During a recent interview with Bleacher Report, AJ Styles opened up about his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, and his contract talks with AEW before the launch of Dynamite in 2019.
In the same interview, Styles also opened up about Triple H telling him prior to his debut for the company five years ago that there was going to be a chance he would have to change his name:
“I remember Triple H and I talking, and he said, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to be able to keep your name. I said, ‘That’s fine. I have no problem. Just so you know, I have this huge tattoo on my side that says AJ. It’s not my name—it’s my kids’ initials and birthdays, but just throwing that out there.’ Luckily, I was able to keep the whole name AJ Styles, and it worked out for the best.”
Around the same time AJ Styles joined WWE, we saw other top stars like Samoa Joe and Eric Young join the promotion, where they were also able to keep the names they’d been using for several years on the independent circuit.
This certainly isn’t a luxury afforded to all new WWE signings, as through the years the likes of Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Seth Rollins and more have had to change up their names after joining the company.
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