AJ Styles has accomplished just about everything a person can do in his four years in WWE. That is, with one major exception — holding tag team championship gold. “The Phenomenal One” has had tag partners in the past in Chris Jericho (though very briefly) and Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, but all of WWE’s tag titles have eluded him. Styles suddenly got fans talking during a recent Twitch stream when he pitched the idea of moving to the NXT roster to team with Finn Balor and chase after the NXT Tag Team Championships.
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“If I’m able to find a partner, at some point, and win those, I will have won all the belts in WWE,” Styles said. “[Balor would make a great partner] but he’s in NXT and I’m on SmackDown. So I don’t know how that would ever work. Listen, whether I have to go down to NXT or he has to come to SmackDown, I’m willing to do that. I mean, shoot, it would be fun, and different is good.”
Balor was then asked about the idea in a new interview with CBS Sports.
“Obviously, me and AJ have kind of a storied history,” Balor said. “We’ve always kind of crossed paths but never really interacted too much. When I went to Japan, he was in TNA. When I came to the U.S., he went to Japan. When I came to Raw, he went to SmackDown. So, we’ve always kind of missed each other outside of that one match we had, and that was sprung on us at the last minute. But we’ve got very similar paths and a lot of mutual friends. He’s someone I would love to not only tag with but be in the ring in some capacity. Whether it’s standing across the ring from him one-on-one or if it’s standing side-by-side, I think we would make a great tag team. Whether it’s in NXT, Raw or SmackDown, I would love to be in there with AJ.”
Despite both being prominent members in the Bullet Club faction in New Japan, Styles and Balor have rarely crossed paths. The two have only wrestled against each other once — an impromptu match at the TLC pay-per-view in 2017 after Bray Wyatt had to be pulled from the card. Balor, who was in full Demon mode at the time, beat Styles in 18 minutes.
But before Balor and Styles can form some sort of dream team, “The Prince” has a shot at becoming a two-time NXT Champion on Tuesday’s NXT by competing in a four-way, 60-minute Iron Man Match for the vacated championship.
