AJ Styles Reveals Original Retirement Plan for WWE WrestleMania & Why It Didn't Happen in New Video

Recently retired WWE legend AJ Styles revealed in a behind-the-scenes video leading up to his retirement match that his original plan was to have his last match at WrestleMania.

In the video on WWE's YouTube account (beginning at the 10:19 mark), Styles said, "Everybody wants to retire at WrestleMania, right? The biggest show of the year that we do. I was gonna do exactly that, but I just came back for an injury that was supposed to retire me. It retires most. But once I got healed up and was comfortable enough running and doing what I needed to do to be AJ Styles, it just didn't feel right to come back for two months just to retire. It didn't seem right, and I thought what a better way to be able to leave on the pay-per-view where you debuted."

Styles ultimately decided to call it quits at Royal Rumble last month, losing a career-threatening match to Gunther in Saudi Arabia.

While Styles didn't specify, he seemed to indicate that last year's WrestleMania 41 was the initial target for his retirement bout.

From October 2024 until February 2025, Styles missed four months of action due to a Lisfranc injury in his foot that he suffered during a SmackDown match against Carmelo Hayes.

At that point, The Phenomenal One's status for WrestleMania season was unclear, but he managed to return as an entrant in the 2025 men's Royal Rumble match, and he went on to face Logan Paul at WrestleMania 41 in a losing effort.

Rather than retiring then and there, Styles continued wrestling for another nine months, providing fans with memorable matches against John Cena and CM Punk along the way.

After a controversial loss to Gunther on an episode of Raw, the 48-year-old Styles challenged him to a rematch at Royal Rumble, but The Ring General was unwilling to accept unless AJ put his career on the line.

Styles accepted, and he went on to lose by technical submission, as he passed out in Gunther's sleeper hold.

While Styles surprised many by not sticking around until WrestleMania 42 to end his career, it was a fitting conclusion since Styles made his WWE debut as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble match back in 2016.

After establishing himself as one of the best in the world during stints in TNA, ROH and New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Styles carved out a Hall-of-Fame-worthy career in WWE as well, becoming a two-time WWE champion, three-time United States champion, one-time intercontinental champion and two-time tag team champion.

On Monday night's episode of Raw in Atlanta, Styles will receive a proper send-off, as WWE is advertising the show in his home state of Georgia as a tribute to AJ Styles.