in 2002, and she ran it as President until 2016. While she oversaw the company’s glory days in the aughts, she’s much more remembered for the litany of LOL moments that happened after she brought Eric Bischoff & Hulk Hogan in in a misguided attempt to start a new Monday Night War.

Now someone ask him what he thinks of Jim Cornette.

H/T: Fightful for transcription