AJ Styles States That It Meant Something To Him To Retire At Royal Rumble PLE: “I Don’t Care That It Was In Saudi Arabia”
A.J. Styles doubles down on his decision to retire in Saudi Arabia.
The 2026 WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event emanated from Saudi Arabia, and one of the marquee matches was A.J. Styles versus GUNTHER, with the stipulation being that if Styles lost, he had to retire.
GUNTHER choked Styles out, and as a result, Styles retired from in-ring competition. While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Styles explained that it meant a lot to him to retire at the event he debuted at for WWE.
“That wasn’t my pay-per-view or PLE,” Styles said about WrestleMania. “That’s not where I started. For me to be able to debut and then end it at the Royal Rumble — and I don’t care that it was in Saudi Arabia — it’s still the Royal Rumble. That meant something to me. I know there’s people who have WrestleMania as their big PLE, but mine was the Royal Rumble.” Styles was asked how GUNTHER ended up becoming his final opponent and replied, “That wasn’t up to me. It was up to the story. He had retired Goldberg, he had retired John Cena. Why not retire AJ Styles?”
Styles debuted for WWE at the 2016 Royal Rumble, and 10 years later, he retired at the Royal Rumble.
