AJ Styles Elaborates on His Comment About Wins & Losses in Pro Wrestling

Former WWE World Champion AJ Styles has elaborated on his recent comments about wins and losses in pro wrestling.

Last week, Styles said on his Phenomenally Retro Podcast that wins and losses don’t matter in the larger context of things in the world of professional wrestling.

This led to a debate among fans on social media, with some noting how constant defeats have led to the downfall of many wrestlers over the years. In this week’s edition of The Phenomenally Retro Podcast, Styles elaborated on his comments.

Here’s what AJ Styles said:

“Okay, so wins and losses don’t mean anything to AJ Styles at all, right? Like, I’m going to get paid the same, as I said before, whether I win or lose. Fans, I think of pro wrestling were going, ‘Hey, listen, though! Some of the guys that I love never get to win anymore, and I’m losing faith in that. So, wins and losses do matter because if they don’t win, I’m not going to care about them anymore.’ I think what I was responding to is the one person that said, ‘I’ve seen people’s careers derailed because of that loss.’ Of that’s true, they never intended on using them. That’s just the fact of the matter. It wasn’t a derail because they lost. It was because they had no intention of using them. So, boom, that’s kind of where they went. I think depending on where you are in your career, your job is to help others get over rather than to win every freaking match.”

AJ Styles cites the example of his program with Dominik Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship last year

“You go, ‘Yeah, but what about?’ I’m sure there’s some others. Brock Lesnar, well, what can I say? I mean, Brock Lesnar does win most of the time, you know, but he’s also not there all the time. So, it’s different. I get what they’re saying, but I wasn’t saying in the regards of… I don’t care as a contracted guy. If the story is where it needs to be, then that’s exactly what it needs to be. I would love to have beaten Dominik Mysterio in France in front of that crowd that, for some reason, loves AJ Styles. Now, AJ Styles wins. Okay, now I’m the Intercontinental Champion. Then I lose to John Cena, who is now the Intercontinental Champion. Then we’ve got to drop it back to Dominik Mysterio to be the Intercontinental Champion. It’s switch after switch after switch. I don’t think we need it.

“I know there is, ‘Well, we switch from John to Dom. That’s switch and switch.’ But it stayed within that story of Dominik and Cena. If I do remember correctly, that’s what happened. But Gunther needed nothing to do with the Intercontinental Championship. He didn’t need it. I think that made John a Triple Crown champion or whatever, right? I think that was a special thing for John and WWE. That was a cool thing. … That was the reason why that happened the way that it did. Like I said, the story didn’t need to be that way based on where we were going.”

Listen to AJ’s comments below:

Please credit The Phenomenally Retro Podcast and give an H/T to 411Mania for the transcription if you take quotes from this article.