Triple H Claims AJ Styles Is Done For Good In The Ring

AJ Styles was choked out inside Gunther’s sleeper hold at the Royal Rumble 2026 PLE, leaving the crowd in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia shocked into silence. Per the match stipulation, Styles was forced into saying goodbye to his WWE career. 

It had been known that Styles was planning to hang up the boots in 2026 for good, though it wasn’t known that it would come this early into the year. Shinsuke Nakamura, in a now-deleted social media post, revealed early that Styles was done in the ring, with fans becoming more and more certain that he was set to lose in Saudi Arabia. 

Styles soaked in the applause and respect of the crowd before removing his gloves, teasing to put them down in the middle of the ring to signal his retirement. However, Styles picked the gloves back up and placed them back on, giving his pose to the crowd and throwing the Bullet Club “Too Sweet” in the corner. This has raised a lot of questions about his future and whether or not his career is yet to finish outside of WWE. Well, the company narrative states that Styles is done. On the Royal Rumble post-show, Triple H revealed that Styles was done for good. 

“Obviously, we expected it later in the year. We had a lot of conversations about it. AJ is one of those people that absolutely wants to give back and be a part of this business,” he said. “I don’t want to speak for him but the conversations that he had with me, he made it very clear that he was just done with the in-ring. There’s a point where you just reach in your career where you say ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ And when your heart goes, no matter how good you are, he hasn’t lost a step…but when you say ‘I’m just at a place where I don’t want to do this anymore,’ it’s time before you get hurt, before you get told you’re not allowed to do this anymore. I think he was there.”

Triple H commented that he wanted Styles to stay in WWE in a backstage role. 

H/T F4WOnline