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Family Factor May Prevent AJ Styles From Joining AEW

By Monika Thapa • Published Feb 09, 2026 04:47 EST
AJ Styles

AJ Styles retired following his loss to Gunther at the Royal Rumble in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Following Styles’ retirement, there has been ongoing speculation that he may join AEW after his WWE contract reportedly expires in February 2026. However, a wrestling expert believes that Styles may not join AEW due to his family.

Styles recently confirmed that his son is currently training with him for a potential wrestling career. Speaking on Stephanie McMahon’s What’s Your Story podcast? AJ Styles hinted that he would come out of retirement under one condition: if he gets the opportunity to tag team with his son.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. Never say never, right? That’s the saying. I think everybody is allowed at least once to come out of retirement. I’m not saying I’ll do it anytime soon. I’m just saying that, what if my son wrestles? The opportunity to tag with him once? You never know. There will be a time when the gloves never go back on, and it may be now. We’ll see,” Styles told Stephanie.

AJ Styles Will Stay In WWE For His Kids

Given his son’s current path, the potential dream match is more likely to happen under the WWE banner rather than in AEW. Therefore, Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer believes that AJ Styles will not join AEW for this reason.

Meltzer said, “That makes it a lot less likely he’s going to AEW for the people who still hold that on that one… From an AJ standpoint, if you’re looking at that, that’s a pretty good thing to say like, ‘I got a good thing here in WWE, I got a job for life.'”

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