match here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aXDuFwdWjs
Ok, so there's SEVERAL storylines in play in the match. First, mortal enemies AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels have started teaming together and won the NWA Tag team championship. About 2 months into their reign, they were beat by Konnan's group of Homicide & Hernandez; the militant latin american group LAX. LAX had been running roughshod, beating up gringos and disrespecting authority. With the ring work of homicide, the strength of Hernandez, and the trash-talking of Konnan, LAX were absolutely killing it in the TNA tag team division. Having already been bested in a "border brawl", a specialty match of LAX, AJ & Daniels, desperate to get their titles back, challenged LAX to a match the was a specialty of the former X Division champions: an ultimate X match.
So, an ultimate X works similar to a ladder match, in that there are 2 wires above the ring, hung in the shape of an X. Titles are suspended from the wires and the object is to scale up the rafters on the side, get on the wires, and snag the title up.
AJ and Daniels immediately start throwing everything they can to neautralize the sneaky Homicide and the much larger Hernandez. There is a valiant desperation in their moves as they know that slowing down even a bit would give an advantage to LAX. Hernandez keeps out-muscling his 2 smaller opponents, while Homicide keeps gunning for the belts. AJ & Daniels are really hauling ass all around the ring to stop either latino from grabbing their belts. Eventually, AJ and Homicide end up on top of the structure and Homicide tries to stop AJ from taking belt by actually murdering him with an Ace Crusher:
Konnan starts getting involved and now AJ & Daniels have to bring out EVERYTHING they've got. They start flying off the ropes with BME's, spiral taps, 450's and anything else they can muster. They use the environment to their advantage and AJ Styles uses Konnan's table to return the kill favor to Homicide:
With AJ laid out, Daniels does his best to fight off big Hernandez, but with AJ out the odds are against him. In a desperation move, Daniels leaps from the top of the structure to cling to the X and retrieve the NWA tag team championship.
This match is super special to me. TNA's tag division had been buried under teams like The Naturals and 3 Live Krew for years, but LAX and Styles-Daniels went out there and showed what tag team wrestling is. The 2 X-division guys busted ass to show why they're so beloved and LAX tore the house down trying to make a name for themselves. KUDOS to everyone involved.
- Hero!
Maybe that's due to his WWE matches reaching a wider audience, or maybe it's a sign of how important these matches were and have proved to be for Styles' career. Or maybe it's just because the matches are pretty damn good - the very textbook in action packed, athletic WWE-style match-ups. The fact remains that even when AJ came to WWE back at the beginning of 2016, few would have predicted he would go on to main event, and even fewer expected him to become WWE champion. What most knew though was that whatever happened, AJ had to full on bring it if he had any hopes of winning over Vince McMahon and earning a place at the top of the card. Considering the old adage of "cream rising to the top" and what we'd already seen of Styles becoming the top dog everywhere else perhaps we should feel a bit foolish to have doubted him now. Regardless of that, the matches with Reigns were a chance for Styles to deliver on the biggest stage and stake his chance for a bigger push...and he didn't disappoint. Here's Tainted Eclipse again to talk you through the action of what he considers the number two match of AJ's storied career:
Originally Posted by Tainted Eclipse
In many senses the biggest match of AJ Styles' career: working his second main event for the World Title in the number one program in the WWE. The match-up set the stage for a big match feel and an electric atmosphere: Roman Reigns, the hand picked champion hated by the hardcore fans; and AJ Styles, the under-pushed all-time great finally getting his just dues in the WWE. Their main event program, also built around interaction with AJ's former Bullet Club stable-mates Anderson and Gallows and Roman's cousins the Usos, was a great program whose segments were always the hottest of the night and actually made for great angle-driven TV. It all came to a head in this Extreme Rules match.
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