AJ Styles Says He Wants To Retire At Forty – Details

AJ Styles recently spoke with the UK SunSports Wrestlecast about the Claire Lynch angle, his eventual retirement and more. Check out the highlights:

On the Claire angle: This is a television show, this is entertainment. I have to trust in what they’ve pitched to me and hope that it turns out to be something that people hate or love. In fact, it doesn’t matter as long as they are watching. People can say ‘I hate it. You were sponsoring a drug addict, that’s so stupid.’ Well, you were watching. Whether you hate or love the storyline, you saw some great wrestling.”

On retirement: ‘I would love to stop around 40. That’s my goal. It all depends. I don’t want to wrestle forever, I can’t. My body won’t hold up. It’s starting to break down already. When you hurt yourself chasing your kid, you’re getting a little bit too old. I want to be there for my family. I don’t want to look back and go, ‘I wish I’d been there’. My family is more important than my job. But I hope to be able to say that I was the first signed, and that I retired from TNA…I would love to continue to be part of TNA somehow (after I retire). I don’t know whether that is as an agent, or in the office, or handling talent relations. I would love to get the opportunity to sit down and talk to guys and say, ‘I know you want this, but this is where you’re at’ and be real with them.

As noted earlier, AJ Styles said during the same interview that he would like to have a TNA pay-per-view air from the UK. He added that he wasn’t worried about the pay-per-view being taped to air in the standard US timeslot.

“What baffles me the most is why we haven’t run a PPV here. That’s what I want to see. And not just any PPV. I want to see Slammiversary here. I want to see Bound for Glory here. These fans, they want it – let’s give it to them. They’ll be there, they’ll watch it. What’s the problem? Let’s get it done. Just tape it. You’d get it a couple of hours late (in the U.S.) but people are going to buy the PPV whether it’s taped or not. They’re going to want to see it. If it’s a money issue, then there are going to be so many people in that arena that it’s not even going to be a factor.”