AJ Styles Reveals Original Plans To Retire At WWE WrestleMania 41, Foot Injury Changed His Mind

An injury blow allowed fans more time to watch ‘The Phenomenal One’ in action.

At the Royal Rumble in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on January 31, AJ Styles suffered a submission loss to GUNTHER that brought his WWE career to an end, though it has now emerged that he had originally planned to retire from in ring competition even sooner.

In a farewell tour vlog posted to WWE’s YouTube channel, Styles revealed that he had originally intended to retire at WrestleMania 41. However, he ultimately changed his mind when a foot injury left him with only two months to build towards his swansong, prompting him to shift his focus to this year’s Royal Rumble instead.

“Everybody wants to retire at WrestleMania, the biggest show of the year that we do. I was going to do exactly that, but I just came back from an injury that was supposed to retire me. It retires most. But once I got healed up and was comfortable enough running and doing what I need to do to be AJ Styles, it just didn’t feel right to come back for two months just to retire. It didn’t seem right. I thought, ‘What a better way to be able to leave on the pay-per-view where you debuted.’”

-AJ Styles

Despite WWE presenting the bout as a retirement match for Styles, many fans remain unconvinced and believe we have not seen the last of him as an active competitor. Both AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling would reportedly be interested should he become available, which you can read more about here.

WWE has announced a Tribute to AJ Styles for next week’s edition of Monday Night RAW, with talent from Friday Night SmackDown reportedly set to travel to Atlanta to be in attendance.

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

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