AJ Styles Reveals What He Wants out of the Fans with Him Nearing His Retirement

AJ Styles is hoping that the fans will treat his wrestling retirement in a celebratory manner.

AJ Styles Reveals What He Wants out of the Fans with Him Nearing His Retirement

AJ Styles [via- BR Wrestling]

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This year, at some point, AJ Styles will hang up his wrestling boots for good to call it a day on his legendary in-ring career. He’ll turn 49 this June, and Styles explicitly stated in an interview with Chris Van Vliet last year that he would be done as an active performer before 50. ‘Mr. TNA’, already in his year of retirement, has elaborated on what he wants out of the fans.

Being the latest guest on The Undertaker‘s Six Feet Under podcast, the 2-time WWE Champion underscored the utmost privilege of retiring from this business on one’s own two feet instead of a career-threatening injury dictating terms for any individual out there. “And the goal of working is to retire,” said AJ.

The thing about retirement is the opportunity to go out your way. Not because of injury, but standing on your own two feet, and the goal of working is to retire. To be able to do that is, to me, a celebration. So I hope that when it does happen that you guys will celebrate with me that I achieved my goal.

AJ Styles via Six Feet Under podcast

Given that he’s on track to do just that, it feels like a celebration to the Jacksonville-born wrestler. Styles hoped that the fans would also feel that way for him when the time does come to retire, which is not that far away. ‘The Phenomenal One’ isn’t privy to the rollercoaster of emotions that the fans went through quite recently with John Cena riding off into the sunset in mid-December.

Styles personally told Cena that he didn’t ever intend on doing a farewell tour like the Hollywood mogul embarked on last year. Not committing to what Cena did with a year-long project, which was his way of expressing gratitude to the WWE Universe, would free up Styles from the entitlement of continuing to wrestle till the very end of 2026.

That could possibly mean a WrestleMania farewell is very much in the cards for ‘The Face That Runs the Place’. And WWE has made it glaringly obvious that Gunther could be the one to retire him. AJ Styles has had a number of interactions with ‘The Ring General’ in recent weeks, with the latest being this past Monday night on Raw.

The former IWGP Champion slapped the smile off the Austrian’s face to end his three-week-long trail of bursts of laughter after making Cena give up. Styles and Gunther are set for a first-time-ever clash on this week’s Raw in Germany. However, this feud is expected to escalate to unprecedented levels on the road to WrestleMania 42.

AJ Styles confirms that John Cena got in some trouble for his Crown Jewel act

Wrestling AJ Styles one last time certainly kept an otherwise borderline futile John Cena farewell tour from being a complete dud. The two of them shared the ring at Crown Jewel in Perth. Apart from their match being a standalone clinic, something that happened before the opening bell caught almost everyone off guard.

John Cena and AJ Styles
John Cena and AJ Styles (via WWE)

Cena had written a beautiful introduction for one of his great rivals that saw the latter getting introduced as the definition of Total Nonstop Action. ‘The Cenation Leader’ had also made it loud and clear that Styles was the ace and the undisputed boss of the Bullet Club, an acknowledgement that made Styles utter “Oh Sh*t,” on the spot.

Recapping that entire incident, ‘The Phenomenal One’ said during the aforementioned conversation with The Undertaker that ‘The Franchise Player’ did eventually get in a bit of trouble for pulling it off. Styles was made aware of it by Cena himself, who admitted during a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet that he was in the wrong and it wasn’t wise to go off the script without informing anyone backstage in WWE.

The 17-time world champion apologized to the concerned people afterwards and promised that such a thing wouldn’t happen again. Speaking of AJ Styles‘ response to Cena telling him that he landed in hot water for his custom introduction, ‘Mr. TNA’ was subtly dismissive of it, as he couldn’t fathom anyone in WWE making Cena pay for what he did.

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