Some may not believe it, but AJ Styles decided to retire at the Royal Rumble in a match against WWE's “Ring General” Gunther, and there was originally a different plan in place.
In WWE's latest vlog chronicling his last match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Styles revealed that he originally wanted to retire at WrestleMania. However, he had just come back from an ankle injury the previous year, and he “didn't feel right to come back for two months just to retire.” So, he found a different exit that was more poetic.
“I thought, What better way to be able to leave on the pay-per-view (PPV) where you debuted? Hopefully, at the end of this match, I stand up on my own two feet, I throw up the P1 that's on my gloves one more time, and I walk,” he explained.
The vlog was filmed before Styles' last match. However, it was not released until the following month. It sounds like Styles is at peace with how his career ended.
Is AJ Styles really retired from WWE after the Royal Rumble?
For now, Styles appears to be retired. WWE is going to celebrate his retirement during the Feb. 23 edition of Monday Night RAW. It's unclear exactly what that entails.
As Styles noted, it was poetic for him to retire after the 2026 Royal Rumble. He made his debut as a surprise entrant in the 2016 Royal Rumble a decade earlier.
His final feud was with Gunther, who is coming off a year in which he retired Goldberg and John Cena, two other legends. They first faced during the Jan. 12 edition of RAW.
However, it ended in controversial fashion. Gunther tapped out, but the referee didn't see it. Styles let go of his submission hold, and Gunther took advantage, defeating the “Phenomenal One.”
A few weeks later, they faced at the Royal Rumble on Jan. 31. Styles put his career on the line against Gunther, and he lost via technical submission.
