AJ Styles Reveals Abyss Was Once Planned For WWE’s Royal Rumble

Abyss almost made his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble.

During the February 23 edition of Monday Night RAW, WWE held a tribute to AJ Styles following his retirement at the Royal Rumble, during which a number of notable figures from Styles’ career made an appearance. One of those appearances was Abyss, and it has now emerged that ‘The Monster’ almost had an even greater onscreen presence in WWE at one point.

During the latest episode of his Phenomenally Retro podcast, AJ Styles revealed that Abyss was once planned to feature in the Royal Rumble, though the spot ultimately never came to fruition.

“There was a moment in time where we thought we were going to have [Abyss] in the Royal Rumble. It didn’t go through and I hate that for him. It would have been just like a stamp on Abyss. The character finally made it to the WWE. I would’ve loved that, but I guess somebody didn’t agree.”

-AJ Styles

Abyss, whose real name is Joseph Park, signed with WWE as a producer in January 2019. Park later appeared as AJ Styles’ onscreen statistician in August 2020, though he has largely remained a key presence behind the scenes in the years since.

During his time with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, Abyss became the promotion’s second Grand Slam Champion, following in the footsteps of ‘The Phenomenal’ AJ Styles.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on AJ Styles’ future following his retirement as soon as we hear more.

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