AJ Styles Says Fans Swarmed Him Like Bees During WrestleMania Week
AJ Styles comments on fan behavior during WrestleMania week.
At this point, there have been multiple “horror” stories regarding fan conduct during the wrestling world’s recent visit to Las Vegas. Fightful Select recently had a report on the matter, where one source said that TKO’s price increases are only making the issue worse.
On the latest episode of his Phenomenally Retro podcast, Styles said that fans swarmed him like bees during his visit to Las Vegas.
“Here’s the thing that fans got to accept. Just because we’re walking through the hotel to get to our room, we’re not even hanging out. We’re just trying to get to our room. We have been at signings all day and you get kind of exhausted because we’re trying to be a in a good mood for you at that point for sure, especially for people who paid to see. We want to make sure you get your money’s worth, and it’s a little exhausting. I know you’re like, ‘Well, all you gotta do is stand there.’ But we’re doing it for a couple of hours. I don’t think anybody was impolite to a degree. For instance, I’m not taking pictures because once I start, I’ll never stop. So, if I have my family with me, I can’t do that. I said, ‘Hey, I’m not taking pictures right now, I’m sorry.’ They just swarmed me like bees. Even this one guy, even though I told him, ‘No pictures, I can’t’ — he was walking and [extending his phone] and laying on me and stuff like that. I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ Finally, security was able to find me and take me to the elevator. I understand that they think they know the superstars because they’ve watched them for so long, but at the same time, you’ve gotta remember that they’re real people. It can get overwhelming when that many people swarm you like that. No means no with pictures and what not. If they ask you not to, chill out.”
Styles went on to say that some fans have ruined it for other people, specifically calling out those that camp at airports.
“I don’t normally do a lot of stuff at airports because the people who have waited there so they can sign five or six or seven of their things are going to sell them. They have ruined it for a lot of people. If I see you outside and it’s just me and you at a restaurant, man I’m happy to sign something for you. I’ll take a picture with you, that doesn’t bother me one bit. But we’re in a group of hundreds of people, I can’t do that. It can be difficult in all of these different situations. Security, there wasn’t enough and they were overworked I’m sure because of all the stuff they had to do. They had no idea that it could be this bad, I’m sure. I get it. We’re real people.”
Styles finished off the topic with a firm message about his family, saying that he’ll turn into a “real weirdo” if a fan happens to frighten his daughter with their behavior.
“I’ll say this too. If you frighten my daughter, I’m going to turn into a real weirdo. I go into protect mode and it gets real. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be a bad guy like that but my job is to take care of my family and I will do just that. I will get loud and scary. My job is to protect them, if I can’t protect them, then I get a little crazy.”
‘The Phenomenal One’ recently revealed that he’s helping out with WWE ID. Check out his full comments by clicking here.
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