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WWE Champion AJ Styles once thought his WrestleMania moment was 'never going to happen'

Posted: Mar 31st 2018 By: Nick Schwartz

A. J. Styles wrestled for 18 years all over the world before he became one of WWE’s biggest stars, and admits he once thought he’d never make it to wrestling’s biggest event. Now he’s just days away from walking down the ramp at WrestleMania 34 as the WWE Champion.

Prior to joining WWE full-time at the 2016 Royal Rumble, Styles delivered a classic send-off performance at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 against his WrestleMania opponent, Shinsuke Nakamura.

Nakamura left Japan soon afterward to join WWE’s NXT division – and ever since Nakamura was called up to the main roster, fans have been dreaming about a second Styles- Nakamura showdown. Nakamura won the Royal Rumble in January to earn a title shot at the biggest show of the year, and Styles retained his title at Fastlane last month to set up an epic reunion in New Orleans.

Styles spoke with For The Win Thursday about his WrestleMania opponent and a recent injury scare that blew up on social media.

You can watch WrestleMania 34 on April 8th at 7:00 p.m. ET via the WWE Network.

You have a long history with Shinsuke Nakamura, which stretches back to your time in Japan. How do you think Shinsuke has evolved since your last one-on-one match against him?

Experience is everything. The first time I met Shinsuke, he was totally, 100 percent different than the guy you see in the ring today – in an absolutely perfect way. This guy has evolved his character and who he is and has become one of the greatest Japanese superstars ever. That’s why he’s
fighting for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

Aside from the last Money In The Bank, we haven’t seen you and Shinsuke face off as opponents in WWE, even at live events. Is that something you’re thankful for, looking back, that this match has been kept totally fresh?

You know what’s great about that is the same thing happened in Japan, and the same thing’s happening here in WWE. That’s a good thing. There are matches that you can have over and
over and over again and people will love it, but there are some matches that you wish you had and you never got the opportunity to see it – this is it. This is the match I think a lot of people wanted to see, and I think we proved that at Money In The Bank. The build-up just to that moment was great… The opportunity to do it at WrestleMania is perfect, and the fact that we haven’t touched in a one-on-one competition? Perfect.

The past couple of weeks a lot of fans have been freaking out online over a potential injury you suffered at a Live Event, but you’ve obviously returned to the ring since. What happened there?

A little of nothing. It was just one of those… got hit in the back of the knee. I think it scared more people than it actually scared me. I knew I was going to make it to WrestleMania, there’s nothing wrong with me.

Is it frustrating for you when these sort of things happen? Somebody catches it on video, it picks up steam on social media and become a story all of a sudden?

Yeah, I mean it really does bother me because they don’t know the extent of it. They started worrying, more than anything, which I appreciate that, but it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to wait to hear the facts and information before you get so worked up about something. It is what it is, and we can’t stop this from happening, but why don’t we hear from the guy who actually has the issue before we jump to conclusions and get worried?

How would you describe the feeling you get when your music hits and you walk out on the stage at a WrestleMania, with 70,000-plus fans watching?

I wish I could describe it to you. This is the reason why so many performers go longer than they probably should of, is because of that feeling when you walk out on that stage into a sea of people. And it’s so loud, and the stadium’s so big, that when you get in the ring you can’t even hear them. It
sounds crazy, but it is an awesome, awesome experience.

You’ve had two WrestleMania experiences so far, but this time you’re arriving as a headliner and the WWE Champion – if someone told you 5 or 10 years ago that you’d be in this position, what would you have said?

Wow, I wouldn’t have believed them, that’s for sure. I think there was a moment in my career where I just thought ‘well, the whole WrestleMania thing’s never going to happen for me. I get it and I understand it, I’ll move on.’ Now the opportunity to have two under my belt. I never would have
believed it, especially going into WrestleMania as WWE Champion.

Another huge SmackDown match on the WrestleMania card is Charlotte vs. Asuka. How impressed have you been by what those two have accomplished?

Charlotte, definitely one of the best women’s performers in the WWE, and Asuka, of course, she’s no slacker either. You put these two in the ring…. It’s almost like the same build- up [to Nakamura-Styles]. It’s a match that I want to see, and now the opportunity of it finally happening is very exciting. This WrestleMania is probably one of the best cards in a long time for exciting matches.