What AJ Styles Is Really Planning For WWE Retirement
The lid might have just been lifted on AJ Styles’ plans for his WWE retirement.
Retirement has been the word of the year in WWE and the wrestling industry as the business gets ready to say goodbye to some all-time greats.
John Cena began his retirement year in January 2025 and will compete for the final time at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13th when he goes one-on-one with Gunther. Across the Pacific Ocean, Hiroshi Tanahashi is on the brink of his own retirement as he will compete for the final time at Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th 2026, when he clashes with his old rival, Kazuchika Okada.
One man who has a significant history with both Cena and Tanahashi also has one eye on hanging up his own boots in the not-too-distant future.
AJ Styles Rules Out John Cena’s Retirement Approach
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, John Cena gave an insight as to AJ Styles’ mindset when he considers his own future, and it seems Styles won’t be having a year-long retirement tour of his own:
AJ Styles, such a great dude. I got to talk to him a little bit while we were locked in our program. I’m like ‘Man, AJ, there are a lot of people who really admire you out there. I know you’re thinking of calling it quits soon, do you think that there’s any possibility you would try to do something like this? I honestly think people would pay to see you one last time.’
He’s literally tying his shoes, he turns to me and says, ‘Man, I’m 48,’ and as soon as the words left his mouth, he didn’t have to say anything else.
It’s something about those late 40s, where he’s like ‘I’m already overstaying my physical welcome, they just don’t see it, because they don’t see what goes into prep, cooldown, recovery, I’m already riding that razor’s edge.’ You can’t tell, because he still looks great, still does great stuff, but he can’t stay another second, because he doesn’t want to put out a product that isn’t AJ Styles.
The same goes for me, like yeah, this is why I’m going, because I can still give you what you want, I don’t want to walk away when I can’t.