AJ Styles opened The Phenomenally Retro Podcast this week by responding to people who have called him a “TKO defender” over his stance that the expanded WWE house show schedule this summer is a good thing.
Let’s see what Styles has to say about it:
“There was a time that we oversaturated live events, where we would be there every three months…and so, we weren’t drawing as many people. This is before COVID. We don’t want that, because we’re barely breaking even, [and] it shouldn’t be that way.
So we
always talked about how great it would be, if we didn’t run so much, but enough to make sure that we get reps. And we all want these reps, because we can do different things with them, and see what works…This is a good thing, getting back to the live events.
As soon as I say something like that, all of a sudden, I’m a TKO defender. ‘Now the guys who took 50% pay cuts are doing double the work!’ And my question for that turd is, who? Who? Tell me who. Because you don’t know. I don’t know. You’re just assuming, because it got out there, that they were saying some people were taking 50% cuts. I don’t know who they are.
Tell me who it was. Do you know they’re gonna be on the live events? Probably not. Do you know how many live events we’re gonna do? You probably don’t. Nor do I. But it is important that we have these, so that you can build up a callous to your body so you don’t get hurt as much. The more you wrestle, as crazy as it sounds, you don’t get hurt as much. You got your rhythm, everything, there’s no rust. You’re moving. And we can figure out ways where we don’t have to take big, stupid, idiotic bumps. We can do stuff that makes more sense at the live event…
Am I defending TKO? No, I’m trying to help our roster, because they want to be on the road doing some live events. Now, I’m not saying we want to be on there 365 days a year. We don’t want that. But some is very, very good in a lot of different ways. And people just, for those who have no idea, it makes perfect sense why you would say something stupid.”
AJ’s argument would be stronger if he stuck to the main point about why it’s important to find a reasonable middle ground number of WWE house shows to run that give the talent enough reps without flooding the market. However, he goes off on a strange tangent about 50% pay cuts that actually does make it sound like he’s defending TKO on that terrible business practice, simply because names weren’t named by wrestling reporters and media.
It seems to me like AJ let some trolls get to him, which resulted in him conflating the two issues. It’s completely reasonable to approve of WWE’s house expanded house show schedule while also criticizing TKO for asking some talent to take 50% pay cuts in order to keep their jobs. If AJ really thinks it’s a fake story and wants to know names, maybe he should just go ask Kevin Nash to spill the beans.
Do you think AJ Styles did a good job of pushing back against critics who called him a TKO defender? Let me know in the comments below, Cagesiders.
