AJ Styles Says His Success Isn’t Determined By What Others Think About Him

AJ Styles has turned out to be one of the biggest WWE stars ever. While he was initially signed in 2016, his career did not happen overnight, as Styles had spent a lot of his career working with IMPACT Wrestling and getting a near-legendary status before transitioning to WWE.

Styles spoke with Ariel Helwani for BT Sport. The former IMPACT star talked about why he thinks WWE reached out to a talent from another roster in 2016, and why that pattern changed with him.

The WWE superstar told Helwani about how he would have been completely fine if he hadn’t been part of Vince McMahon’s pro-wrestling giant at all. He said that he is the only one who determines whether he succeeded or not.

My success doesn’t determine what other people think of me. I determine my success. I was able to pay off a house without working in WWE, and that to me was being successful. But, knowing that I would never have a WrestleMania moment kinda sucked, but I was OK with not having the opportunity to be at WrestleMania. I did well for myself and probably did a lot more than most people thought I would before WWE.

Advertising

Advertising

Styles added that he did not worry about WWE not asking for him before 2016. He said that he thought he was needed before that time, as they had a tremendous amount of talent.

I never really asked myself that question. I just assumed they didn’t need me, but they had so much talent there, maybe they don’t need an AJ Styles. They had Daniel Bryan at the time, so why would they need AJ Styles? And I was OK with that.

AJ Styles has an incredibly humble attitude despite having a great trajectory as a pro-wrestler. Having gone toe-to-toe with The Dead Man himself, Styles still had to prove his salt to Vince McMahon to get the recognition of being a star.

What’s your take on this story? Sound off in the comments!