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What's the story?
Earlier this month, Sportskeeda reported on a radio interview that AJ Styles had with 97.9 The Box in Houston, Texas where he stated that he may start to take it easy in a couple of years. From there, retirement rumours were spiralling out of control and AJ responded to one on Twitter Wednesday morning.
In case you didn't know...
AJ Styles made his "official" debut with the WWE at the Royal Rumble in 2016 (he was on an episode of WWF Jakked in 2002). With only Roman Reigns in the ring, AJ made the surprise debut at #3 to a thunderous ovation.
The heart of the matter
This is a good example of the old telephone game. Someone says one thing and passes it on to someone else changing the details slightly, and when it gets to another person down the line a couple of weeks later, the details are blown out of proportion.
The interview AJ had a couple of weeks ago stated he was going to take it easy in a couple of years, and now it has turned into he's retiring in a matter of months after WrestleMania 34.
Styles has four children including three boys who are the ages of 12, 10, and 8. His youngest child would be his only daughter who just turned 3. In the interview, he stated that he doesn't want to miss the major events in their lives; which is why he would like to take it easier, but not necessarily retire from the business completely.
What's next?
AJ Styles is the current WWE Champion and he will defend the title against Jinder Mahal at Clash Of Champions; which takes place on December 17th. The event takes place live from the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
Author's take
AJ Styles is in phenomenal shape (pun intended) today at age 40 and I think he'll be able to go into his late 40's like Chris Jericho is doing. He's just going to not wrestle 300 days out of the year down the road like he is now.
He has four children and will want to spend a lot more time watching them grow up, so it makes sense that he would want to scale it back a couple of years from now.
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