AJ Styles retired after he was defeated by Gunther at the Royal Rumble, but there’s been a lot of speculation regarding his future. Some people don’t seem to be convinced that Styles is hanging up his boots, and Karl Anderson seems to have been skeptical as well.
The Good Brothers were in the house for the AJ Styles tribute at Raw in Atlanta on Monday, and Karl Anderson noted during a recent episode of the Talk’n Shop podcast that The Phenomenal One told him his neck is hurting.
“We get to the back, I said, ‘AJ, I did not know you were really going to retire.’ He goes, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what do you mean, really, AJ? We haven’t spoke. How am I supposed to know if you’re really going to retire or not?’
He said, ‘Dude, I have to. My neck is hurting too bad. I’m beat up. It’s time. I want to help the next generation.’ And I go, ‘Well, I just didn’t really believe it. I just kept talking on my podcast about how you were not going to retire and you’re going to go here and you’re going to go there. And now I got to eat a lot of crow, pal.’
It’s my esteemed honor to humbly apologize for giving anybody false hope that AJ Styles was not going to retire. Clearly, I was wrong. He shoot retired.”