WWE star Johnny Gargano recently took to his Twitch stream, where he talked about a number of topics including how he believes that AJ Styles is the the best wrestler of our generation and how Styles was the first independent wrestler that he loved.
Gargano said, “I can’t say enough good things about AJ Styles. He’s probably the best wrestler of our generation. AJ Styles was the first independent wrestler that I loved.” “I had a hood on my entrance gear when I had my very first match because of AJ Styles. I loved AJ and TNA and I’m talking back in the NWA TNA days, ROH days, and things like that. AJ Styles is my guy. He was my first non-WWE, non-WCW, non-ECW guy that I really loved just from his independent work.”
On getting to wrestle Styles:
“So, I got the chance to wrestle AJ when I was 18 years old. He was my favorite wrestler at the time and I got the chance to wrestle him. He brought it. He was so amazing. I learned so much from that match at a very early age.” “I wrestled him again right before he signed with WWE years later and now, I wrestled him again in WWE on that live event in France. He’s still as great as he was when I wrestled him when I was 18 years old. AJ Styles is definitely one of a kind. I firmly do believe that wrestling wouldn’t be what it is today without AJ. AJ is literally, like, you talk about GOATS? AJ is one of the GOATs and he’s a great guy in the locker room.”
“I remember he treated me with so much kindness and he treated me like an equal when I was 18 years old and he had no reason to do that.” “He was hot in TNA at that time, so he definitely could have just big-leagued me and he never did it, he just gave me a great match. That’s something I never forgot and just seeing how he treats people, too, in the locker room, he’s a definition of a locker room leader and wrestling as a whole is very lucky to have AJ.”
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)