AJ Styles Recalls Unique Pitch That Was Made For Iconic WWE Match

AJ Styles wasn’t sure about a huge WWE match that he had, but it ended up working well when it happened.

The final match in the legendary career of WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker was against AJ Styles in front of no fans.

That match was the infamous Boneyard Match that headlined WrestleMania 36 Saturday in 2020 during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of having a match in the ring with no fans around them, WWE created the Boneyard Match, a cinematic match filmed at a house and made to look like a graveyard of sorts.

There were a lot of things that fans loved about that match, including when a smiling Styles thought he had the Deadman beat, but that’s when Undertaker appeared behind him. It’s become a popular GIF online too. Anyway, The Undertaker would come back to win in decisive fashion.

During his wide-ranging interview with Chris Van Vliet, AJ Styles was asked about the original idea for The Undertaker match at WrestleMania 36.

“It’s hard to know. I do remember asking Taker, I was like, ‘Hey, can you still do the flip over to your feet onto the outside?’ He goes, ‘AJ…’ I go, oh man, I’m just making sure. I get it now that you don’t think I can do it kind of thing.

But I don’t know, we didn’t get a chance to really talk it over, because by the time it was on its way, when it was happening, the world was shutting down completely, so we didn’t know what kind of match we didn’t talk about it. I was trying to think of spots in my head that we could do, but man, with everything that’s going on, it’s hard to think of anything else.”

The Plans For AJ Styles-Undertaker Match Changed

As he continued, Styles spoke about how things changed, and it became a Boneyard Match.

“Yeah, about two days before we had it. I think it was a week, matter of fact, because I think it was presented as a Boneyard match. I was like, ‘What the frick is a Boneyard match?’ Could have said graveyard match, but they wanted to say Boneyard match, and then I had no idea where it was going, and then we go over to the place where the cinematic match is going to happen.

It looked like nothing. It was basically nothing. Then I get brought back the day of the shoot. I was like, oh my gosh, this looks amazing. This looks unbelievably amazing. This is awesome. And so I started getting excited about that, because you think about cinematic matches normally don’t do well, they’re not the best thing ever.”

Now that he’s retired as a WWE superstar, AJ Styles is busy being a family man, and he’s also working for WWE behind the scenes. Styles revealed that he helped produce the Tony D’Angelo-Naraku match on NXT television earlier this week.

“I was able to help with the producing of the Tony D and Naraku match. I thought it went really well. I’m one of those people who is still heavily involved in watching the match. While I was on the headset, I did not do a good job of saying anything other than, ‘Ah! Yes!’ I let somebody else handle that part of the producing.”

Clearly, The Phenomenal One is staying busy as a retired wrestler, which is obviously a good thing for a workaholic like him.

Also read: AJ Styles Breaks Silence On Ex-AEW Star’s Arrival In WWE