5 Top WWE rumors from this week: 11-time champion favorite to win Royal Rumble; Roman Reigns' WrestleMania plans; Triple H "bummed out" (January 9th, 2022)

#2 AJ Styles' contract status with WWE

WWE lost a lot of top names to All Elite Wrestling last year. However, one name that is reportedly not going anywhere anytime soon is AJ Styles.

According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer Radio, the Phenomenal One recently signed a three or five-year deal with the company and is a WWE-lifer:

“No, he’s not going anywhere. He just signed, I don’t know if it’s a 3 or a 5 [year deal]. It wasn’t that long ago when he signed it. He’s not going anywhere. He had the chance to go if he wanted to but he was not interested. There were certainly overtures made for him and they were good money overtures but he’s in his mind, I think he’s a lifer there. Whether that’s the right or wrong call, I couldn’t tell you,” said Meltzer. (H/T WrestlingNews)

AJ Styles signed with the company in 2016 and has been one of the top stars, winning the WWE Championship twice. Over the last year, he has been mostly involved in the tag team division and fans want to see him back in the world title scene in 2022.

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#1 Backstage details and reason for Samoa Joe's WWE release

One of the biggest names released by WWE this past week was Samoa Joe. The former 3-time NXT Champion was initially released last year after WrestleMania 37. However, he returned to the company a couple of months later and went on to win the NXT Championship once again. He then had to relinquish his title in September and has since been out of action.

According to Fightful Select, Samoa Joe's release was "a further dismantling of the 2013-2021 vision of NXT and what Triple H had built."

The report added that there was hardly any talk of the in-ring return of Samoa Joe after him relinquishing the NXT title last year. Joe is believed to return to in-ring competition outside of WWE once his no-compete clause is over.