Who achieved more success: AJ Styles or CM Punk?
 

Who in your opinion achieved more success in the business?

CM Punk was a successfull indie wrestler before he came to the WWE and took it by storm, turning into the WWE Champion couple of times and being a World Heavyweight champion for few times as well.

AJ Styles was mainly on TNA, where he also was a multiple time TNA World champion, and is considered to be a TNA original.

loltna

Punk based on the fact he is in a bigger market, and is more well-known then AJ Styles. AJ while may have some small tv exposure, Punk has been apart of WWE, and even used in promotion materials for a global company.

Ahahahaha TNA, might as well have wrestled in a fucking basement

Punk

AJ Styles was recently feuding with Yoshi Tatsu until he broke his neck botching his finish. I don't think any more needs to be said.

AJ he, still doing it.

This isn't even a fair contest.

Punk

Why is this a question?

Punk. Punk hasn't broken 4 guy's necks either. AJ never made it to WWE. Punk was the longest reinging champion since the days of yore.

Neither is a Scott Norton

There can not be any other.

But who is?

Except maybe El Dandy.


On topic: Punk by a country mile. Styles is "known" to the wrestling world, but Punk became a household name.

Oh no you just fucking didn't.

CM Punk is not a household name.

CM Punk.

He made more money, more memorable moments, more merchandise, etc etc etc.

As cool as Styles might be, CM Punk made more of everything.

Maybe not your house, but doesn't stop him from being known pop culturally. Same can't even remotely be said about AJ Styles.

You doubting El Dandy? Who are you to do that??

To be known pop culturally, you need a lot of appearances/exposure in other media. Which Punk did not have.

CM Punk is no doubt more well known than AJ Styles. Just not a "household name" (though he is in my house).

He is more well known than most current wrestlers, thanks to the media exposure he got from the pipebomb promo.

Dunno, if you remember, but they were talking about it everywhere. Crossed over from wrestling news to pop culture news for a little while there. Not enough to make him a household name, but a lot of people who don't watch wrestling know who CM Punk is.

WHO ARE YOU TO DOUBT AJ STYLES????

Hell an argument could be made that AJ Lee is more successful than AJ Styles.

AJ and myself were both born on Camp Lejune in Jacksonville NC...

If AJ Styles were to get a contract to fight for UFC, it would mean exactly dick.

Was he named number one contender for the US Championship by Bret Hart himself? No, he wasn't. He was too busy jumping around the ring in flight suits with Air Paris to be considered a "jam up guy". So, I doubt him as much as I doubt the Aeon Worm.

We need a daily limit on the amount of threads people can make.

Lol wut

.....oookkkk?

Yeah Punk was the main champ for over a year in the biggest company in the world. AJ wasn't in the biggest company in the world. Punk wins.

I'd say it depends on what your definition of 'success' is, but honestly, no matter which way you slice it, Punk was more successful than Styles hands-down.

Punk has a much larger catalog of high-profile matches, and more Match of the Year candidates than Styles. He's a far better talker, and never had any difficulty working face or heel (though I must admit I love trashy Bullet Club Styles in NJPW). He sold more merch and drew bigger crowds, too, though that's at least partially due to the fact that WWE is substantially bigger than any promotion Styles worked for, be it TNA or RoH or NJPW or late-era WCW. Punk also got a lot of attention in the non-wrestling corners of the world, showing up on talk shows and writing comic books and whatnot, whereas Styles just didn't.

As much as I hate the mentality that a lot of wrestling fans have where everything outside of WWE isn't worth paying attention to (especially since most of WWE's shows these days are godawful), you can't really deny that being a top-tier guy on the biggest wrestling show in the world carries more prestige than making your career out of being a big fish in a small pond. I couldn't tell you why Styles (and Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe, for that matter) didn't pursue a career in WWE, but the fact is that they didn't, while peers like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan did and ended up getting huge because of it.

I like AJ Styles a lot, but he's never going to reach the levels of success that Punk did. And while I think Styles had it in him to be a breakout star in WWE, he chose instead to settle for being an 'indie guy,' and at this stage in his career, that's pretty much all he'll ever be.

Funny thing about AJ now is that with the Indy spots and NJPW, he's probably making on par what he made in TNA

That really wouldn't surprise me-- I doubt Dixie and company have particularly deep pockets these days.

And he's incredibly happy in NJPW too.

Too sweet me