AJ Styles Would Have Taken a Pin ‘All Day Long’ To Wrestle Shawn Michaels

AJ Styles never got a chance to wrestle Shawn Michaels, and he says he would have happily lost just to get that match. Styles vs. Michaels is an unfulfilled dream match for many fans, with Styles retired and Michaels of course having been retired for years.

Styles responded to a comment by a fan on his Phenomenally Retro podcast about how the match should have happened. He noted that the circumstances of them never having lined up right made it impossible but said he would have “taken the pin all day long” to get that match. He also said that he understands Michaels well now after conversations they’ve had at the WWE Performance Center. You can check out the highlights below:

On Never Getting to Face Michaels:

“So, I don’t know how much older Shawn is than me. But if that ever happened, I would have been in my forties probably. So let’s say — again, I don’t know how much older Shawn is than me, but like, who wins? Who does it benefit?

“Now me, I would have taken the pin all day long to be able to be in the ring with Shawn Michaels. I don’t care, because it wasn’t about that for me. It was about being in there and going, ‘Wow.’ And just kind of the same thing with the Undertaker. It’s like, ‘Man, the matches that we could have had had I just gotten here sooner.’ Because the timing, the way you gel together. I’m assuming — I could be wrong — but me and Shawn would have had that same kind of feeling when we got in the ring together. Like, our timing would have been the same. Everything would have made sense. We’ll never know.”

On His Relationship With Michaels:

“I can tell you this. Just going down to the Performance Center and talking with Shawn, I feel like I understand him. I get what he’s saying in certain things that he said. And there’s some things that I have shared with him that I would never share with anybody else, ever. And you’ll never know about it. But there’s something about some of the things he says. I’m like, ‘Yeah, I understand that,’ that maybe not all people would.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Phenomenally Retro with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.