TNA/Impact Wrestling has had its ups and downs over the last 16 years no matter who has been in charge. Jeff Jarrett, Dixie Carter, and now, Anthem Sports & Entertainment have all run the company at one time or another but poor talent relations, a below-average product and payment issues have seemingly always plagued Impact from the beginning.

RELATED: PAYMENT ISSUES WITH IMPACT WRESTLING FORCE ANTHEM PRESIDENT TO RESPOND

The company has definitely had its moments over the years and perhaps the best thing ever to come from Impact Wrestling was AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One spent 12 years with the company and was dubbed "Mr. TNA" as the most accomplished performer the company has ever produced. Styles went through thick and thin with Impact and he recently discussed his time with the company on Lilian Garcia's Chasing Glory podcast.

Styles explained how Impact's downfall came in 2009 and 2010 when they decided to try to become "WWE Light" (H/T WrestlingInc).

"When you want to become a lesser version of something else, and when I say that, I mean WWE Light, you're not giving people an alternative." Styles added, "if they want to watch WWE, they're going to watch WWE. You've got to be something different, so they went with a regular square ring. I thought that was a big mistake. You [brought] in guys that I don't know people wanted to see anymore because they had grown so used to a certain style of wrestling that was happening at TNA. There were a lot of things that [brought] it down and it was guys like Christian and Kurt [Angle] who came over before all this happened that really sparked TNA and made it something bigger. It was growing because of them. But around 2009, 2010, around there, they forgot who they were and didn't rely on the guys that got them there to the ballgame in the first place, the big game, anyway. And therefore, it started going downhill."

Coincidentally, this just happens to be around the time that TNA splurged on the likes of Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall. Styles doesn't list any of those individuals by name, but you can infer that he was talking about them when he said "they brought in guys that people didn't want to see anymore."

In the interview Styles also discussed why he left TNA/Impact after a dozen years and it came down to the company asking him to take a pay cut. He then went over to New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2014 where he said he felt "reborn." NJPW would provide the bridge between TNA and WWE whom Styles joined in 2016.