Freak Injury Almost Ended WWE Star’s Career

A big-name WWE star has confirmed that they recently came extremely close to retirement.

On October 4th, AJ Styles made his return to SmackDown, but things didn’t go to plan. Less than ten minutes into his first televised match since July, Styles suffered an injury, and the bout was waved off.

Although there were claims that the injury was part of a storyline, it quickly became apparent that Styles was genuinely injured.

It was eventually reported that the star had suffered a Lisfranc injury, and he didn’t return to the ring until the Royal Rumble on February 1.

During a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, Styles said he knew immediately he’d broken his foot as he’d suffered the injury before. However, it quickly became clear that things were much worse than he had initially feared.

“I knew I’d broke it. Because if you’ve broken it before, same foot, I was like I broke it again, and I’m p*ssed because now I know how long it’s gonna take to get back. But again, little did I know it was much worse than a break.”

Styles went on to break down just how serious the injury was, revealing he came incredibly close to never being able to wrestle again.

“Because it’s tendons, and my doctor, who is also my friend, was like do not look this up. I’m like I’m gonna look this up, and it’s a career-ending injury…

I was literally by the skin of my teeth able to [come back], they were like we can have surgery, we could do surgery on your foot and it will heal faster, but there could be complications as you get older. We don’t know. We don’t have to have surgery, let’s try to do some therapy and get it back to where it is.

Lucky for me I was able to get that therapy that I needed. Wasn’t easy. It sucked. It’s so crazy that you have to learn how to walk again to a certain extent, like how did I forget how to run? Little things like that. Because I was in a boot for six weeks, then I got six weeks in therapy, trying to figure this thing out. It’ll mess with you.”

In the weeks after he was injured, it was reported that AJ Styles was “pretty mad” with how everything played out, as the match was supposed to be the start of a significant storyline.

Later in his interview with Van Vliet, Styles reiterated that he feared his career was over, adding, “Yeah, I was p*ssed. I was mad. It may look like I was acting. I was not.”

AJ Styles Admits WWE Career Almost Over

On the eve of WrestleMania 40 in 2024, AJ Styles admitted he’s “close to the end” of his WWE career while revealing he’s worried about embarrassing himself in the ring. Although he didn’t do much to offer a timeline, those comments came back to the fore in September when it was reported his contract was coming to an end.

But, despite the speculation, the former World Champion remains with WWE and is performing at a high level. However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t still thinking about retirement.

During the same interview, AJ Styles “promised” he wouldn’t wrestle at 50. If the veteran sticks to that timeline, it means he has a little over two years left as an active wrestler.

H/t to ITR Wrestling