AJ Styles Recalls His Royal Rumble Debut, Says He Takes Pride In Quality Matches

– AJ Styles discussed his debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, taking pride in having quality matches and more in a new interview with the Orlando Sentinel. Highlights are below:

On gaming with other WWE Superstars: “These are a group of guys and girls I really enjoy going to work with. You walk in and you’ve got [the New Day’s] Xavier Woods and his video games – that’s right up my alley. So a bunch of us start playing UFC or Madden, and that’s fun. Because you know, idle hands are the devil’s workshop. … I mean no disrespect to the guys who did it a different way at the bars or whatever. The truth now is, when we get to a city, we find a good gym, something good to eat, go to the building and play video games until it’s time for our matches. That sounds like a great day to me.”

On making his WWE debut at last year’s Royal Rumble: “Everything pales in comparison to the Royal Rumble. … The response I got that night from the fans, after a couple of years out of the U.S. mainstream, is something I’ll never forget. I was really worried about how much the people would actually remember me, but that response made it something really special.”

On taking pride in having quality matches: “I take a lot of pride in what I do. No matter who I’m in the ring with, I want it to look like what it’s supposed to be. We call it sports entertainment, but it’s supposed to be a contact sport. I want to make that in-ring contact as real as possible, and [also make it real] outside the ring.”