Major AEW Interest in AJ Styles After His WWE Retirement with Royal Rumble Loss to Gunther

AJ Styles has interest from AEW, and he's expected to be approached by WWE's rival company if he becomes available.

Major AEW Interest in AJ Styles After His WWE Retirement with Royal Rumble Loss to Gunther

AJ Styles retired from WWE at Royal Rumble 2026 [via- WWE]

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AJ Styles will not compete in a WWE ring again after his loss to Gunther in a career-threatening match this past Saturday at the Royal Rumble. The fans are still hoping to see the 48-year-old resume wrestling in other companies like TNA and AEW, even for a short run. In fact, All Elite Wrestling has major interest in ‘The Phenomenal One’.

As per Fightful Select, Styles was a hot topic of discussion in AEW over the last week. Although no one at this point knows his official status with WWE, the outlet noted in its report that those it spoke to in AEW expected that the Tony Khan-led promotion will approach the former Bullet Club leader should he become available.

Mike Johnson of PWInsider has noted that both AJ Styles and Tiffany Stratton are expected to be at the WWE Headquarters this week. Johnson suspected that they were being brought in to record some podcast-related content. Even though there’s no confirmation on it yet, Fightful reported last year that Styles’ WWE contract was up in February 2026.

Also, there isn’t a sure-shot possibility of ‘Mr. TNA’ wrestling again at this stage of his life. Not that long ago, AJ’s longtime wrestling soulmate Shinsuke Nakamura posted a note on Instagram that revealed Styles informing Nakamura that he had made up his mind to call it quits at Royal Rumble 2026. If that’s the case, why would the ‘Face That Runs the Place’ wrestle again elsewhere?

Moreover, in a conversation that he had with John Cena while they were building toward the Perth-slated Crown Jewel PLE last October, ‘The Phenomenal One’ told Cena about not intending to emulate a year-long WWE farewell tour like the Peacemaker actor. That does align with AJ’s willingness to hang up his wrestling boots sooner without being obliged to continue until the end of this year.

Who stepped up to Gunther to avenge AJ Styles’ disrespect on Raw?

This week on Raw, the career killer of AJ Styles, viz., Gunther, pulled off a troll job by coming out to The Phenomenal One’s entrance music. ‘The Ring General’ garnered immense heat for having ended the legendary WWE career of a fan favorite. After gloating about adding Styles to his rich haul of claiming the careers of the all-time greats, with John Cena and Bill Goldberg already in it, Dragon Lee dared to step up to the Austrian.

Gunther choking out Dragon Lee on Raw
Gunther choking out Dragon Lee on WWE Raw [via- WWE]

Lee had a brief tag team stint with Styles, and they even captured the world tag team titles in the later stages of 2025 only to lose them to The Usos on the last Raw episode of the year. The former CMLL star has had enough of Gunther, and he decided to go after the former World Heavyweight Champion.

Lee was successful in stunning the 38-year-old for a little while. That outburst didn’t last long, however, as Gunther clocked Lee’s skull with the ring bell. The former Imperium leader ultimately choked out the luchador after locking him in that devastating sleeper hold.

Another man who would’ve been bummed about AJ Styles‘ WWE career being over is CM Punk. ‘The Best in the World’ will go down as the last wrestler that Styles had a match with on Monday Night Raw. They went at it last week in Toronto, with the Chicagoan putting his world title on the line. Despite the match being decent, it ended on a disappointing note when Finn Balor caused a disqualification.

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