Details On Interest In AJ Styles From Outside Companies After WWE Retirement

AJ Styles’ WWE career has come to an end with his retirement at the Royal Rumble, and a new report has details on outside interest in Styles going forward. As noted Styles’ WWE career came to an end after he lost to Gunther at Saturday’s PLE in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Styles’ in-ring retirement has fans wondering what is next for him, and Fightful Select has collected what they know about Styles’ status going forward.

For clarity: there is no indication that Styles is planning to wrestle or make appearances outside of WWE. Fightful Select notes that whatever he does going forward, a source in WWE familiar with the matter said that Styles very much had his way in terms of how he retired, and another source said that the company would have happily extended his time. However, Styles made it clear for years that he was considering retirement, which obviously brought us to where we are.

Styles’ contract was believed as recently as a couple of months ago to be up in February of 2026. While that is not 100% confirmed, there has been no word about an extension as of now. One source in TNA believed that Styles would have extended before the Royal Rumble but again, it’s not confirmed.

Sources in WWE noted that if Styles wanted to work in TNA bad enough, he could do so while under contract to WWE. TNA and WWE of course have a partnership, and Styles made appearances at Slammiversary 2025 and TNA Impact’s AMC premiere.

The report notes that Styles’ status was a point of conversation at AEW Dynamite last week. It’s not clear if Styles can (again, his contract status is not confirmed) or would be interested, but the universal belief among AEW sources is that the company would try to bring Styles in if they could. It is believed that NJPW would want him as well, especially considering they have lost talent such as Hiromu Takahashi, Clark Connors, and the like.

According to a source close to Styles, they knew his in-ring career was ending at the Rumble but do not know what he will do next. Styles is in a position to do what he wants without having to worry about money.