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AJ Styles Regrets Making Triple H ‘Feel Awful’ About GUNTHER’s Royal Rumble Appearance

ByRebecca Collier
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AJ Styles says he ‘got weird’ in the build-up to his WWE retirement.

In January 2026, at the Royal Rumble Premium Live Event, AJ Styles wrestled his final match in a singles loss to GUNTHER. The former Bullet Club leader concluded a career that began in 1998 and included time in ROH, TNA, and NJPW before his 10-year stint with WWE. Whilst content in retirement now, Styles says he was not always calm when his time as an active performer was coming to an end.

Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Styles shared that he initially questioned GUNTHER participating in the Royal Rumble on the same show ‘The Ring General’ had sent him into retirement.

“I’m not saying I didn’t get weird near the end of knowing I was going to retire or leave WWE; I got weird, dude. I just was questioning everything. A normal, sane AJ Styles would not question this; it would just be what it is. Even the moment where I found out Gunther was in the Royal Rumble, and I think that it already been explained that he was in the Royal Rumble, and that I got this match, but I was like, what the freak? I think I made Triple H feel awful about, oh man, I didn’t think about that. When reality is, nobody thought about that; nobody did, nobody cared, even when Gunther came out at the Royal Rumble and got beat. In fact, it should have made more sense that he got beat because he was in the ring with AJ Styles. He got exhausted in that match, of course he’s not going to win the Royal Rumble. So I just got weird, man. So, my apologies to everyone who I acted that way, and I was just in a weird state of mind.” 

-AJ Styles

Two-time WWE Champion Styles has been retired for nearly six months. Since then, he has taken on a coaching and scouting role with WWE. Meanwhile, the man who retired him, GUNTHER, is set to face Nick Aldis at Summerslam this August.

On the topic of GUNTHER’s recent booking, “The Phenomenal One” recently agreed with the notion that WWE had ‘dropped the ball’ on the former World Heavyweight Champion since he retired Styles in January. You can read more about that here.

As always, we will aim to provide any further updates on AJ Styles and GUNTHER as soon as we hear more.