In life, goodbyes are always hard. Whether it’s been planned way in advance or sneaking in like a thief in the night, coming to grips with finality is a battle. It just can’t escape your lips, heart, or brain. You’ve become so used to a person or thing, just being there. And you don’t want to give it up, you don’t want to let it go. Though it’s time, most of us aren’t ready to do that for AJ Styles. As he patents the copyrights for “The Phenomenal One” and the P1 logo, his future is a mystery.
In some respects, he’s done all he can do in WWE and wrestling as a whole, and yet it feels like it hasn’t been enough. Not enough for the person fans have watched for decades.
Those insane performances, the easy slipping between face and heel. Styles grew into a performer that wrestlers in generations since have aspired to be. He’s the type of wrestler that Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay dearly hope to face at the time of writing this.
To encapsulate who Styles is as a wrestler is to observe what most modern wrestlers are now. Two, maybe three generations have grown up on his work. Today’s crop of talent has studied his tape, using him as a springboard to develop themselves and refine their work. If you’ve seen video edits across social media, odds are you’ll see just how graceful and impactful he is in the ring. It’s rare to find someone who can make almost anyone look like a million bucks, win or lose, but he’s just that. With his P1 logo and flowing hair, he’s become all the more recognizable, a brand unto himself.
Though he’s wholly undeniable, it took so long for him to be established as such until the right wheels began turning.
His beginnings in wrestling were humble. A strong schedule in NWA, a smattering of matches in the dying embers of WCW, until two promotions helped to define him and wrestling in the 2000s. Ring of Honor honed his skills against the likes of CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and ECW alumni Jerry Lynn. Over at Total Nonstop Wrestling, he and the promotion became synonymous with each other as he tested himself with Samoa Joe, Sting, Christian Cage, Kurt Angle, and Christopher Daniels.
Once TNA Wrestling transformed into IMPACT Wrestling and suffered the misfortune of bad bookers, he didn’t just jump; he flew out of his comfort zone. Debuting for New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2013 and revealing himself to be the leader of the Bullet Club, Styles’s image grew exponentially. In the East, Styles slotted himself among the best in Strong Style, with notable matches against Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, and Kazuchika Okada. Styles even managed to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Twice. It was as though he’d been through the Young Lion system itself; he fit in so well.
To this date, this period left many still fond of Styles. For most, fonder. His tenure saw a growing respect for Japan and his fans there. In his farewell address to the crowd at a recent show in October 2025. There, Styles expressed his fondness, translated by Nakamura, and the local fans reciprocated in kind with mutual appreciation.
Halfway through the 2010s, Styles did something many in the fandom and industry weren’t sure would ever happen: He signed with WWE. Having departed on good terms with NJPW after a tag team match with Kenny Omega against Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI, following a phenomenal IWGP Intercontinental Championship match with Nakamura the night before at Wrestle Kingdom. He’d also drop a couple of titles he won in the UK before his next big move.
Then, he finally debuted in WWE amid rumors. Not in the blossoming NXT. Not on Raw or Smackdown. No, he debuted at the freaking Royal Rumble at Number 3, starting the match with an instant shock across the ring from Roman Reigns. He’d last over 28 minutes, too, before being eliminated by Kevin Owens.
It didn’t take long before Styles found himself in the main-event picture, eventually winning the WWE Championship against the massively popular Jinder Mahal. In WWE, he’d have not just a dream match, but a heated dream feud with John Cena. Styles tested himself against the rising and established stars of WWE, such as Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio, and so on and so forth.
A couple of years later, Styles would rekindle his NJPW rivalry with Nakamura in a polarizing feud. Samoa Joe eventually also challenged Styles in a memorable albeit unsuccessful title chase. Styles’s year-long reign came to a screeching halt in a shock victory/heel turn for Daniel Bryan.
