During a recent appearance on the “Out of Character with Ryan Satin” podcast, AJ Styles commented on originally thinking Vince McMahon was going to give him a country gimmick in WWE, when he’s planning to retire, and more. You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On joining WWE and being worried Vince McMahon would give him a country gimmick: “It was one of those things that I was like, ‘Hey, listen if they’re looking for an AJ Styles, I would be happy to give it a shot’.’ I was willing to go down to NXT for a couple of months to get my feet wet and then get to a main brand like a Raw or SmackDown. I had no idea what was going to happen. There was talk of, ‘Hey, I don’t know if we can keep your name.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s fine, I’ll be whoever you want me to be but I have this huge tattoo on my side that says AJ, but you can call me whatever you want.’ Listen, I was worried about this southern accent that I can’t shake, that Vince was going to make me wear overalls and come out to a little country song or something with a banjo. I was more worried about that.”
On jumping straight to the WWE main roster and not going through NXT: “Absolutely, the fact that Samoa Joe was still in NXT and I was able to jump the line I was like, ‘OK.’ I wasn’t going to argue with them about it. I was happy to get the opportunity….timing, I think that had a lot to do with it. Being in Orlando was a huge thing for me, being in TNA for so long. Then, to have the opportunity to be number three, as crazy as that sounds, in the Royal Rumble, was huge for me. It was huge.”
On when he could retire from wrestling: “It’s a hard thing and you understand it more now when you know you’re getting closer to the end of your career how hard it will be to walk away because you enjoy that fan interaction, you enjoy everything about it – the friends who have become more like family. That stuff’s hard. It’s hard to leave. It’s hard to adjust once you’re done. But I got a taste I guess what that’s like with the COVID stuff, but I didn’t say I liked it. So, I’m not sure when it’s gonna be over for me but, like I said before, I signed my last contract, so we’ll see when that is. I remember thinking, ‘I’ll be 40 years old when I retire. That’s when I’m gonna retire.’ So, I was dead wrong, by the way.”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)