AJ Styles Reveals Why WrestleMania Has Lost Some of Its Luster

Is AJ Styles right about the current state of WWE WrestleMania?

AJ Styles' WWE career shockingly came to an early end this year at the Royal Rumble. Many fans expected that Styles' retirement tour would last through a good portion of 2026, but it ended before it ever really had a chance to begin.

While plenty would have preferred to see Styles retire at WrestleMania, The Phenomenal One decided to call it a career at the same event he made his WWE debut ten years ago. Not only does that even mean more to Styles, but he also believes WrestleMania isn't the same spectacle it used to be.

2026 WWE Hall of Fame Inductee AJ Styles was a recent guest on Raw Recap. When asked about the decision to retire at the Royal Rumble rather than WrestleMania, Styles spoke about the importance of the Rumble to him and made a point of saying he believes WrestleMania as an event has lost its luster.

"It was coming back from an injury to WrestleMania to a match that didn't to me, have much build. And WrestleMania, listen, I'm sorry to say, used to be the most prestigious PLE or pay-per-view, whatever you want to call it. But to me, it's kind of lost its luster a little bit," AJ Styles admitted.

"But as far as the Royal Rumble, that's special to me, because that's where I made my debut. So to be able to end where I started? It's poetic."

AJ Styles started his retirement tour in his mind long before the WWE Universe did

It's clear the WWE Universe wanted a lot more time with AJ Styles than we ended up getting this year, but for Styles, his retirement tour began a long time ago.

"I was looking back as far as well, I knew after WrestleMania," AJ Styles revealed. "Those were my last matches that I were gonna that I was gonna have after WrestleMania. It was Logan [Paul], and then whoever else I got the opportunity to be in the ring with. And fortunately for me, it was having a tag team partner in Dragon Lee."

Styles was then asked to reflect upon how his retirement tour went in his mind. The Phenomenal One said he looks back on it as a time when he had a lot of high-quality matches with people like Shinsuke Nakamura, John Cena, CM Punk, and Gunther.

Last night's episode of WWE Raw won't be Styles' final appearance for the company, as he was surprised by The Undertaker as being the latest inductee to the 2026 class of the WWE Hall of Fame.