AJ Styles Explains Why Losing the WWE Title Felt Like Biggest Weight Lifted off His Shoulders

AJ Styles has recounted dropping the WWE title to Daniel Bryan and finding it a massive stress-relieving moment for himself.

AJ Styles Explains Why Losing the WWE Title Felt Like Biggest Weight Lifted off His Shoulders

AJ Styles [via- WWE]

AJ Styles held the WWE Championship twice in his decade-long tenure with the company as an active wrestler. The Phenomenal One’s second title reign lasted 371 days, giving him entry into an elite list of WWE Superstars who have held the top prize for a continuous reign of one year or more. But why was he relieved after losing it?

The retired wrestler elaborated on that sentiment in the latest episode of his Phenomenally Retro podcast. Styles said from having enough experience that being a champion is exhausting due to the responsibility that comes along with it. The championship holder is obviously expected to drive the business, put on unbelievable matches, do the media rounds, etc.

While representing any championship across the board is a task in itself, there’s an added burden associated with the world title holders as they’re expected to lead by example. AJ said in the aforementioned podcast that losing the WWE title to the former Daniel Bryan felt to him as if the biggest weight had gotten lifted off his shoulders.

Styles listed the challenges of being a world champion in WWE. Speaking of when he had the title belt on SmackDown, he was working four days a week, including house shows. Back then, the WWE Hall of Famer had a conversation with his wife about giving it his all for a year. He knew in his mind that he could earn the appreciation of the fans by leaving no stone unturned or else it’d end up in flames.

In his second title reign that was eventually halted by Daniel Bryan in November 2018, AJ Styles had defended the championship a staggering 14 times, excluding non-televised title defenses. ‘The Georgia Pitbull’ was obviously taking an immense toll on his body during that period, which Styles attributed as a major factor of being exhausted in general.

‘The Face That Runs the Place’ got the chance to defend the WWE title only once at WrestleMania, which he did in 2018. Moreover, the man he was up against, Shinsuke Nakamura, shared a ton of history with the 49-year-old from their time in NJPW.

Their WrestleMania match turned out to be an underwhelming affair with a languid New Orleans crowd not helping the cause either. Many fans believe that Styles vs. Shin should’ve kicked off the event in order for them to illicit the best reactions out of a crowd that had to sit through for 7-8 hours in total.

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AJ Styles comments on LA Knight holding a world title in WWE

AJ Styles also touched on what is increasingly becoming a pipe dream at this point, and that’s the actual possibility of LA Knight becoming a WWE Champion someday. In an excerpt from the aforementioned podcast, ‘The Phenomenal One’ hoped for ‘The Megastar’ to achieve that feat, stating he had earned it.

LA Knight beat AJ Styles at WrestleMania 40
LA Knight beat AJ Styles at WrestleMania 40 [via- WWE]

Styles specifically pointed out Knight’s incredible mic skills, which in itself would be enough to back him up as a world title-holder. The former Bullet Club leader expressed that there are some other names also with such potential, but they’re running out of time, unfortunately.

AJ Styles stressed about the need for getting it done sooner than later with Knight if WWE were to give him the world title in the future. ‘Mr. TNA’ further said he wants to see the world championship around the waists of those men who have never held it before. Styles had a match with ‘The Unchosen One’ at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia.

Although the ‘Georgia Pitbull’ lost that night, AJ Styles and LA Knight managed to build their feud incredibly well at a time when the entire focus was around Cody Rhodes finishing his story with Roman Reigns and The Rock doing everything in his power to prevent it from happening.

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