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A Decade in Styles

01 August 2012 | 17:31 | Source: SBS, Manny Tsigas

Where where you in 2002? The Euro had become the official currency of the EU. East Timor had gained independence from Indonesia. And "Chicago" would go on to win the best picture Oscar over the much more favorable "Pluto Nash".

Wrestling fans, meanwhile, were a year removed from the then-World Wrestling Federation buying out their closest competitor, World Championship Wrestling.

The adage "you don't know what you got 'til it's gone" had very much come into play at this point. Any dedicated fan will tell you when WWF (now WWE) and WCW were going head-to-head in the ratings, the genre was thriving.

But with just one organisation now holding all the cards, the variety many fans were feeding off was showing obvious signs of decline.

In 2002 a new wrestling organisation had formed, and over the course of several years would use pay-per-view events featuring a slew of young talent to scratch and claw its way into a regular television timeslot.

Now, celebrating its tenth anniversary, Impact Wrestling is WWE's closest competitor. And one of its biggest stars, high-flyer AJ Styles, is one of three people who's stuck with the company through thick and thin.

And he was kind enough to stop by SBS for a chat.

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