AJ Styles proves he's phenomenal outside of the ring in heartbreaking story

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:32 p.m. ET

Fansided, Luke Norris/Fansided

WWE superstar AJ Styles shared a heartbreaking letter from a young fan’s father on Twitter.

The word “phenomenal” is the term most often used to describe WWE superstar AJ Styles and there’s a reason for that. He’s arguably the best wrestler in the world today, something he proved once again in an epic affair with John Cena at this past Sunday’s Royal Rumble. But there’s one family that will forever use that term to describe what Styles did for them outside of the ring.

Pls RT. A letter my uncle was going to write w my cousin to @AJStylesOrg and now had to write on behalf of him. Hope you see this AJ. @WWE pic.twitter.com/0xIt1qjEjU

— Fallon Prinzivalli (@iamqueenfal) January 30, 2017

A heartbreaking letter that surfaced on Twitter on Monday tells the story of 11-year-old Nick Bongiovanni, a die-hard WWE fan whose three favorite wrestlers were John Cena, Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles. Written by Nick’s father, Michael, the letter goes on to explain that he had gotten WWE tickets for his son and a Triple Threat Match featuring Nick’s three favorite guys was to be the main event. Unfortunately, just two hours after giving his son the tickets, the family received word that Nick’s grandmother –Nana as they affectionately called her– had passed away. Nick knew that he’d be missing out on a great night with his favorite superstars but found it much more important to be with his family and gave his tickets away to his friend, Jonathan, without even thinking about it.

The day after Christmas, the family was scheduled to travel from New York to Florida for Nana’s funeral but they were forced to sit through numerous delays and a flight change until they ended up in Newark a little before midnight, at which point Nick got one of the biggest thrills of his life when he got to meet AJ Styles. Here’s how Michael described the chance meeting.

“We’re walking through the Terminal and I hear Nicky say “Mom there goes Dolphin Ziggler.” But Ziggler had earbuds in and didn’t hear him. Then I hear him say very excited “that’s AJ Styles” your response was “what’s up Bud, I have to catch a flight for a show in Chicago,” my wife told [you] we were on our way to his Nana’s funeral. At that point you stopped dead in your tracks and said “Come here bud, who has a camera.”

“Now I know this must happen to you all the time but it was so very special to him. It was all he could talk about and we said we were going to write to let you know how special it was.”

Only Nick and his father never got the chance to write to Styles. Exactly one month after meeting Styles, which was just a few short days ago, Nick was involved in a freak accident that left him brain dead. But Michael still wanted Styles to know how much that encounter meant to his son, saying that Nick would just walk around the house chanting “AJ Styles! AJ Styles!” and that although he only had that memory for a month, it was one of the most special memories of his life.

“I don’t know if will ever reach you but I promised my boy I would try. Thank you again!”

With Nick clinging to life support, the letter did reach Styles and not only did he retweet it to his 588,000 followers, he also posted a link to the GoFundMe page that the family had set up to raise $25,000, encouraging his fans to donate to this family who has had just an awful time of things over the last month.

It’s not what you do inside the ring, it’s what u do outside of it. I am thankful for this moment with Nicky. https://t.co/g4zQ1GfBW9

— AJStyles.Org (@AJStylesOrg) January 30, 2017

Sadly, Nick passed away just a short time later but not before Styles personally called Michael to offer his condolences.

It’s with a broken heart that I tell you Nicky passed this afternoon, shortly after @AJStylesOrg‘s phone call to my uncle.

— Fallon Prinzivalli (@iamqueenfal) January 31, 2017

In one day, the family has already raised more than $30,000 to help with the medical bills and funeral expenses for Nick. There was a part of the letter that said Nick, who was ADHD, spent so much of his time focusing on all things wrestling and WWE was like family to him. And while this story is truly tragic and heartbreaking, it’s nice to know that a monster WWE superstar like AJ Styles made him and the Bongiovanni family feel just like that. I’m pretty sure there’s a word for something like that.