Doc Gallows praises AJ Styles as ‘the definition of professional wrestling’
Doc Gallows believes his good friend AJ Styles is someone who embodies everything great about professional wrestling.
While speaking with Undisputed, Gallows praised Styles ahead of his impending retirement. We know that Styles will be stepping away from the ring at some point in 2026, but that could potentially come as soon as this weekend. Styles is set to face Gunther in a career-threatening match at the Royal Rumble. If Styles loses, he will not wrestle again.
“AJ is the definition of professional wrestling,” Gallows told Undisputed. “He belongs in the same category as Hiroshi Tanahashi. It’s really only been the last decade that the WWE audience got to see AJ. There were those 18 years prior. The years in Georgia, putting TNA on his back in an era where they didn’t have a lot of recognizable faces. When the company then became flooded with wrestling superstars, AJ still stood head and shoulders above everybody else. That’s what happened everywhere he went.”
Gallows is hoping that Styles makes it through this weekend and gets a full WWE retirement tour. With Tanahashi and John Cena having just had their own final matches, Gallows would like to see things spaced out more.
“In my opinion, there has to be a retirement tour,” Gallows said. “As a fan, I wish we had more of this spread out. I wish we had the Tanahashi retirement run for a year. Then John Cena’s retirement tour the next year, then AJ’s. Karl [Anderson] and I are so busy with traveling to Japan that it’s hard to see everything, but with these retirements, it’s even harder.”
Gallows has previously been aligned with Styles in both NJPW and WWE. Now, Gallows and his tag team partner Karl Anderson are signed to Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan. Gallows told Undisputed that he feels NOAH is in a renaissance period — and there is an opportunity to gain ground on NJPW with Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI recently joining the NOAH roster.
“Naito and Bushi jumping to NOAH has caused a lot of rumblings. The Good Brothers joining is huge,” he said. “We’re scheduled to spend a lot more time there. We both have young kids at home, so there’s a difficulty with that, but we want to take NOAH to number one. We’re seeing another mass exodus from New Japan Pro-Wrestling, surrounded by the Tanahashi retirement. NOAH has a great opportunity to make noise right now and we’re excited to be part of it.”
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.