AJ Styles Pays Tribute To Surprising Ex-WWE Star

AJ Styles loved working with an unexpected WWE rival.

After making his return to action at the Royal Rumble, AJ Styles sat down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss his legendary career and what might come next.

During the conversation, Styles admitted his latest injury almost cost him his career, fearing he’d be unable to recover from the freak incident on SmackDown. Not that the end of his career isn’t already on his mind.

AJ Styles went on to promise that he won’t wrestle into his 50s, meaning he has around two years left in the ring.

AJ Styles Freaking Loves Shane McMahon

When looking back to his early days in WWE, Styles recalled his match at WrestleMania 33 against Shane McMahon. The former World Champion said that while no one expected the pair to have a good match, he loved working with McMahon, who was “dedicated to perfection.”

“Oh, I’ve had, I think we’ve had some matchups in the past where you thought, ‘Nah, I don’t know about this one.

A perfect example: No one thought that me and Shane McMahon were gonna have a good match. I thought we did a very good job of making that very entertaining. Had some moments in there that are really cool. I had the opportunity to work Shane McMahon. An awesome guy, freaking love him. No one more is dedicated to perfection than Shane McMahon.

Ask The Undertaker, he’ll tell you, and I respect the heck out of that. The stuff that he does. He’s still doing a Shooting Star Press. Are you kidding me? He beats himself up. Man, I have so much respect for Shane. I freaking love him. That was a great match.

“He just wanted to perfect it, whatever we were doing. He wanted to make sure it was spot-on every time, and you got to respect that. I mean, that’s what I want. Then, to be able to bounce some stuff off of him that — the guy could fight for real, you know?

So we were able to put a little bit of that stuff that he knew, a little bit of Jiu Jitsu that he’s taken, and make it work. It was really a fun match, man. It was really unexpected, I think, for fans to see us have such a good match together,”

It was recently reported that Shane McMahon made an incredible pitch to run AEW. McMahon reportedly made the offer while meeting with AEW boss Tony Khan back in July, however, it ultimately wasn’t taken seriously.

Despite this, one source refused to rule out the two sides working together in the future.

McMahon has stayed largely away from the wrestling industry after tearing his quad during an impromptu match with The Miz at WrestleMania 39.

H/t to Fightful