With speculation swirling about AJ Styles’ future following his loss in a “Career Threatening Match” to Gunther last Saturday at Royal Rumble, AEW president and head of creative Tony Khan spoke about The Phenomenal One with Josh Martinez on Martinez’s YouTube channel.
Khan wasn’t asked specifically about trying to sign Styles. Instead, he was asked to speak about AJ’s legacy, and said:
“I think that AJ Styles is absolutely a fantastic wrestler. He’s one of my favorites, and I think he’s had an amazing
career all over the world. He’s never been in AEW before, but he has wrestled in Ring of Honor, and in Ring of Honor he had some fantastic matches.
“As a fan, some of my favorite stuff is when AJ Styles was in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He had fantastic matches there. His match with Minoru Suzuki is one of my personal favorites, and he had a great alliance with the Bullet Club at that time.
“Absolutely some of my personal favorite stuff would have been in New Japan Pro Wrestling with him. He’s somebody who’s had a great career in so many different companies around the world, and certainly I consider him to be one of the all-time greats.”
The Suzuki match happened in 2014’s G1 Climax tournament, shortly after Styles defeated Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title.
It makes sense that TK would focus on Styles’ New Japan run… that’s the company from AJ’s past that AEW has a partnership, and that fits Khan’s wrestling-forward tastes. Rumor is he’d love to bring the former TNA, IWGP, and WWE champion into the AEW fold, and that’s already been discussed internally. What we don’t know is… is he really done with WWE?
Let us know what you think Styles’ next move will be in the comments below.
