WWE Rumors on AJ Styles' Retirement and Timeline of Decision amid Nakamura's Viral Royal Rumble Post

After WWE Superstar Shinsuke Nakamura inadvertently leaked that AJ Styles will be retiring at the Royal Rumble premium live event on Saturday, more details have emerged about the plans for "The Phenomenal One."

According to a recent report by PWInsider Elite (h/t Steve Carrier of Ringside News), it was Styles who picked the Royal Rumble as the place for his final match, and WWE "had been preparing for his retirement before WrestleMania 42 ever came into focus."

Following his match against Styles at Saturday Night's Main Event, Nakamura posted-then-deleted an Instagram story of a diary entry in which he wrote, "I asked him, 'When are you going to retire?' He answered, 'The Royal Rumble. I've already decided.'"

Styles is set to face Gunther with his career on the line at Saturday's PLE. Many assumed that he would survive the match and spend 2026 on a retirement tour, but it now sounds like his legendary career will come to an end sooner than initially expected.

Styles made his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble in 2016, so his retirement match will be a full-circle moment that fans will surely embrace. Despite joining WWE so late into his career, he left his mark on the company and solidified as one of the greatest in-ring performers in the history of pro wrestling.