AJ Styles on NJPW run: ‘The creative changed everything for me’

AJ Styles reflected on his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated.  Styles defeated Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestling Dontaku 2014. He'd wrestled a handful of matches for NJPW in 2008 as well but 2014 was the beginning of his full-time run with the company.  Flanked by his Bullet Club stablemates, Styles would trade the title back and forth with Hiroshi Tanahashi before eventually dropping it back to Okada at Dominion 2015. Styles told SI.com that winning the IWGP title the way he did put him on the map.  He said: The creative changed everything for me. If I were bringing somebody over to be in my company, the last thing I would do is have them win the heavyweight championship as soon as they got there. But that’s what they did. And it worked. It put me on the map immediately. Before arriving in NJPW, Styles had been with TNA Wrestling for 12 years, having helped form the beginnings of the X-Division along with names like Jerry Lynn