AJ Styles shared his thoughts on having his final match at the Royal Rumble rather than WrestleMania.
During the WWE Now: Raw Recap show, Styles was asked about stepping away at this past year’s Rumble event rather than wrapping his career at WrestleMania:
It was coming back from injury to WrestleMania (2025) to a match that, to me, didn’t have much build, and WrestleMania – I’m sorry to say, used to be the most prestigious PLE, or pay-per-view, whatever you want to call it. But to me, it’s kind of lost its luster a bit. As far as the Royal Rumble, that’s special to me because that’s where I made my debut. So, to be able to end where I started, it’s poetic.
Styles sustained a Lisfranc injury in his foot in October 2024 and returned last January. In a recent video blog, he stated that the original plan was to retire at WrestleMania 41, but he didn’t think it was satisfying to return from an injury and retire so quickly after the return. He wrestled Logan Paul at last year’s event in Las Vegas and worked throughout 2025, holding the world tag titles with Dragon Lee.
During his retirement ceremony on Raw, it was announced that Styles will join Stephanie McMahon as part of this year’s Hall of Fame class in Las Vegas.
The retiring star wrestled at nine WrestleMania events during his decade with WWE, with opponents Chris Jericho, Shane McMahon, Shinsuke Nakamura, Randy Orton, The Undertaker, New Day, Edge, LA Knight, and Logan Paul.
