AJ Styles was recently a guest on ‘E&C’s Pod Of Awesomeness’. AJ spoke with Edge and Christian on a wide variety of topics about his wrestling career.
One of these topics had to do with AJ’s WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble. Styles says he was initially worried that a lot of fans wouldn’t know who he was because he was away from the United States for a few years. As we know now, AJ received an incredible reaction and one of the most memorable in recent memory.
AJ says that he doesn’t think Vince expected the reaction that he received in his debut. he has heard stories that Vince didn’t think fans would know who he is:
“I don’t think anybody expected that. I definitely don’t think Vince expected that. Because I’ve heard stories that he’s like ‘nobody is going to know who this guy is and you want him out number 3?’.
Edge would go on to say that Vince lives in a [WWE] bubble and wouldn’t have seen any of AJ’s work in New Japan or anywhere else. He wouldn’t have known what he was really getting when he signed AJ.
AJ also says that he thinks Vince thought his reaction at the Rumble was a fluke. He had a match in his first few weeks which AJ describes as a ‘typical babyface match’. Vince told him backstage that he has 5 guys on the roster that could wrestle that same match. He wanted AJ to become this ‘pitbull’ type character that made him different. AJ listened to the advice and the rest is history.
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