TNA Wrestling Star Predicted To Surpass AJ Styles By Former Champion

TNA/WWE

A TNA Wrestling star has predicted that Leon Slater will surpass AJ Styles as the greatest X-Division Champion of all time.

2025 was a true breakout year for 21-year-old Leon Slater, with the English star capturing his first TNA X-Division Championship at Slammiversary, before making several memorable appearances on WWE TV – including featuring on the card for John Cena’s final match at the December 13 Saturday Night’s Main Event show.

Slater recently surpassing Trey Miguel to have the fourth longest reign in the history of the X-Division Championship and during an appearance on the Battleground Podcast, Miguel heaped praise on “The Youngest in Charge”, when asked for his thoughts on the current state of the X-Division:

“As long as you have Leon as the frontier of that I feel it’s in great hands. He just beat my record for fourth longest reigning.” 

“Leon is such a special wrestler and such a special champion. I used to call myself a generational champion as a heel, but that was just to sort of piss people off, I was doing cowardly matches and putting on a persona, but I truly feel that’s what Leon embodies.

“We’re watching the X-Division Championship being defended in WWE and being carried out onto their television programs, beyond NXT but going out there on SmackDown and going on tour with them.

“He’s doing things that I would never have imagined possible while I was X-Division Champion. So I truly feel like it’s in the best hands it’s ever been in. “I had even taken to Twitter recently and said I think Leon is going to go down as the greatest X-Division Champion ever, and someone commented, ‘Next to AJ Styles,’ and I responded, ‘I said what I said.’

“He is unreal and he’s one of the kindest human beings outside of the ring and he’s such a student of the game. For how young he is it makes no sense. “There’s very few people I wrestle that challenge my thought process for the better. Every time I work with him, I could call something and when he thinks he can elevate something he’ll mention it and I always go with it. And it always works out, he just has a special way of thinking about wrestling and going out there and committing to it.

“That Swanton 450 as a finisher is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s the chef’s kiss to every single match he puts on.”

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Both Leon Slater and Trey Miguel will be in action TNA No Surrender on Friday, February 13 – with Slater teaming with TNA World Champion Mike Santana against Nic Nemeth and Eddie Edwards and Miguel challenging WWE’s Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo for the TNA International Championship.

Following his retirement at the 2026 Royal Rumble, a new update has emerged regarding the WWE contract status of AJ Styles – click here for full details.

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• AJ Styles
• TNA
• tna wrestling
• Trey Miguel
• Leon Slater

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