WWE Rumors on AJ Styles' Future and Bron Breakker's Injury Rehab, Bryan Danielson Talks 1 More Match

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and AEW.

AJ Styles' Contract Update

Two weeks after losing a retirement match to Gunther at the Royal Rumble, AJ Styles' wrestling future remains very unclear.

Per Mike Johnson of PW Insider (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Styles and WWE were in talks for a new contract leading up to the Rumble, but no agreement was reached prior to the show on Jan. 31.

The report added that the two sides are still in communication, though there is no indication at this point that Styles has re-signed with WWE.

However, despite rumblings that Styles could go to AEW, Johnson's report mentions there are no "internal" discussions within WWE about the Phenomenal One wrestling for another promotion in the near-future.

Styles certainly helped fuel all of this speculation because after losing to Gunther, he took off his gloves and was going to place them in the center of the ring, which is a universal signal for retirement, but he pulled back and put his gloves back on.

Appearing on Stephanie McMahon's podcast released on Feb. 5, Styles didn't have a definitive answer about why he put the gloves on.

"I don't know. Never say never, right? I think everyone's allowed at least once to come out of retirement. I'm not saying I'll do it anytime soon," Styles said.

Triple H said during the Royal Rumble post-show that Styles made it "very clear" his in-ring career was over.

Even though Styles previously wrestled with the Young Bucks and was a member of the Bullet Club with Kenny Omega in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com noted Styles has "shown no interest" thus far.

Things can always change in wrestling, but Styles was very open throughout 2025 that he was going to retire within the next year. It seemed odd that his retirement came in the middle of a show with very little fanfare or celebration following his loss, but that may have been a calculated decision.

Bron Breakker Recovery Update

After recently undergoing hernia surgery, Bron Breakker's status for WrestleMania is reportedly uncertain.

On Tuesday's episode of Wrestling Observer Live (h/t Mukherjee), Bryan Alvarez reported that some WWE officials feel like Breakker won't be cleared to return in time for WrestleMania 42:

"One would think he would be on the shorter end of the recovery scale since he's in his 20s, but it was a serious surgery. All I know is that within WWE there's a feeling he isn't going to be back by WrestleMania 42. He's going to be out for a while, so we'll see."

The injury was originally believed to have occurred when Breakker flipped the announce table on the Feb. 2 episode of Raw, though it was apparently an issue prior to that.

Typical recovery time for hernia surgery is four to six weeks, through weight-lifting and other strenuous physical activities could stretch that out up to eight weeks.

WrestleMania is still nine weeks away, giving Breakker ample time to recover. But the issue is trying to set up the storyline and angles in the period leading up to the show to get there.

It's certainly plausible to do non-physical angles to set up a match, but Breakker would also have to be cleared to travel on the road for shows.

This is a brutal sequence of events for Breakker, who at one point was reportedly going to win the Royal Rumble and challenge CM Punk for the world heavyweight title at WrestleMania.

Now, it seems like there's a possibility that one of WWE's brightest young stars will miss out on the biggest show of the year.

Bryan Danielson Open to In-Ring Return

It has been more than 16 months since Bryan Danielson last wrestled a proper match on television, but the former AEW men's world champion is not ruling out the idea of stepping back in the ring again.

In an interview with Justin Barrasso in his Undisputed Substack newsletter (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Danielson said "maybe" when the subject of wrestling at least one more match came up.

"I don't close it off," he added.

Danielson's full-time career ended when he lost the AEW men's title to Jon Moxley at WrestleDream in October 2024. He has been open about having spinal degeneration and possibly needing surgery to repair the damage.

One thing Danielson told Barrasso that is giving him some hope for a return is working with the same specialist who helped get Adam Copeland healthy enough to wrestle again after he was retired for nearly nine full years from 2011 to '20:

"In April of 2025, Adam Copeland sent me to his physical therapist. He said the guy was a miracle worker. This guy worked on me for two days in a row, six hours each day. After the first night, I slept nine hours straight. After the second night, I slept eight hours straight. After that, I was sleeping seven or eight hours almost every night. That's a game changer for how you feel."

AEW president Tony Khan has confirmed that Danielson is still working for the promotion in a behind-the-scenes role. He has also been a commentator on Dynamite since August.

Danielson has had one match since the Moxley bout. He defeated Max Caster in eight seconds in a dark match following the Collision taping on June 25, 2025. The American Dragon has been very deliberate in not using the word "retirement" when talking about his status, but he has also made it clear there's no guarantee he will wrestle again.

Whatever the future holds for Danielson, his place in wrestling history is already guaranteed. He will go down as arguably the best in-ring worker of his generation, having reached the top of the mountain in WWE, AEW and Ring of Honor.