2020 has been a difficult year for AJ Styles as the former WWE Champion started off the year by getting injured taking a bump for the returning Edge during the Royal Rumble, only to then get buried (literally) by The Undertaker at WrestleMania. One consistent part of his run was his alliance with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson as part of The O.C., but they were among the Superstars recently released by WWE.
Recently, Styles was a guest on Corey Graves' After The Bell podcast (h/t Fightful), and discussed his trade to SmackDown from RAW and how he believes that will help him get over the loss of his friends moving forward/
"I think they’re doing a good job [on Smackdown], so I’m excited about that. Doing something different is good for me. I needed a change," he explains. "Losing Gallows and Anderson really hurt me. Getting away from Raw helps me get over it — I don’t know if I’ll get over it, but it helps change the atmosphere around me and to do something different. My whole time on Raw was basically with them. To get away from that and get to SmackDown, where I’ve had a lot of success, it’s a good thing."
"I brought their names to WWE and when they got released, I immediately felt responsible for them because I helped them get here and I wanted them to stay," Styles continued. "I thought, if I hadn’t encouraged them to stay maybe they wouldn’t be behind right now. A lot of it fell on me and I felt like I let them down. I talked to them about this and I was just crushed. I’m the oldest and I didn’t take care of them. That really bothered me. And it still does."
Gallows and Anderson have promised to reveal the full story behind their WWE release on their podcast this July, and it's going to be interesting hearing their thoughts because the duo signed big money contracts in mid-2019 (and you have to believe that means their release came as a surprise).
Are you excited to see Styles on SmackDown?