AJ Styles Lays Out His Mount Rushmore Of Heels

AJ Styles recently laid out his choice of Mount Rushmores — specifically, a Mount Rushmore of wrestling heels. The “Mount Rushmore” question is one of wrestling interviewers’ most consistent go-to questions when they want interesting responses that drive debate, and Styles has been named on a number of people’s Mount Rushmores from Big E’s in-ring workers to Jordynne Grace’s men of TNA and more.

Styles brought up the age-old topic on his Phenomenally Retro podcast and wanted to talk heels. He named “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig, The Miz, and Bobby Heenan, getting stuck on the fourth pick before agreeing with his co-host Tony Giles that Rick Rude would be up there. You can see highlights below:

On His Picks:

“Mr. Perfect. When he’s the bad guy — man, was so good. Making everybody that ever worked look like they could be a world champion. I would also and people are going to be like what? I would throw the Miz in there. Because a look from him could piss you off. And then his wrestling and the things that he did, like — he was good too, man. When you stepped in the ring with him, he knew what to do. And he was never — look, I’ve been wrestling um the Miz when we first started getting in there, and he’s bragging. ‘Oh, this is great! This is just–‘ He’s talking to me, telling me how great this is. I was like, ‘Man, you made me feel like a million bucks in the ring!’

“Like so, true heels, man. Mr. Perfect, definitely. Miz is up there for me. And I think — listen, I want to throw Bobby Heenean in there as well, as a top freaking guy who entertained me.”

On Having a Hard Time Picking a Fourth:

“Now, who’s my fourth? That’s a little bit of a challenge. And I think that it’s always when you get to the last one, you go, ‘Oh, yeah. But I — eh, ooh, I wanna put this guy.’ You know, there’s some really good ones in there, man.”

On Rick Rude As a Potential Fourth Pick:

“That’s good!… it’s like you don’t appreciate it [Rude’s selling] until you get older and go, ‘Oh wow, that’s really, really good.’ Yeah, I’m with you. Rick Rude was freaking — he’s definitely up there.”

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