During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, AJ Styles commented on WWE not pursuing him before 2016, his success before joining the company, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On achieving success before joining WWE: “My success doesn’t determine what other people think of me. I determine my success. I was able to pay off a house without working in WWE, and that to me was being successful. But, knowing that I would never have a WrestleMania moment kinda sucked, but I was OK with not having the opportunity to be at WrestleMania. I did well for myself and probably did a lot more than most people thought I would before WWE.”
On how he reacted to WWE not pursuing him before 2016: “I never really asked myself that question [when asked if he ever wondered why WWE never called him]. I just assumed they didn’t need me, but they had so much talent there, maybe they don’t need an AJ Styles. They had Daniel Bryan at the time, so why would they need AJ Styles? And I was OK with that. When I was trying to talk to Triple H for the first time, he was supposed to call me after talking to Terry Taylor [who eventually opened the door for AJ Styles to join WWE]. I just told him, ‘Hey man, if there’s an opportunity then I’d like to have it.’ Then Triple H was supposed to call me. He didn’t. That’s OK. I just assumed they had all the talent they needed.”
