We're Relieved AJ Styles' Original Idea For His Wrestling Character Never Saw The Light Of Day
Smackdown Live Superstar AJ Styles wasn't always "The Phenomenal One"; in fact, he wasn't always AJ Styles. During a new interview the immensely talented wrestler outlines his idea for his first even gimmick.
Before finally settling on a character that connects with an audience, lots of established wrestlers start out with... well, let's say less successful gimmicks. Kane was Isaac Yankum, Stone Cold was The Ring Master, and even The Rock bagan his career as the man who prompted the "die Rocky, die" chant, Rocky Maivia.
Though Allen Neal Jones has gone my the name AJ Styles for the majority of his professional career, before he broke into the business and worked like a Trojan to acquire the moniker of "The Phenomenal One", he envisioned himself as a very different type of character, and it was gloriously awful.
Styles revealed all during an appearance on Georgia Rock 100.5’s “Bailey and Southside” morning show:
“I wanted to wear a mask! I loved those [masked wrestler] guys. I’m so glad that didn’t happen … You can’t breathe in masks. I don’t know how these guys do it. I wanted to wear a mask and call myself ‘Velocity.’ What a terrible name. But I could do flips and everything. That was easy for me to do in the ring …
“I did my first match ever, I was ‘Mr. Olympia.’ I wore a mask, and wore my old singlet that I took from my college, turned it inside out, and I wore wrestling shoes, and I looked absolutely ridiculous. And my next match, I didn’t have a name, and everybody always called me ‘AJ’ anyway, so I stuck with AJ. And then, [the promoter] is like, ‘yeah, you’re tagging with Damien Steel. We need a last name. Styles! Go!’ That’s it. That’s how the name [came] about, AJ Styles. I hated it. I hated Styles for a really long time.”
Gods of Wrestling, please let AJ wear that mask and adopt the Velocity character at some point... even just for a night.
Tune in to see Styles in action later tonight on Smackdown Live.