AJ Styles Addresses Criticism of His Remarks About WWE in Japan

AJ Styles has addressed the backlash over his recent comments about WWE potentially buying a wrestling promotion in Japan, saying fans misunderstood what he meant.

Speaking on The Phenomenally Retro Podcast, Styles clarified that he wasn’t talking about New Japan Pro-Wrestling or its president, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Instead, he said his comments were about “a Japanese company” in general and were never meant to single out NJPW.

He said Tanahashi is one of his favorite people in wrestling and someone he has always respected. According to Styles, he would never intentionally speak negatively about him. The former WWE Champion admitted he wasn’t surprised by the reaction once his comments started making the rounds online (via Fightful).

“We hit a freaking bees nest with that one to some guys. Holy cow. I was excited. Did I ever say New Japan Pro-Wrestling? I can’t remember… Just a Japanese company, that’s more what I was alluding to. People [are] like, ‘Oh, Tanahashi.’ There ain’t but one Tanahashi. The fact that Japan came out and supported him the way that I did says a lot about that country because [he’s] definitely one of my favorite guys in the wrestling business. Just a heart of gold. So just so you know, I’m not disrespecting my friend, by the way, Tanahashi. You don’t know him like I do. I promise you. I would never disrespect that guy. But hey, people are going to say what they say because they think they know everything about wrestling.”

During the discussion, Styles also responded to co-host Tony Giles’ comments about internal issues within New Japan. AJ Styles said he has heard similar things through firsthand conversations rather than from reports online.

“So what you’re saying is, I just want to understand you clearly, that New Japan it’s not doing as well as everybody thinks it is. … This is also what I’ve heard, through other people, not on the internet. That’s why I even said what I said because I heard it from, you know, firsthand information. But whatever. Internet knows everything. I’ll just keep it at that.”