The man known as AJ Styles was born Allen Jones in Georgia in 1978. AJ was trained to wrestle by Rick Michaels and started his career in National Championship Wrestling, which later turned into NWA Wildside. He was a three-time television champion while in Wildside and moved on to WCW before they shut down operations in 2001. He and Air Paris, the man he feuded with in Wildside, were paired up for a few matches as the "Air Raid" tag team. When the WWE brought WCW, they offered AJ a developmental deal but he turned it down and returned to NWA Wildside. 

AJ won the NWA Georgia Championship in late 2001 but lost it four months later. It was around this time that AJ signed with upstart company Total Nonstop Action wrestling.  He appeared on their first pay-per-view in June 2002. He was also working for Ring of Honor wrestling, where he won both the Tag Team and Pure Championships. In TNA, he was the first-ever X-Divison champion, becoming the face of TNA and the X-Division. He also won the NWA Tag Team championship with rival Jerry Lynn on the third TNA show, but lost it two weeks later.  He then began to focus on the NWA Heavyweight Championship.

Now focusing on the NWA Heavyweight Championship, AJ won the title in a three-way match against Jeff Jarrett and Raven (after Vince Russo) and became the first Triple Crown winner in TNA history (winning all three belts in the organization in May 2003). He lost the title to Jeff Jarrett in October, then won the tag titles again, only to lose them.  He beat Jarrett in April 2004 for the NWA Heavyweight title in a Steel Cage match, becoming a two-time champion. This title reign lasted less than a month when he lost the title to Ron "The Truth" Killings. After this, he went after the X-Division title again, won it, then lost it, going right back into the hunt for the NWA title which he won over Jeff Jarrett.

AJ teamed up with three different partners throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008, and won the Tag Team championships with former rivals Christopher Daniels and Tomko. After a heel turn in which he joined forces with Kurt Angle, he began to focus on singles wrestling.  He beat Booker T for the TNA Legends title, making him the only man to hold all the belts in TNA at one time or another. He defeated four other competitors for the TNA Heavyweight Championship in September 2009, a title he continues to hold.