The one question I continue to come back to is, does TNA intend to focus upon and promote AJ Styles' tour in obscurity? Are the announcers going to frequently reference it, or will we see excerpts of this action during episodes of Impact? Or is he gone, to ply his trade outside the confines of TNA Wrestling?
If TNA focuses upon Styles and his matches in Mexico, Japan, or wherever else for that matter, I will have a fundamental logical problem with that. If the guy becomes disenchanted with the company, and them with him, to the point that he takes his title and goes off to do his own thing, while they cut ties with him and replace him, why would they feature him on the show? It would be beyond asinine.
However, if they don't show him, how does TNA benefit from all of this while he is gone? Forget about the ultimate champion versus champion payoff for a moment. How does TNA benefit from having their (arguably) top talent not on the show? TNA has a hard enough time luring fans on board in the first place. Ratings, numbers, sales etc., have always been lacklustre at the best of times. I can't imagine many fans are going out of their way to actually search for AJ Styles. At the end if the day, if he's not on the show, most guys won't see him and will move on. It's one thing to put all if your eggs in one basket for the ultimate legitimate returning champion versus the replacement pretender champion. As long as you haven't done irreparable damage to the company in the interim.
If TNA focuses upon Styles and his matches in Mexico, Japan, or wherever else for that matter, I will have a fundamental logical problem with that. If the guy becomes disenchanted with the company, and them with him, to the point that he takes his title and goes off to do his own thing, while they cut ties with him and replace him, why would they feature him on the show? It would be beyond asinine.
However, if they don't show him, how does TNA benefit from all of this while he is gone? Forget about the ultimate champion versus champion payoff for a moment. How does TNA benefit from having their (arguably) top talent not on the show? TNA has a hard enough time luring fans on board in the first place. Ratings, numbers, sales etc., have always been lacklustre at the best of times. I can't imagine many fans are going out of their way to actually search for AJ Styles. At the end if the day, if he's not on the show, most guys won't see him and will move on. It's one thing to put all if your eggs in one basket for the ultimate legitimate returning champion versus the replacement pretender champion. As long as you haven't done irreparable damage to the company in the interim.