AJ Styles is one of the most accomplished pro wrestlers of the last 25 years, with a world-spanning career that eventually led to him signing with WWE in 2016. However, Styles could’ve easily had a different wrestling trajectory based on one key decision.

Styles once revealed in a WWE behind-the-scenes video that he turned down a developmental contract from WCW in 2000. The company was offering Styles a mere $500 per week to move down to the Power Plant in Atlanta, Georgia, and there was no guarantee he’d ever make TV.

At the time, Styles was working as a water delivery man. Though he did want to succeed as a pro wrestler, he also had bills to pay, and the job was important to him. Ironically, delivering water is also the job that helped Styles break into the industry in the first place. As he tells it, after deciding to pursue wrestling, Styles did not have money to pay for training, but he did have an excess of water because of his job. Styles’ trainer allowed him to pay in gallons of water rather than money, thus opening the door for a future wrestling great to learn the ropes.

The decision not to sign with WCW likely would’ve seemed like a questionable move to many at the time, but it ended up working in Styles’ favor. WCW was shut down just a year later, with WWE purchasing the company’s assets from AOL Time Warner. Styles continued working with the NWA before joining TNA upon that company’s creation, and he’d wind up becoming one of the key figures in the promotion’s history before later wrestling in NJPW. Now, with nearly a decade in WWE under his belt, Styles has confirmed that he’s approaching the end of his in-ring career.