Jay Lethal says AJ Styles helped him with the down payment on his house
While appearing on the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, AEW star Jay Lethal commented on his friendship with AJ Styles from their time together in TNA Wrestling…
“AJ always looked out for me. He was, man, he’s one of the best human beings in the world. He said to me, ‘Hey, where do you live now?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’m in this apartment in Tampa.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, you’re in an apartment. Oh, how long are you gonna—how long you plan on being there?’ I said, ‘Oh, I don’t know, till I can have money to buy a house or something.’ So that was just like a little one-off conversation.
And then about five to six months later, he asked me again, ‘So, where you living? You—you’re still in that apartment?’ And then he started getting a little upset. ‘You’re still in that apartment?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘You need—don’t you understand that whatever you’re paying rent-wise for that apartment, you’ll have to pay that forever. You’ll never own it. You’ll always be giving money to somebody else. And you know what? If you had a house, I bet you could be paying less than you’re paying in rent. And if you don’t like that wall, you could just knock that wall down and do whatever you want. You gotta get out of that apartment.’
I said, ‘Okay’” Well, in the back of my head I’m thinking, that’s easy for you to say. You’re, you know, Impact Wrestling World Champion. I’m, you know, barely getting on the show. He goes, ‘Next time I talk to you, you better start looking for homes.’
So obviously, next time I talked to him, I really hadn’t started, because I’m like, ‘I don’t make enough. This is fine.’ So when he found that out, him and his wife started looking on the internet, looking for places for me. They’re like, ‘You need to go check this. Go check that.’
And meanwhile, I’m like, this is all going to go nowhere. I don’t have the greatest credit at the time. I barely have any money. So when we found this small little old place, I was like, ‘Oh, I guess this place would be okay.’ He actually helped me with the down payment. He goes, ‘Don’t tell anybody. Don’t ever mention this again. And you know what? I don’t even want this money back. And if you try to pay me back, I ain’t gonna take it.’
He helped me. Like, he didn’t have to do that, right? Um, and he helped me get this place that I have, and I still have it to this day.
I haven’t to this day met any person more kind and thoughtful and just an overall good human being than AJ Styles. And I’m not just saying that because he helped me with the down payment on the house. Like, he always went above and beyond to help me and take care of me and make sure I was good.”