AJ Styles did an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to discuss his Boneyard Match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36. Here are some of the highlights:
JB: Take us behind the curtain. What don’t we know about the filming of the match?
AS: There were definitely some crazy moments. Undertaker had to get stitches after he busted his arm open. That just added to the match, to be honest with you. Just being there and doing that particular match was awesome.
And I don’t know if everyone knows how long it actually took. We started around eight o’clock, and we didn’t get finished ‘til about 4:30 in the morning. It was basically a movie, so we needed to get cameras in the right spot and walk through some stuff that was going to happen. I have a lot more respect for actors after working on those fight scenes.
JB: Did you know the filming was going to last throughout the night?
AS: I didn’t know I was going to be up all night. Nobody really knew how long this was going to take, so how do you prepare for something you don’t know? But it all worked out. It was difficult to stay up that late, but we pumped each other before the fight scenes. Undertaker and myself, we did our fight scenes in one take. That’s all it took. But at one point, Undertaker had his scene with the minions, so we were waiting for our spot to come up. The waiting, that part was long, but it was still good. The way it all turned out was unbelievable.
JB: You have made a career out of this, so it’s likely second nature but is preparing for a match with The Undertaker at all similar to preparing for a match with Daniel Bryan? Or, given the differences between the Boneyard match and last Friday’s SmackDown, is it too difficult to compare the two?
AS: It’s really difficult to compare the two. They’re totally different, but I do prepare for everybody, so that’s the same.
JB: You’ve had an incredible career, including two runs with the WWE Championship and two with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, as well as career-defining moments in the ring with Sting, Kurt Angle, and John Cena. Where does your match with The Undertaker rank on list of accomplishments?
AS: It’s an accomplishment just to be able to work an angle with him. I didn’t think that was ever going to happen. I heard in last week’s episode [of Last Ride] that Undertaker thought he was done and ready to move away from wrestling. I didn’t know that, I didn’t know that was going on. So it’s such an honor that he would trust me enough to work me, even though he had decided he was done.
