A.J. Styles first started making waves in the pro wrestling world feuding with Air Paris in the small NWA Wildside organization. At the time, the now defunct WCW group was using NWA Wildside as a developmental territory. Noticing the potential in both Styles and Paris, WCW top-brass brought them both in and put them into a tag team together. The team would become known as "Air Raid". When WCW was sold to the then WWF, Styles found himself without a position in a top company. He made a few appearences as an "enhancement talent" on syndicated WWF shows WWF Metal (1998) and WWF Jakked (1999) as well as going back to his roots in NWA Wildside.Styles was contacted by Jerry Jarrett and 'Jeff Jarrett' who were starting up their own promotion: NWA: Total Nonstop Action (2002) to appear on the shows. Styles accepted and was placed in the promotion's innovative "X-Division".In the show's second broadcast, A.J. Styles won a four-man match to become the first ever champion of the NWA TNA X-Division, beating Psicosis (Dionicio Castellanos), Jerry Lynn and Low Ki' (Low Ki). In the show's third broadcast, Styles tagged with Jerry Lynn to become the new NWA World Tag Team Champions, beating the team of Lenny (Lenny Carlson) and Bruce (Allan Funk): The Rainbow Express. Styles continues to impress with his weekly outings on the NWA TNA pay-per-views.