AJ Styles Clarifies His WWE NXT Backstage Role

WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles has clarified his current role in NXT. As noted, The Phenomenal One revealed late last month that he’d be taking over from one of the coaches at the Performance Center. This led to speculation about whether Styles is now a full-time coach.

However, that’s not the case, as the former WWE Champion revealed on the latest edition of The AJ Styles Show that he is only filling in for NXT coach Terry Taylor, who is currently recovering from knee surgery.

The Phenomenal One further revealed that he is trying to change a few things up as far as NXT coaching is concerned [while retaining the fundamentals] so that talents remain motivated and engaged. Here’s what AJ said:

“Well, so, let me clear this up, by the way. One of our coaches had to get knee surgery. I have now taken his place until he’s back. I am not a coach, per se; that’s down here every week. I am just filling in until he’s back. That’s it. And I’m going to tell you guys, I’m actually having a lot of fun with it. And I’m trying to make everything that we do very, very practical. Because this is what I see going on, so we’re going to do this and this right here and make sense of why you’re doing it.

“I want to see your footwork. And I’m changing stuff a little bit, because the more you do the same thing over and over, the less you want to come to class and work hard. Because it gets redundant. So I’m trying to change things up a little bit but not take away from what they already know. First of all, doing something you don’t know how to do is always harder. And so when we change it up, it’s harder for the talent, also a little bit more exciting and keeps you interested.”

You can watch Styles’ latest podcast below.

Please credit The AJ Styles Show and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this article.