AJ Styles Recalls Making Triple H Feel Awful Near the End of His WWE Career

AJ Styles admittedly got weird as the clock kept ticking on his WWE retirement.

AJ Styles Recalls Making Triple H Feel Awful Near the End of His WWE Career

Triple H and AJ Styles [via- Cageside Seats]

AJ Styles hung up his wrestling boots earlier this year, and he’s almost six months into his life post-retirement. Quite recently, the 49-year-old hopped on Chris Van Vliet‘s Insight podcast for a full-fledged conversation. While talking about how long had he been thinking of calling it a career, Styles revealed he was initially supposed to bow out at last year’s WrestleMania.

At the ‘Show of Shows’ in 2025, the WWE Hall of Famer suffered a defeat at the hands of Logan Paul. The former IWGP Champion decided to extend his run, as he’d just come back from a foot injury and his body felt good. ‘The Phenomenal One’ didn’t ask WWE for a pay raise and only wanted to keep going on for a bit longer.

Styles, however, noted that WWE did right by him by paying him well, and that was never an issue. The former Bullet Club leader eventually opened up about getting weird as he approached his retirement. AJ started questioning everything and said a normal, sane version of him wouldn’t have done it.

‘The Face That Runs the Place’ even admitted to making Triple H feel awful over putting Gunther in the Royal Rumble match on the same night he was supposed to retire AJ Styles. The latter might’ve aggressively questioned the WWE CCO and the rest of the creative team as to why they were having Gunther in the Rumble if he wasn’t going to win it.

Styles would’ve thought it’d make no sense for ‘The Ring General’ to be embarrassed in the Royal Rumble match shortly after he sent AJ packing into retirement. However, in hindsight, the former OC leader realized that the Austrian being extremely exhausted due to the match he had with Styles and consequently losing the Rumble match was just logical storytelling.

But admittedly being in a weird state of mind triggered an emotionally charged reaction from Styles, for which he apologized to everyone he acted that way in WWE. The wrestling icon said he was finding it difficult to come to terms with having to bid adieu to something he’d basically dedicated his whole life to.

This was all he had ever known. The feeling of what life was going to look like on the other side of his in-ring retirement was quite confusing for AJ Styles.

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Is AJ Styles ever going to wrestle again?

Although he had clarified it on multiple occasions beforehand as well, AJ Styles reiterated during the aforementioned conversation on Insight that the thought of not being able to produce the same version of AJ Styles anymore bolstered his decision to hang it up. He didn’t want to overstay his welcome to a point where he might embarrass himself.

AJ Styles
AJ Styles [via- WWE]

Styles couldn’t have lived with the regret of fans witnessing a downgraded version of him in the ring and being like that wasn’t the AJ Styles they knew.

When asked by Chris Van Vliet if he misses wrestling, the ‘Georgia Pitbull’ said he doesn’t miss getting hurt. However, the fact that he’d no longer get to experience the excitement of walking out in front of a packed arena is something that he’ll definitely miss forever.

Vliet ultimately asked AJ if there was a chance he would ever wrestle again. Styles, surprisingly, didn’t outright deny it. He instead said that the wrestlers are usually granted one chance to return to the ring, and that’s where he left it.

Styles thought he’d love the opportunity to wrestle with his sons if it ever materialized. His middle son, Avery Styles, recently made his wrestling debut in Georgia. The 19-year-old Styles is now set for his GCW debut on July 31.

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