AJ Styles On Meeting With Vince McMahon About WWE’s Third Party Policy, The Undertaker Retiring, WrestleMania 37 Opponent

In a recent interview on Inside the Ropes, AJ Styles discussed his meeting with Vince McMahon about WWE’s third party platform policy, calling the Undertaker after Boneyard Match at WrestleMania, and much more. You can read his comments below.

AJ Styles on being the Undertaker’s final opponent in WWE: “Someone asked me who I would want for my retire match, and I go, ‘I have no idea.’ I don’t know when I’m gonna retire, so how can I even think about that? And there’s no way the Undertaker was thinking even a year before WrestleMania, ‘I’m gonna have AJ Styles be my last match.’ He wasn’t thinking about that. I wasn’t even on his list, I’m sure of it. But things happened the way they did. It literally was a phone call making him think about some things, and I think it was on the verge of thinking about retiring and then having that match and going, ‘Wow, how can AJ and I even top that?’ It was done so well. It was a lot of effort brought about by a lot of different people. The most, of course, was done by the Undertaker. I was just there to stand beside him and do my thing. He’s the reason why that Boneyard Match gets so much praise.”

On calling Undertaker after WrestleMania to see if he was actually retiring: “As fas the match and him thinking that was gonna be his last, I don’t think he knew nor did I that was the one that he needed to end on. It just kind of happened. I literally called him a month after WrestleMania and said, ‘Listen, I need to know if you’re done.’ Well, he never called me back because I think he was afraid I’d try to talk him into one more. We talked, and it was right. He did it the right way, it was on his own terms. He didn’t have to do it because of an injury or something else. He’s the one that said, ‘You know what, I’m OK with ending it right here.’ There’s something to be said about something like that because injuries plague this business and you never know how long you’re gonna be able to hold out.”

On meeting with Vince McMahon about WWE’s third party platform policy: “Myself, Xavier Woods, and Sasha Banks had a sit-down meeting in Connecticut with Vince about this whole situation. It was determined that it was intellectual property. We do well as far as WWE. If there’s an opportunity to pay back that money that we work hard for at different times, then we probably should. I was doing this long before the lockdown – I was streaming and doing my thing, and I was always doing it on my time off. Things happen, and listen, I wasn’t happy about it. No one was. But it is what it is, and I’ll handle it the way I have to. I’m a team player, he’s the captain, and I’ll follow his lead. Will it change? They’re working on it as we speak. Will I be happy with it? Probably not. But the opportunity to stream in the future is definitely wide open.”

On who he wants to face at WrestleMania 37: “If it can’t be Drew McIntyre, give me Edge. If it can’t be Edge, give me Triple H. There’s a number of guys that are willing to step up and it can be any of those. I’m telling you, I want Edge. I got some payback. I don’t know if people remember what happened at the Royal Rumble. He separated my shoulder with that spear, so it’s time to get some payback.”

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Inside the Ropes with an h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.