AJ Styles has addressed his retirement from WWE for the first time.
The 48-year-old called time on his wrestling career with a defeat to Gunther at the Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia.
His WWE contract expired at the start of February so it was a case of perfect timing, but will he retire from wrestling full-stop?
It’s believed that AEW would be interested in signing Styles if he doesn’t want to quite hang up his boots and fans keep speculating that Styles may yet make an appearance with TNA.
At the end of his loss to Gunther, Styles started to take his gloves off to leave in the ring, but ultimately decided to keep them on.
Speaking on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast, Styles claimed he doesn’t know why he didn’t leave them in the ring.
“I don’t know,” Styles said. “Never say never, right, that’s the saying. And you know…I know there’s…I think everybody’s allowed once to come out of retirement.
“I’m not saying that I’ll do it anytime soon, I’m just saying…well, I mean, what if my son wrestles? The opportunity to tag with him once? You never know.
“So there’ll be a time when the gloves never go back on, and it may be now. But we’ll see.”
Styles seems very open to the idea of wrestling again if the right opportunity presents itself. The total opposite to Cena, it has to be noted.
His words will surely give AEW fans some enthusiasm for something special down the road – it’s certainly an open door.
