WWE Legend Praises AJ Styles Ahead Of Retirement As ‘Trailblazer & Trendsetter’

A WWE legend has high praise for AJ Styles ahead of his retirement next year, touting him as a “trailblazer and trendsetter” in wrestling.

AJ Styles has announced over the past few months that he’ll be retiring in 2026 and his final WWE match will take place next year.

One of the names Styles worked with earlier on in his career, D’Lo Brown, commented on crossing paths with Styles in TNA back in 2003, and how he could tell even then that Styles would be a “generational” star.

Speaking with The Wrestling Classic, D’Lo Brown said:

“I remember the first time I got to be in the ring with AJ. First of all, sitting in the locker room and talking to him, to be so young but to really have a good idea of what this business is about, was impressive.

“And then I got in the ring with him, and I knew this kid was… you could feel it, you could see it, you just knew this kid, given the opportunity, was going to be generational.

“To watch him grow, to be there at the beginning to give some of the advice that I had gotten to pass down to him, and to watch him grow – awesome.

“I’m looking forward to the day when his last match is so I can call him and congratulate him on a great career and tell him that I saw it from the beginning, and I’m so happy that his career was better than what I even envisioned for him.

“I wanna congratulate him on just a marvellous, amazing career. Everywhere he went, he was the top dude. And that doesn’t happen too often in wrestling.

“He was a trailblazer and a trendsetter. Before him, a lot of things he did wasn’t seen, and now it’s taught in wrestling schools. There’s a bookmark in the history of wrestling and it’s labeled AJ Styles. He’s got a whole chapter to himself about changing the business.”

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There’s no exact date known for 2026 when Styles’ final match will take place, but the fact it’ll be happening hasn’t just been brought up by Styles outside of WWE, but it’s been mentioned numerous times on TV as well.

Styles is currently one half of the World Tag Team Champions alongside Dragon Lee.