AJ Styles: The Phenomenal One’s 10 Best Matches Prior to Joining WWE

3. Vs. Minoru Suzuki – G1 Climax – 2014

One year before Styles battle with Tanahashi, “The Phenomenal One” took part in his first ever G1 Climax tournament. Walking into the vaunted wrestling gauntlet as champion, Styles had high hopes for winning the entire thing and becoming the first non-Japanese wrestler to accomplish that feat.  In the end however, he came up just short. He scored 16 points in the G1’s B Block, a loss to Okada costing him a spot in the finals. But along the way was this war with NJPW’s resident tough guy, Minoru Suzuki, who at 47 years old at the time of this bout, was and is still just as good as superstars half his age. This ended up being their one and only time in the ring against together and for over 16 minutes these guys made it abundantly clear that they would never forget each other.

This match just seemed to click on all fronts and for two guys that had virtually zero history, they both brought so much animosity and passion to the fight you’d think they were age-old enemies. Styles started the match in his typical high-flying, fast-paced fashion. But Suzuki would have none of it, dragging AJ deep into the deep waters in the form of a physical, hard-hitting fist-fight. Suzuki was surgical in his attack, going after Styles right arm in a series of tendon-stretching submissions and laser-focused strikes utterly neutralizing a facet that AJ would so often employ, the flying forearm. But once it seemed that AJ understood that his normal arsenal was no longer an option, he played Suzuki’s game, battering back and forth with vicious kicks, chops, slaps, and punches until he finally put away his foe with the Styles Clash.

This match was a massive test for Styles and he passed it with flying colors. Always an amazing seller, he still managed to make Suzuki look even tougher and meaner than his 49 MMA fights already did. And being that these two guys were the leaders of the two most popular stables in NJPW with Minoru leading Suzuki Gun and Styles leading The Bullet Club, this match had that big fight feel that has become so synonymous with all of AJ’s matches. There’s a good chance that both men still feel the affects of this war and it will go down as one of Styles toughest bouts and a night that he proved that he’s as tough as any guy on the planet.