Despite only making his WWE debut in 2016 at the comparatively advanced age of 38, AJ Styles has accomplished a lot in three years with the company. After winning numerous championships with companies such as TNA (now Impact Wrestling), Ring of Honor, and New Japan Pro Wrestling, “The Phenomenal One” has enjoyed two runs with the WWE Championship. With his recent move from SmackDown Live to Monday Night Raw via the Superstar Shake-Up, he is also fresh off a well-received match against Seth Rollins for the Universal Championship at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view last Sunday.
Styles may have come up short against Rollins at Money in the Bank , but given the fact that he signed a new five-year contract in March, per WrestlingNews.co , he has more than enough time to add to his WWE resume. However, as he admitted in an interview with Newsweek , he doesn’t expect to sign another contract with any wrestling promotion once his current WWE deal expires.
“I can tell you that this contract that I’ve signed is my last,” Styles told Newsweek’s Phillip Martinez. “This is the perfect place for me to be. It’s family-oriented, I have no problem taking my family to the shows. It’s a PG product, which I enjoy. I’m in the best place I can be for my career.”
While AJ Styles did stress that he is very happy with where he currently is in WWE, he also said that there could be some challenges ahead, as SmackDown Live moves to Fox later this year and shifts from Tuesday to Friday night tapings. According to Styles, the change in schedule “does make [things] a little more difficult” for the production team, which works on both Raw and SmackDown , thus making the current Monday and Tuesday television schedule ideal for these employees. He did, however, express optimism regarding the situation, saying that he and his colleagues will “find a way to work around it and make things better.”
AJ Styles has signed his last contract https://t.co/btM7xTczFX pic.twitter.com/vT2LnwA578
— Cageside Seats (@cagesideseats) May 21, 2019
Regarding the immediate future of his on-air character, Styles, who turns 42 in June, said that if it was up to him, he’d align himself with his former Bullet Club stablemates Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, who have struggled to establish themselves in WWE since they came over from New Japan in 2016. Styles explained that the chemistry he has with the “Good Brothers” is something that cannot be taught, also expressing hope that WWE’s creative powers would allow the three to team up in the near future.
As for the Universal Championship, which he can contend for again now that he’s on Monday Night Raw , Styles told Newsweek that he still wants to win the red brand’s top title. On the other hand, he clarified that the most important thing for him is being a “household name” and being entertaining, rather than getting to hold all the available titles in WWE before his time with the company is over.