AJ Styles: I Wanted To Be a Masked Wrestler

– AJ Styles recently spoke with Georgia’s Rock 100.5’s Bailey And Southside (via wrestlinginc.com), here are the highlights…

On Wanting to be a Masked Wrestler: “I wanted to wear a mask! I loved those [luchadors]. I’m so glad that didn’t happen.” Styles continued, “I wanted to wear a mask and call myself ‘Velocity’. What a terrible name.”

On How He Got The Styles Name: “I didn’t have a name. Everybody always called me ‘AJ’ anyway, so I stuck with AJ. And then, [the promoter] is like, ‘yeah, you’re tagging with Damien Still. We need a last name. Styles! Go!’ That’s it. That’s how the name [came] about. AJ Styles. I hated it. I hated Styles for a really long time.”

On Getting to Stay AJ Styles: “[WWE] didn’t say anything about changing it. I just assumed it would probably happen, but a year prior, maybe a couple of months prior, Samoa Joe had went to NXT and they didn’t change his name, so I thought, ‘well, maybe there’s a chance’. But, at the same time, I was like, ‘ah, I don’t care what they call me, Velocity, if you want to call me that, whatever.’ But I’m glad they stuck with AJ Styles and it actually worked out for everybody.”