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AJ Styles on reconnecting with WWE Universe, Undertaker gift exchange | “Out of Character”
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
The latest "Out of Character" is a phenomenal one.
WWE Superstar AJ Styles joined the show this week to chat about his career, his video game obsession, the "soccer mom" hair phase and so much more.
Subscribe to "Out of Character with Ryan Satin" on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for weekly candid conversations with your favorite Superstars, legends and on-air talent!
One topic we discussed on the show was WWE hitting the road again starting next week for Friday Night SmackDown at the Houston Toyota Center, followed by Money in the Bank on July 17 at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
When asked how excited he is to reconnect with the WWE Universe, Styles had the following to say:
STYLES: "I don’t think [fans] understand how much they influence everything in the WWE.
"We need them to tell us what they want, and not having that is very hard. So getting back, seeing what they want, tell us what you want, we want to give it to you.
"Let alone, we’re going to give you great matches, but tell us what stories you want to see. You dictate the speed in which our matches are done, as crazy as that sounds. You dictate who’s a babyface and who’s a heel.
"Everything is done according to the fans, and I’m looking forward to hearing what they want to see."
SATIN: One thing I always hear wrestlers say is that everything hurts a lot more without the fans there, since you don’t have that adrenaline pumping as much. Is that accurate to say?
STYLES: "100 percent.
AJ Styles on reconnecting with the WWE Universe, 'you dictate the show'
"Everything has hurt a lot worse this past year and a half. I need fans to be there so I can stop hurting so much."
SATIN: The ladder match you had in the ThunderDome, though, was one of the best matches of that era (in my opinion).
STYLES: "I appreciate it. Ladders hurt. Tables hurt. A lot of things don’t feel good, and if you’re gonna have a ladder match, you definitely want to do it in front of people."
Another classic AJ took part in during the pandemic was the Boneyard match against The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36.
While almost every other Superstar had to wrestle in an empty building at the event, AJ and Taker were given the ability to create something more unique in an outdoor environment, and that paid off in a big way.
Fans universally agreed that it was the best Taker match in years, and afterward, "The Dead Man" finally felt comfortable bringing his legendary career to an end.
While reflecting on the match, AJ revealed that he and Undertaker also exchanged gifts afterward to commemorate their epic battle on "The Grandest Stage of Them All."
SATIN: How does it feel to have had maybe the best cinematic match that occurred during the pandemic in the Boneyard match against The Undertaker?
STYLES: "I am proud that I had the opportunity to work with The Undertaker, and it was icing on the cake to have one of the better cinematic matches that WWE has done.
"I was very proud of it. I’m sure Taker was proud of it.
"It was one of those things where you’re not really sure how fans were going to take it, but it was exactly what we both needed. I was certainly, and pleasantly, surprised when they said you’re doing a Boneyard match, and it’s gonna be different.
"I’m like, ‘OK, cool! Not a match in front of nobody? Perfect.’"
SATIN: Were you nervous that you weren’t going to be able to give Undertaker the match he wanted when you found out that it was going to happen in an outdoor setting on dirt?
STYLES: "It was exactly what we had envisioned.
"I would love to have had the opportunity to work with him before he retired because we jelled so well in that Boneyard match."
SATIN: Since I know from watching the documentary that getting that last good match was important to him, I’m wondering, when he finally got it, did he say anything to you after to thank you?
STYLES: "I called his wife and was like, ‘Hey, what does he want?!’ Cause I need to get him something. She was just like, ‘Well, get him your gloves. That would mean a lot to him if you signed your gloves.’
"I was like, ‘All right!’ So, yeah, Michelle hooked me up, and hopefully that was a gift he enjoyed. He actually sent his gloves to me with a very nice thank you letter, which meant the world to me.
"I have 'em sitting on my table [in the office]. It meant a lot."
Another interesting discussion came about after Styles was asked if he feels added pressure, knowing many fans consider him to be one of the best wrestlers on the planet.
That debate, obviously, isn’t cut and dried, but one could easily argue that he deserves to be in the discussion alongside other skilled wrestlers in WWE and around the world in other promotions.
Styles, though, chooses to remain humble.
SATIN: I think there are a lot of people who consider you the best wrestler on the planet. Knowing that, do you feel pressure before your matches, or does that just help motivate you to wrestle at a high level?
STYLES: "I don’t feel pressure. I appreciate that they think that of me, but I don’t think that of myself, so there’s no pressure there.
"I’m just gonna go out there and do what I can with the gifts that I’ve been blessed with. They’re deteriorating so quickly as I get older. I just try to make the best of them while I still have a job in WWE, but I take pride in my match. I take pride in my story.
"I think that if you just take pride in that, you’ll put on the best possible match or story that you can."
SATIN: It’s kind of crazy for me to hear that you don’t consider yourself to be the best wrestler on the planet. Do you at least consider yourself to be one of the best?
STYLES: "I’d like to think that I’m one of them, but there’s so many guys before me and girls before me, and behind me coming up. I don’t know.
"Would I still be the same Superstar in the Attitude Era or in WCW back in the end? Would AJ Styles coming up with the new Superstars and whatnot, would I still be that good? Was it timing? What was it? There’s a lot of things that make me think, ‘Eh.’
"And I watch my matches. I’ll go, ‘Eh, it’s not that good.’
"I guess I’m harder on myself than most everyone else is."
SATIN: It’s nice to hear that. Because I think a lot of people are hard on themselves. Whether it’s wrestling, interviewing, a 9-to-5 job, I think everyone can be their own harshest critic.
To hear you say that you don’t feel that way about your own matches is interesting to me because I think most people would say your matches are some of the best and that you are one of the most skilled wrestlers on the roster right now.
STYLES: "It’s just that I’ve watched these matches that I’ve been in and been like, ‘Man, that was stupid. Why did you do that?! You moved too fast here. Could’ve slowed down here.’
"There’s so many things that have happened that I wish I could change, but it’s part of the learning process."
Watch AJ Styles on "Raw" every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network.
Ryan Satin is a WWE analyst for FOX Sports. Satin previously appeared on FS1's "WWE Backstage" and founded Pro Wrestling Sheet, where he broke countless news stories as editor-in-chief.
