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Finn Balor to AJ Styles: ‘I’ve always looked up to you’

Posted: Feb 8th 2026 By: Ian Carey

Finn Balor sent an emotional message to AJ Styles during Styles’ recent appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s podcast.

Styles was a guest on What’s Your Story earlier this week following his loss to Gunther at the WWE Royal Rumble in a match where his career was on the line. During the interview, several of Styles’ former rivals, opponents, and colleagues shared messages about his career.

Balor said to Styles on the show:

“I feel so happy for him that he’s able to retire with his health. AJ, I just want to say congratulations on such an incredible career. From a personal standpoint, I want to say thank you because you’ve always been such a constant source of inspiration for me. I know we’ve had very similar career paths, but I hope you know that I’ve always, always looked up to you.“

“For me, you are the benchmark for what it is to be a professional both inside and outside of the ring. I’m very grateful that I got the opportunity to share the last 10 years with you here in this company. I know we kind of dodged each other a lot on the indies. You were in TNA, I was in Japan. When you came to Japan, I went to NXT, so we missed each other for a long time. But I feel like getting to know you over the last 10 years, both on a personal level and in the ring, and just witnessing how great and phenomenal you really are, I want to say thank you for being AJ Styles.”

Balor left New Japan Pro Wrestling in May 2014 to sign with WWE and be assigned to NXT. The following month, Styles defeated Kazuchika Okada to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as leader of Bullet Club. The two later wrestled five singles matches against one another on WWE programming, with Styles winning their head-to-head series 3–2.