In his trial to regain the belt, he (and others) fell by the wayside as Kofimania grew. Kofi Kingston’s rise to glory saw Styles competing for other titles and through other feuds. He’d either gain the Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship, or the Tag Team Championship (alongside partner Omos). Away from that, though, Styles has the unique accolade of being The Undertaker’s final match; at WrestleMania 36, Night One, Styles fell to the Deadman in a Boneyard Match. Whether or not it can be considered as a “match”, I will say that it absolutely rocked. If you disagree, you are objectively wrong and should never be taken seriously about anything ever. (Yes, I’m being satirical.)
The recently unretired Edge too faced Styles in a dream match that didn’t quite live up to expectations, kickstarting a conversation around the Rated-R Superstar and Styles. This brought about Judgment Day. Not the biblical one, thankfully, because I like being alive.
After a few years of a reputation of being “washed”, of not living up to his past performances, Styles’s tensions boiled. During Cody Rhodes’s initial Undisputed WWE Championship run, Styles wasn’t as kind and respectful as the champion in their interactions. He was abrasive, annoyed, and angry. He knew the doubts fans had of him, and he had the ultimate goal of reminding them just who the fuck he was.
That’s why, in 2024, Styles and Rhodes put on a match at Backlash: Paris so much that the cameras caught the vibrations as they shook the LDLC Arena to its core. They’d run the bout back after Styles pulled a Mark Henry with a fake retirement angle that culminated in an “I Quit” Match in Clash at the Castle: Scotland, which Styles again lost. Despite these outcomes, fans rejoiced that Styles regained his step, cementing himself as a top-level talent in the industry.
The next month, Styles returned to Japan for a one-off against Naomichi Marufuji in Pro Wrestling NOAH. Funnily enough, Marufuji, a legend himself, has also endured allegations of being “washed.”
Following a middling contest against Logan Paul at WrestleMania 41 that saw a rejected Karrion Kross assist, Styles melded back to the background once more. Not that it’d last long, mind you.
Stepping foot back in TNA Wrestling at Slammiversary, Styles gave new X-Division Champion Leon Slater his blessing as his old stomping grounds indulged in a WWE partnership.
In September 2025, Styles would reiterate what he’d been saying for a while: that his impending contract end date would be his last. That has since been reworded regarding WWE, leaving his plans currently up in the air as of writing. Well, to us fans, not Styles and those close to him.
The last months of Styles in WWE featured him as World Tag Team Champion with the luchador Dragon Lee, which ended at the hands of The Usos. During this time, Styles would have positively received matches against old rivals John Cena, Shinsuke Nakamura, and CM Punk, each one rife with references and callbacks.
AJ Styles is in the twilight of his WWE contract. Shortly after John Cena and Hiroshi Tanahashi bid their farewells to active competition, Styles is ready to do the same in 2026. Whether that’s at the hands of Gunther in Riyadh at Royal Rumble, or a run elsewhere, he’s prepared for what’s next. He’s made his peace.
A friend of mine once told me that you can see everything in a person’s eyes. They tell the story. AJ’s eyes hold a bittersweet acceptance. Oh, I’m sure his legs feel like anvils, knowing that each step in, through, and out of the ring brings him close to his last. Each move hits differently, each bump aches differently, and it’s all going to end. And a new beginning, where he either works behind the scenes or spends his days with his family, a life well-earned.
The wind won’t scream in his ears as it floats his majestic brown hair like that Fabio guy in those old Jurassic-Era shampoo commercials (the 1990s). AJ’s feet won’t feel the top rope leave his soles as he propels himself into a Phenomenal Forearm. He can’t command the crowd as a babyface for the houses he built. Laughter won’t ensue when he calls wrestlers by their first name (“Shut up, Steve!” as he said to Stone Cold Steve Austin). Everything ends, eventually.
Selfishly, I’m hoping that he goes on for a bit longer. Perhaps one more go-around in TNA. Or running back feuds with Samoa Joe and Christian Cage alongside dream matches with Kenny Omega or Will Ospreay in AEW.
But what AJ Styles wants is what AJ Styles gets. Whatever, wherever, whenever. He gets what others seldom do: a chance to end things on his own terms.
I hope he chases it and that it’s everything he’ll have hoped for.
To quote Shakespeare: “Once more unto the breach, dear friend, once more.”
