AJ Styles Reflects On Knowing He Wouldn’t Win The WWE Championship After 2024 Heel Turn

AJ Styles says it sucked that he knew he wasn’t going to win the WWE Championship in 2024.

Heading out of WrestleMania 40, Cody Rhodes’ first opponent as Undisputed WWE Champion was the newly-heel AJ Styles. ‘The Phenomenal One’ had turned during a feud with LA Knight, and, after finding himself the number one contender, he clashed with ‘The American Nightmare’ at both Backlash and Clash At The Castle. However, despite elevating things by faking his retirement, Styles was unable to capture the title, and the 48-year-old has looked back on his rivalry with Rhodes two years ago.

On the Phenomenally Retro Podcast, Styles reflected on his heel turn and feud with Cody Rhodes in 2024.

“I remember when Cody won the World Championship and AJ Styles was going through his dark time. The pitch was for AJ Styles to wrestle Cody Rhodes. I was like, ‘Well, freak. I just tried to get this character over being just a vicious heel, and I’m gonna have to lose if I’m wrestling Cody because we can’t flip flop the title. That’s not the way it’s gonna work.’ So it was nice being back in the main event on the PLEs and whatnot. It’s just, knowing you’re not gonna win based on the story that we have to tell kind of sucks, but it was still great matches.”

-AJ Styles

After losing to GUNTHER at the 2026 Royal Rumble event, AJ Styles brought his in-ring career to a close after over 25 years of competing. Unfortunately for fans of the star, he never reclaimed the top spot in WWE before his retirement, last holding a world title back in 2018.

Still, Styles is one of the company’s grand slam champions, going into the Hall of Fame just months after stepping away from the ring. Now, he operates as a talent scout for WWE, and you can read more on his comments about the new role here.

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

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