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What’s the story?
Current WWE Champion AJ Styles recently spoke with Jay Reddick of the Orlando Sentinel and during the interview “The Phenomenal One” talked about his WWE debut and being regarded as one of the best wrestlers on the planet.
In case you didn’t know…
It was at the 2016 Royal Rumble pay-per-view when the entire wrestling world went into a frenzy as “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles finally stepped foot into the WWE for the first time in his career. For years many fans believed that it was almost next to impossible for AJ Styles to wrestle for the WWE, due to him being a homegrown Impact Wrestling star.
Styles, who left Impact a few years ago, is a former two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion and had one of the most successful runs in New Japan Pro Wrestling history-- considering the fact that he was a gaijin.
The former leader of the Bullet Club also had some of the most memorable matches in Japan against the likes of Minoru Suzuki, Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura and more.
The heart of the matter
During his interaction with Jay Reddick, Styles spoke about a host of topics and here are a few highlights from the interview:
On being regarded as wrestling’s best:
Styles stated that he takes a lot of pride while doing his in-ring work and it doesn’t matter who he steps into the ring with because his main focus is to make wrestling look as real as possible both inside and outside the ring.
The magic is making the fans question whether these two guys really like each other of hate each other. That performance is what the business is all about… it’s the storylines that people remember.
On his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble:
“The Phenomenal One”, said that the response that he received from the WWE crowd that night is something which he will never forget, especially after spending two years outside of U.S. mainstream. Styles claimed that he was worried about how much the people would actually remember him, but the response that he got from the crowd is something really special and still remains very memorable to him.
What’s next?
AJ Styles is currently in his second reign as the WWE Champion and the 40-year-old will defend his World Title one last time in 2017 when he squares off against Jinder Mahal and John Cena in a triple threat match later this week.
Author’s Take
AJ Styles’ WWE debut till date remains one of my all-time favourite moments in the WWE and the fact that “The Phenomenal One” is finally working for the top wrestling promotion in the world is still unbelievable.
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