AJ Styles On His WWE Debut At Royal Rumble, How He Changed Vince McMahon’s Opinion Of Him

AJ Styles recently discussed his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble and how he managed to change Vince McMahon’s mind about him. Styles spoke with BT Sports’ Ariel Helwani and you can check out a couple excerpts below, courtesy of Wrestling Inc:

On his WWE debut at the Royal Rumble: “I don’t know that they planned anything. I think it was a bit like, ‘Hey, you know what, we need something different for the Rumble. You wanna throw AJ? Ahh, I don’t wanna throw him in.’ You know, I think there was a big discussion when I’d even go out because I don’t think Vince believed that anyone would know who I was. From what I’m hearing, or heard, that he saw nothing great about AJ Styles. Even after the pop at the Rumble, I wasn’t even going to be on the RAW the next day.”

On Vince McMahon being convinced to use him in the Rumble: “Somebody believed in me. Somebody convinced him like, ‘Hey, not only does he need to come out third, but we also need to have him on RAW, you know, I’m telling ya, I’m telling ya.’ I think I had a lot of guys batting for me in the process of my debut. I knew these guys. I worked with them in other companies, so we’d become friends and they understood that I was a hard worker. I was willing to get after it, I just needed the opportunity.”

On if Vince believes in him now: “I believe he does. He certainly pays me like I am.”

On when he changed Vince’s mind about him: “I think there was Miz TV, and there was a point that I needed to beat him up. It couldn’t just be. It had to look the way it should. And several people came up to me and said, ‘Put it on him!’ ‘What, what do you mean? They want me to hurt this guy?’ I kept thinking, it was at least three guys who told me that I needed to get after him, I’m like, ‘They really want me to hurt him?’

“But what they were trying to say is, listen, this has to look really good. You have to convince Vince that you belong here and that you have that pitbull that he wanted to see. And I was able to pull that off without hurting The Miz and looking like a guy who, you know, would tear you apart.”