Gunther Reflects On Retiring AJ Styles At WWE Royal Rumble: ‘From The Wrestler Purist Heart, That Felt More Important Than The Cena Match’

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Gunther has opened up on retiring AJ Styles at WWE Royal Rumble 2026, and why it meant more to him than retiring John Cena.

After retiring both Goldberg and John Cena in 2025, Gunther set his sights on AJ Styles at this year’s Royal Rumble event.

Gunther would end up winning the match, retiring AJ Styles in his defeat, with AJ set to be a part of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class.

Gunther Explains Why Retiring AJ Styles Meant More Than John Cena

Speaking on WWE Retrospective, Gunther reflected on the career of AJ Styles, and that as a ‘wrestling purist’ it meant more for important than retiring John Cena.

He said:

“Everybody kind of knew backstage, it was an open secret that AJ was going to hang up his boots at some point, that’s what I wanted to do next.

“AJ’s kind of different where it’s like; you have the WCW legend Goldberg, then you have the guy that stands for WWE, then you have AJ who’s somewhat more similar to me because he had a great run here but a lot of the stuff the people love him for happened before WWE.

“He’s one of those guys that, the generation of wrestling I came up with, we looked up to guys like AJ Styles. I remember that when he was in New Japan and we always watched his big matches there, they were fantastic. There was the time where I was really grinding and developing, there was stuff I would watch.

“I always had so much respect for AJ’s work. It almost kind of felt like, from the wrestler purist heart, that felt almost more important for me than the Cena match. But on screen being able to rub it in and try and ruin that last run he has was so much fun.

“That’s the beauty of it because with Goldberg and Cena everyone knew it was their last match, and I think with AJ people weren’t too sure it was going to be his last match. A good chunk of them expected AJ to win and carry on with his career, but he went out on his own terms, that’s something a lot of wrestlers can’t manage, it’s always best to go at a point where people are still going to miss you, not at a point where people are like ‘ah it was time’.

“So hat off to AJ, great career, fantastic wrestler, but I took it away, what can I do.”

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Gunther’s Favor From Paul Heyman

With Gunther reaching an agreement with Paul Heyman ahead of Gunther’s match with Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 42, there are a lot of possible options for what Heyman could offer him in return.

The most popular theory is that Gunther will get the chance to retire yet another name, that being Brock Lesnar, and that Gunther will cash in his favor from Heyman to retire The Beast in his hometown of Minneapolis at SummerSlam.

Alternatively, Heyman’s favor could help propel Gunther back to the World Heavyweight Championship, with Heyman having issues with both Roman Reigns and CM Punk regardless of who walks out of WrestleMania as World Heavyweight Champion.

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• AJ Styles
• GUNTHER
• John Cena
• wwe

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