AJ Styles Believes Dixie Carter 100% Ruined TNA

In AJ Styles' 11 and a half years with TNA/Impact Wrestling, he was the company's franchise player, and most reliable talent. Unfortunately, his time with what was then Total Nonstop Action ended acrimoniously in late 2013, when he was asked to take a substantial pay cut. That led to Styles eventually ending up in New Japan, and later WWE.

"The Phenomenal One" had less-than-flattering things to say about former company President Dixie Carter on a recent Twitch stream. He began by giving his thoughts on former head of creative Vince Russo, before segueing into Carter.

"Vince, 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," Styles said. "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."

He went on to say, "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."

(Credit to Fightful for transcription)