AJ Styles massively credited for popular WWE star's rise
Former two-time WWE Champion AJ Styles suffered a Lisfranc injury to his foot during his return match against Carmelo Hayes on the October 4 edition of SmackDown. He had already been off television for a few months prior to his comeback.
Styles was seemingly preparing for a retirement tour as he has reiterated in the past year that he was in the twilight of his in-ring days. Reflecting on some of the "surreal moments" of his WWE career thus far, SmackDown's Grayson Waller called his program with The Phenomenal One on NXT back in 2022 a true highlight.
Speaking on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, The Aussie Icon was asked which was the most surreal moment out of all the people he had shared the ring with. The 34-year-old admitted that the number one incident was when he went from being an afterthought in WWE straight to being relevant again at the snap of a finger. He thanked AJ Styles for it and credited his time working with Waller during his NXT days as being instrumental in his career.
"I think the two that—the first one was AJ Styles in NXT. I went so quickly from being the fourth best member of a WarGames team that no one cared about, that everyone was saying, 'Why is he even in it?' to four weeks later, being the guy who took [Johnny] Gargano out of NXT and wrestling AJ Styles on NXT TV. And this was back when main roster guys did not come down to NXT. So I think that quick transition of being nobody into somebody in wrestling one of the best of all time, that was extremely surreal," Grayson Waller recalled. [From 38:56 to 39:32]
Check out his interview in the video below:
Waller then put his main roster debut match against WWE Hall of Famer Edge in second place. The bout took place at Madison Square Garden last year on SmackDown in July, which also fatefully became The Rated-R Superstar's penultimate match with the Stamford-based promotion.
The Aussie Icon also expressed a desire to step into the ring with another former WWE Champion, claiming that they could produce magic in the ring.
AJ Styles has turned down TNA Hall of Fame induction for now
AJ Styles was the hottest free agent in 2016 after a stint in New Japan Pro-Wrestling before he signed with WWE. He debuted at the Royal Rumble that year, in a moment that wrestling fans look back to as a milestone.
Be that as it may, The Phenomenal One is one of those rare athletes who became incredibly popular among fans as a TNA Original. Despite this, Styles recently turned down an offer to get inducted into their Hall of Fame. Taking to X (fka Twitter), the two-time WWE Champion explained his decision:
"I’m still an active wrestler…I hope. I made the decision not to go into the TNA HOF, not WWE. I appreciate TNA, but I don’t want to go into any HOF as long as I’m still active. My choice," he said.
Watch the video above as AJ Styles vs. Carmelo Hayes ends in a forfeit as Styles got injured during the match. It remains to be seen when he will be back on SmackDown.
If you use the quote from the first part of this article, please credit INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet and give an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.