Thank you AJ Styles for everything you did for us over the years – You were truly phenomenal

So with AJ Styles fighting Shinsuke Nakamura tonight, all signs point to Styles retiring from wrestling at the Rumble. If that’s the case, I just wanted to write a small tribute to Styles and his career, which was truly phenomenal.

But before I start, I wanted to write a little bit about last Thursday’s Impact. Overall, I thought this week’s Impact was way better than the previous week’s episode. All the matches delivered. The presentation was what it was, but I don’t blame them, as they don’t have the type of resources that AEW and WWE have to put on a state-of-the-art presentation. While I’m happy that Trey Miguel was able to get his job back in TNA that quickly, am I the only one who thinks they only brought him back to fire him on the air next week? I also loved the angle they shot at the end of the show, as it came out of nowhere and now it gets you interested in what’s going to happen next with The System. In the end, this was a big improvement from the debut episode, and I hope that it does well in the ratings.

Now let’s talk about AJ Styles.

I first saw Styles on television when he got signed by WCW in 2000. He was teaming with Air Paris, and while I thought he was a little bit bland, I still thought he was a pretty strong cruiserweight wrestler. Then, after WCW closed, he had a chance to sign with WWE, but as he has said before, he felt that he wasn’t ready to go to WWE and the deal wasn’t that great, so he passed and went to ROH for a small run.

Then came his TNA run, which lasted a decade. For a while, fans thought he would be a lifer in TNA, and I was one of those guys. Throughout his run, he was able to learn and grow as a performer and understand that while you can have some awesome matches, having a personality is also important. I saw him go from a midcard X-Division wrestler and climb the ladder to become a main event star, having five-star matches with guys like Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, Sting, Jeff Hardy, and RVD, just to name a few. One of his most remembered matches will always be the triple threat match between Styles, Daniels, and Samoa Joe. This was just an awesome match that we still talk about to this day and even got guys like Leon Slater interested in becoming a pro wrestler.

Sadly, his run in TNA came to an end in 2013, mostly because Dixie wasn’t able to pay him the type of money he wanted, and he left to go back to the indies, including a small run in ROH and New Japan, which I can’t really write about since I wasn’t following either product at the time.

Then in 2016, AJ made the move that nobody thought would happen, and he signed with WWE. He made his debut at the Royal Rumble, and this has become one of the great moments in Rumble history, as nobody saw it coming. In his 10 years with the company, just like in TNA, he became a Grand Slam winner, winning pretty much every championship the company had and becoming one of the top stars in the company.

His feud with Cena is legendary and one of Cena’s greatest feuds. Last year’s match with Cena was considered by many to be the match of the year, which shows how much chemistry these two had in the ring.

Now we’re starting 2026, and while I would have loved to see a retirement tour for him like John Cena had, it seems like we won’t get that. Instead, his career will end in Saudi Arabia at the Rumble, which is poetic since that’s where he started. At least I’m lucky enough to see him wrestle Nakamura live before he retires, which I feel is awesome.

In the end, Styles gave us fans so much during his 25-year career and truly deserves this retirement, along with the chance to relax and spend time off the road with his family. So if this really is the end of his career next week, I just want to say, on behalf of all of us fans, thank you, AJ, for everything you did for us over the years. You were truly phenomenal.