According to PWInsider, AJ Styles' contract extension with TNA Wrestling will expire on December 16th, and as of now the two parties have not come to terms on a new deal. As we have been reporting for months, there is a dispute between Styles and TNA about how much money the former World Champion should be paid upon signing a new contract. TNA has already taped Impact Wrestling through January of 2014, and AJ's apparent last match will air weeks after his departure from the company. He is currently billed as the "real" TNA World Heavyweight Champion, so obviously they will be resolving that angle in the weeks to come, should they not decided on a last minute deal.
AJ is already taking on independent bookings, which would explain his being booked for a show in Illinois in February 2014, which we originally thought was a long-term continuation of his current TNA angle, where he visits other promotions defending the TNA World Championship.
At 36-years-old, he has been wrestling for TNA since 2002, working in the very first match of their very first weekly pay-per-view. He almost immediately became the company's first X-Division Champion, pioneering the division alongside the likes of Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn and Samoa Joe. In his tenure with TNA, he has won 16 championships, became the first Triple Crown and Grand Slam Champion, won a Bound for Glory series, and wrestled in the only 5-star match in TNA history, given out by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.
