AJ Styles explains putting gloves back on after WWE retirement
AJ Styles lost his WWE retirement match, but he’s not closing the door on the possibility of returning at least one more time in the future.
Whether or not Styles is actually retired has been a huge discussion point since he lost to Gunther at the Royal Rumble last weekend. The stipulation was that Styles would retire if he lost. After being choked out by Gunther, Styles took his gloves off and was going to leave them in the ring. But he instead put the gloves back on, perhaps signaling that he’s not completely done.
Appearing on a new episode of Stephanie McMahon’s “What’s Your Story?” podcast, Styles was asked to explain what he meant by that moment. He responded that he’s not really sure. There will come a time when he takes his gloves off for good — and that might even be right now — but Styles thinks every wrestler reserves the right to come out of retirement once.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Styles said about putting his gloves back on. “Never say never, right? That’s the saying. I know there’s — I think everybody’s allowed at least once coming out of retirement. I’m not saying that I’ll do it anytime soon. I mean, what if my son wrestles? The opportunity to tag with him once. You never know. There’ll be a time when the gloves never go back on and it may be now, but we’ll see.”
Styles said his second-oldest son is interested in pursuing a career in wrestling and is training with him for that possibility. It also wouldn’t surprise Styles if his daughter and oldest son got into wrestling one day. Of his four children, Styles’ youngest son is the only one who hasn’t shown any interest in sports.
“I never thought I would want my kids to wrestle, but it’s way different than it’s ever been and a lot better than it’s ever been,” Styles said. “It’s done right at this point. So I’d be happy if they wrestled.”
Though the Royal Rumble loss was an abrupt ending, it had already been known that Styles would be retiring at some point in 2026. Paul “Triple H” Levesque is hoping that Styles will continue his WWE career in a behind-the-scenes capacity.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.