Crackpot Theory Alert: Is TNA Trying to Devalue AJ Styles by Bad Booking?

TNA may low ball AJ Styles, but the booking hasn't been a sign of it Photo Credit: Impact Wrestling.com

Beyond Wrestling's Twitter account alternates between self-promotion (Drew Cordeiro is probably the hardest working promoter in the biz) and asking pertinent questions about wrestling in general. Last week, this question was posed:

Do you think TNA has booked AJ Styles like shit lately to ensure WWE would have no interest in him so they could low ball him on a new deal?
— Beyond Wrestling (@beyondwrestling) August 22, 2013

I kinda laughed it off. We're in the post-kayfabe era. Styles is a name, regardless of how many of Dixie Carter's brass rings he has been allowed to grab. Besides, if WWE wants to grab a guy, they're going to grab him, regardless of how well he or she has been booked. Besides, WWE is seen by at least four times the people in America alone. They have a far stronger international presence.

Then I realized who was in charge. Dixie Carter seems to have such a high opinion of her own company and how it is viewed by the public. She has enablers in her front office like Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff, two guys whom I'm not sure know that the times have changed. I'm totally speculating here, but if they are still carrying on like the calendar still read 1985, I would not be surprised in the least, especially given how backwards TNA is run in other arenas.

Of course, Styles' grand return as his old character last Thursday is one of the major strikes against the argument that they're booking him poorly anyway. The entire Bound for Glory Series to date has seemed like a vehicle to get Styles his long-prohibited title shot and chance to reclaim the throne in a company that has shown and snatched it away from him so many times that Styles would be qualified to play Charlie Brown in a live action film by now. But let's play Devil's Advocate, just for one second here. What if TNA really was trying to drive down the price for Styles, like any shitty cutrate corporation that survives on the margins by fucking its employees like TNA has been wont to do? Two things here that Styles should probably remember when going to the table.

The first is that WWE doesn't mess around with guys who have the stink of TNA on them unless they started out in WWE (or WCW/ECW). R-Truth and Christian both were originally in the WWF/E, which is why they were pushed upon return to the company. For other examples of how WWE treated dudes they picked up directly from TNA, look at Kazarian. Or Braden Walker. Or Marcus Cor-Von. Once upon a time, Styles might have had a shot going to WWE, but he's on the wrong side of 35 now. WWE already has dudes in their career primes clogging up the midcard and populating the main event, and no matter how good an idea you or I or anyone might think it would be for them to pick up Styles, they're not going to do it, or at the very least, I'll be shocked to the point of shitting my own pants if they do.

Secondly, TNA has every reason to low ball anyone who is up for contract renewal, because all reports say they aren't really doing so hot financially. While I doubt they'll ever go completely under unless Spike TV decides not to renew their contract (and at this point, the only thing that would ensure that is if they got WWE programming, in my opinion), the nature of corporate weasels like Carter and especially Bischoff is to glom as much profit as they can while skating by paying the working talent the least amount possible. TNA knows WWE is not going to be a viable option for anyone on their roster right now with the exception of Magnus, and that fact works in their favor. They will drive down Styles' price because what is he going to do, slum it in Ring of Honor? Tour the indies for pennies on the dollar he's making with TNA right now?

Using a logic test, TNA probably doesn't even have to book Styles badly at all to drive down his price. Then again, I have no idea what the negotiations are like. For all I know, they may be offering him a raise, although I would be a bit surprised if that were true as well. Either way, I'm not sure WWE would even figure into the equation when the time comes for Styles to put his name on any bottom line. That decision rests solely on whatever TNA is trying to do to keep balance between its books and the story it wants to tell its fans. When Bound for Glory comes around, we'll see how this process, as tenuous as it seems to outsiders like you and I, bears out.