AJ Styles retirement confirmed.
The former WWE Champion’s talks of retirement is nothing new as AJ Styles has been saying for years that he’ll retire before the age of 50. AJ Styles is 48. There’s been talks and rumors that he’s recently signed a contract extension with WWE.
Though we don’t know for sure if that’s true or not, one thing is certain: AJ Styles is definitely retiring next year. The WWE star confirmed that during an interview with Tokyo Sports.
“I’m really excited. I think this will probably be my last match in Japan, so I’m really looking forward to it. I plan to retire soon, and I might not come back to Japan before that. I’ll probably be at WrestleMania, but it’s not confirmed yet. The details are still undecided, but I will definitely retire within the next year. I don’t want to show my fans a side of me that isn’t AJ Styles. That’s the main reason. I’ve decided to retire before my body can no longer move.”
As far as what he’ll do once he retires, that’s still up in the air. However, it does sound like he's end up doing something backstage in WWE.
“I think I’ll probably work for WWE. It might be good to help develop young talent into main roster-caliber wrestlers. But I just don’t know yet.”
Then the conversation shifted over to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, a place that Styles is all too familiar with. Hiroshi Tanahashi is expected to retire at Wrestle Kingdom next year. Styles has fought the NJPW President before, but Styles wouldn’t hesitate to take another opportunity to step into the ring against Tanahashi again. However, the possibility of that happening is slim to none.
“Tana is truly a great wrestler. I don’t think many have contributed as much to the industry as he has. I was truly honored to have wrestled him.
I still want it 1,000 percent (Styles said about another match with Tanahashi). But given our respective positions, I don’t know if it’ll happen. It may be difficult to fight him again, but I want to see his retirement match. Rather than thinking about who the opponent is, I feel that this position is something that has to be earned… We are both on the path to retirement, but this is truly a happy thing. In pro wrestling, your body getting wrecked is part of the deal. Just being able to have a retirement match is a huge blessing.”