AJ Styles officially hung up his wrestling boots at the Royal Rumble, the same place he debuted 10 years ago. The decorated wrestler faced Gunther, who choked him out in a similar fashion to John Cena just a month ago. Following the emotional moment, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque — who dealt with Styles’ retirement story head-on — says he believes Styles is “done.”
There’s been a lot of talk over the last few months of Styles taking his retirement tour global, hitting TNA, NJPW, and even AEW. These theories were only heightened when Styles refused to leave his gloves in the ring. But it doesn’t seem to be the case.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations on the off chance when this all came down,” he said during the Royal Rumble post-show. “Obviously, we expected it later in the year. We had a lot of conversations about it. AJ is one of those people that absolutely wants to give back and be a part of this business. I don’t want to speak for him, but the conversations that he had with me, he made it very clear that he was just done with the in-ring. There’s a point when you just reach in your career where you say, I don’t want to do this anymore, and when your heart goes, no matter how good you are — he hasn’t lost a step at anything — but when you just say, ‘I’m just at a place when I don’t wanna do this anymore,’ it’s time.”
AJ Styles’ post-retirement future
However, just because he’s done in-ring doesn’t mean he’s done with wrestling forever. According to Triple H, he hopes to see Styles in a similar capacity to Shawn Michaels who heads the NXT brand.
“Before you get hurt, before you get told you’re not allowed to do this anymore. I think he was there,” he continued. “I’m hoping that he will contribute, because again, he’s one of the most influential people in the business and one of the greatest minds in the business and I think when you see somebody like what Shawn Michaels is doing in NXT, I think that’s a path and a career for AJ Styles, beyond this period that he’s in.”
Stay tuned to VICE for news on WWE.
The post Triple H Reacts to AJ Styles Retiring at the WWE Royal Rumble appeared first on VICE.
