wrestling / News

AJ Styles Says He’ll Face Nakamura In The Near Future, Talks Unbreakable Match and More at Wizard World Portland

February 18, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Image Credit: WWE

– As noted earlier, AJ Styles did a Q&A at Wizard World Portland and answered a variety of fan questions. Here are some more highlights from the panel:

On whether he prefers to be a face or heel: “Well, it’s a lot easier to be a heel. In this day and age, a babyface gets in there and…well, a lot of people don’t like John Cena. I gotta tell you, I usually say to kids if they’re John Cena fans, they’re probably good kids. If they’re AJ Styles fans, oooh. But I gotta tell you man, I love being a heel but there’s parts of me that miss that opportunity to that I get to spend with kids, and go to the hospitals and just making a kid’s day. Making someone smile. I do love that. So it’s only a matter of time before I go back…It’s just part of the industry we’re in and it changes every so often, depending on how your merch sells, really.”

On how his wrestling style has changed and evolved over time: “Well, it’s definitely developed. When you get started on the independents, it’s all about showcasing what you can do. And then once you do that, you gotta show that you’re smart in the ring, that you can work with anybody. And then psychology plays a huge part. Not many people know how important it is. And just to give you an idea of what psychology is, it’s when you go, ‘Wow! What an amazing match!,’ and someone goes, ‘Well what did they do?’ ‘I don’t know, you just have to watch it.’ That’s how you know you’ve put on a great match is when it’s — it’s not about flips and stuff. It’s where you put everything and the story that you’re telling within the match and all along, making it very exciting. And one thing I learned from John Cena is ‘Let’s make them care about the match before we even step foot in the ring.’ And that is the psychology…it’s what wrestling’s about.”

On his match with Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels at TNA Unbreakable 2005: “All I can think about is how great it would have been if Joe and I hadn’t went home early. Because we had so much planned, so much great stuff planned that it could have been the most amazing match we’d have ever put on. But me and Joe screwed that up.”

On which female star from NXT or WWE he would induct into The Club: “Probably, just because…it’s a toss-up between Becky [Lynch] and Charlotte. I think they’d fit in pretty well with BC. I wonder how they’d feel about that? Every now and then I catch Becky throwing up a ‘Too Sweet.'”

On who he wants to face at WrestleMania (this or a future one): “Well I wanted Shawn Michaels. And let me just say, I respect that guy so much that he retired and stayed retired. Not many people could do that, because money talks. And trust me, it was speaking loud and clear. But it’s hard to say. I would love to go ahead and give the people what they want and wrestle Randy Orton. I think that would be a quality match.”

On the pic he put on social media teasing a match at the Royal Rumble: “I put it out there to see if I could get Shawn to buy it. That’s what I did, just to see if I could get people talking. Some fan made that up and I thought, ‘That’s a cool picture, let’s just see what happens. And yeah, it got a lot of press to the point that WWE was like, ‘Don’t post anything else on it.'”

On Kenny Omega coming to WWE down the line: “Well I can tell you, time will tell…I don’t know if you knew this, but he was signed to WWE way back in the day, and just had a hard time. You know, young kid, not knowing exactly what’s happening or what the next step is, your mind starts playing tricks on you and he ended up leaving. And he was ready to quit. Him and I had a match and we tore the house down. This was probably fifteen years ago. That’s when he decided to get back into wrestling pretty hard. So if we could have a good match way back then…I can only imagine what will happen when he comes to WWE. I think Kenny is tailor-made for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He is exactly where he should be right now. And hopefully in a year he’ll be exactly where I want him to be in the WWE.”

On who he wants to face from NXT: “Oh man. I mean, can I say what everybody wants me to say? Nakamura. Yeah, I think that’s definitely going to happen in the near future and it’s only a matter of time until he makes it to WWE.”