The “Phenomenal” AJ Styles recently joined Bailey & Southside on 100.5 FM in Atlanta and the two parties went over a variety of pro-wrestling and non-wrestling topics. During their conversation, Styles brought up that he always wanted to be a luchador & revealed what he was going to call himself.
Check it out:
AJ Styles: “I wanted to wear a mask, I loved those guys. I’m so glad that didn’t happen, I wanted to wear a mask and call myself ‘Velocity’, what a terrible name.
I didn’t have a name. Everybody always called me ‘AJ’ anyway, so I stuck with AJ and then, (the promoter) is like, ‘Yeah, you’re tagging with Damien Still, we need a last name. Styles! Go!’ That’s it. That’s how the name (came) about, AJ Styles, I hated it. I hated Styles for a really long time. I didn’t say anything about changing it, I just assumed it would probably happen, but a year prior, maybe a couple of months prior, Samoa Joe had (gone) to NXT and they didn’t change his name, so I thought, ‘Well, maybe there’s a chance’. But, at the same time, I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t care what they call me. Velocity, if you want to call me that, whatever.’ But I’m glad they stuck with AJ Styles and it actually worked out for everybody.”