"It didn't sound cool at all" - AJ Styles reveals he disliked his name at the start of his career
AJ Styles has revealed that he was not a fan of his wrestling name when he was just starting out in pro wrestling.
In the latest episode of WWE Untold - one of WWE's behind the scenes documentary series' airing on the WWE Network - The Phenomenal One made it clear that, when he was starting out, 'AJ Styles' was not the name he wanted to run with in his wrestling career.
“‘AJ’ came from my football team. Everybody called me AJ. So that stuck. And I was tagging with a guy, one of my first matches, and his last name was Steel. So then… “Styles! Styles and Steel! That’ll work! That’s your name.” I didn’t like it. The name ‘Styles’? It just sounded so quirky to me. It didn’t sound cool at all. And it was just spelled S-T-Y-L-E-S. Why didn’t I spell it differently? Like, S-T-I-L-E-Z, or something like… Do something different. It was just so common! I’ve grown to love it. I have.”
AJ Styles has since gone on to love his wrestling name, and with good reason. Today, the name 'AJ Styles' is recognizable all across the wrestling landscape, in many different promotions and countries, thanks to the hard work and dedication Allen Jones (Styles' real name) put into making the name of AJ Styles an international success.
AJ Styles debuted for WWE in the 2016 Royal Rumble
The WWE Untold episode covered AJ Styles' career leading up to his debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble. As most wrestling fans know, 'The Face That Runs the Place' enjoyed one of the most memorable debuts in WWE history, emerging in the number three spot to a rapturous applause.
But his appearance in the Rumble match was still uncertain a week before the event, as Styles would discuss in the documentary.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to be in the Rumble until a week before. I was joking around when I told, when I think I told Triple H like, yeah, I'll come out number two, and lo and behold, they come back because you're going three." H/T Transcription - Fightful.
Thankfully, in the end, the WWE Universe was treated to a Royal Rumble moment for the ages.