Nick Aldis Explains Why Being AJ Styles’ Last TNA Match Is a ‘Dubious Honor’

Nick Aldis was the final person to face AJ Styles in TNA, something that he says is a “dubious honor.” Aldis defended the TNA World Heavyweight Championship in a No Disqualification match against Styles in December of 2013. Styles would leave TNA afterward and work the independents before ending up in NJPW and then WWE.

Aldis was asked about being Styles’ last TNA opponent on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, and said that the match was “horribly booked” and was sort of an albatross for him at that time. He was also Sting’s second-to-last TNA match, which he also discussed. You can see highlights below:

On Being AJ Styles’ Last TNA Match:

“It’s a dubious honor and something I’d probably rather forget. Was horribly booked, and it didn’t do me any favors.”

On Facing Gunther, Who Retired Styles:

“That helps. That’s probably the first time that any of that’s actually been of any use to me. Honestly, yeah. For a long time, I felt like that’s a lot of that. I felt like that got hung around my neck, to be honest. AJ’s TNA career came to an end, and that was such a tragedy for TNA fans. I think a lot of that negative energy ended up being directed at me. I became the sort of face of it, and I didn’t have anything to do with it, I was just doing what I was told. So, I think for me, I don’t want to be overly dramatic here and say it was traumatic or anything. But it is definitely a part. It’s definitely something that I sort of tend to compartmentalize and keep locked away because that hurt my career. That was it. Was kind of the end of my TNA career too.”

On Being Sting’s Second-to-Last TNA Match:
“Even Sting hated that, because Steve Borden is an absolute class-act human being. For whatever reason, God bless, he took a shine to me and wanted to do a lot for me right from the start. I had a match with Sting in 2009. I’d been in the company like three months because Sting said, ‘Give me that guy.’ Sting had worked with Samoa Joe on a pay-per-view, and I think Joe had won the match. So the next episode of Impact, Sting just needed a win, just needed someone to beat just to sort of get him back on track. I’m pretty sure that he just said, ‘Give me that British kid. I like him.’ Because I was part of a tag team. There was no reason why I should have been having a singles match with Sting in the main event of Impact at that point in my career, I was 22 or whatever.”