AJ Styles once faced former AEW Champion immediately after leaving WWE: Forgotten dream match revisited

Through the course of his wrestling career, AJ Styles has won several championships and faced many big names. Given Styles has been part of several promotions like NJPW, TNA, and now WWE, The Phenomenal One had the opportunity to cross paths with talents across promotions and boundaries.

While some of Styles' matches against names like John Cena and Kurt Angle are well known, back in 2006, the SmackDown star had the opportunity to face a former AEW Champion. This match between Styles and the former champion took place at a nightclub in Winnipeg.

The former champion with whom AJ Styles had a match with is Kenny Omega. This contest between the two took place in a promotion named PCW Back to School Bash. While the match between the two received good reactions at the time, Styles told Omega that he had done two things right.

The Phenomenal One said that the first right thing Omega did was beat him. Later, he mentioned that the second right thing Omega did was to leave WWE. In the process, Styles also called WWE a cr*p promotion. This statement from Styles seemingly received a huge cheer from the crowd in attendance then.

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Former WWE manager unimpressed with AJ Styles' current storyline

On WWE SmackDown's latest edition, AJ Styles was seen backstage with the remaining members of The O.C. However, this interaction turned quickly sour after Styles and Karl Anderson got into an altercation. This particular altercation led to The Phenomenal One slapping Anderson.

While the segment received a decent response overall, former WWE manager Dutch Mantell did not seem impressed with it. During an episode of Sportskeeda Westling's Smack Talk, Mantell mentioned that a disagreement between Styles and Anderson did not make sense since it was known they were connected. He said:

"I just don't see it. I don't feel the chemistry yet. You feel the chemistry between Roman and The Rock. You feel that. But here you got two guys in a tag team that I haven't seen on TV in months... We know that they are connected, but for them, all of a sudden to have a disagreement? Ehh. Didn't do anything for me," Dutch Mantell said. [57:51 - 58:29]

While AJ Styles and The O.C. have not been used regularly, the recent segment involving them is indicative that WWE could be using them more often on SmackDown. It will be interesting to see what this storyline leads to.