‘Whatever They Need, I Want To Be The Guy’ – AJ Styles ‘Excited’ About WWE Future Four Months After In-Ring Retirement

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AJ Styles has shared his thoughts on his WWE retirement four months later and commented on some of the work he’s been doing behind the scenes.

“The Phenomenal One” called time on his in-ring career at January’s Royal Rumble premium live event, losing to GUNTHER in his final match.

Styles has since been honored with a 2026 WWE Hall of Fame induction and begun working backstage in a scouting role for WWE ID, as well as working with NXT talent at the Performance Center.

With Styles previously stating he’s “wearing a couple of different hats” in WWE, he has now commented further on his role on the latest episode of The Phenomenally Retro Podcast.

Responding to his co-host saying that Styles is hitting the road with WWE as a coach this week, the Hall of Famer shared insight on what exactly he’ll be doing:

“Yeah, training, coaching. I’m just helping out a friend while he gets some stuff done to the old knees, but other than that, I’m just filling in.

“Whatever they need, I want to be the guy. I like to be needed, being needed is a good thing.

“The fact that I get to go down there and enjoy myself because I still have passion for wrestling, and showing these things. Hopefully that passion will bleed over to the Performance Center. I hope they’re excited about learning, because it’s fun.”

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Styles would also be asked to share his feelings on retired life five months on from his final match, with the former two-time WWE Champion expressing excitement about the “next steps” he takes behind the scenes, while admitting that he doesn’t know exactly what those next steps are.

Styles continued:

“I’m excited about the next steps. I don’t know exactly what they are, but being a part of the WWE ID and the coaching, and to be able to go to the Performance Center and working with talent…

“There’s a time where we have open ring, and we can just work on whatever we want to work on, that’s fun. ‘Hey man, I’ve got all this information up here in this brain, let’s get it out of there.

“Let me show you this.’ Because I know a lot of the moves that aren’t done any more, that other guys used to do really well, like ‘Hey, you should try this. Let’s put your own little spin on it.’ Little things like that are fun to me.”

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After Styles’ retirement at the Royal Rumble, WWE Chief Content Officer Triple H revealed that AJ didn’t want to work as a producer or writer in the company, instead preferring to help develop the young talent coming through WWE’s ranks.

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