AJ Styles officially retired from in-ring competition back in January when he was defeated by Gunther in a career threatening match at the Royal Rumble. A few weeks later The Undertaker announced on the February 23 episode of Raw that AJ Styles will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.
While talking about the plans for his upcoming Hall of Fame induction speech on The Phenomenally Retro Podcast, AJ Styles made it clear that he’s focused on keeping it short.
“I’ll be fine. It’s not like I have to remember the whole thing. I have a teleprompter. But I’m going to try not to p*ss everybody off who came there to see all the other inductions. There are some guys we’ve watched in the past where you’re going, ‘Holy cow, [wrap it up.]’ Everybody’s thinking the same thing, ‘Alright, man, that was good, that was great, okay.’
So I’m going to try to make sure I stay within those guidelines and not make people hate AJ Styles based on his Hall of Fame induction speech. Short and sweet is the best way to do it. I know there are guys who’ve tried to put a little more comedy into theirs, which is great.
I don’t know exactly how it’s going to be or what I’m going to say, but I know I’ve got a lot of people that I need to thank. So I’m going to try to do that and tell the fans how much I appreciate them for getting me this far. Listen, I look at myself in the mirror and I know I never should have made it. So the fact that I did, that’s a testament to the kind of fans that are out there.”
AJ Styles will join Stephanie McMahon, Demolition and Dennis Rodman as this year’s WWE Hall of Fame inductees. The annual Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Friday, April 17 at 9pm PT at Dolby Live at Park MGM.