How & Why WWE Matches Are Rehearsed Explained By Hall Of Famer AJ Styles

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2026 WWE Hall of Fame inductee AJ Styles has explained how and why matches are “rehearsed” ahead of them actually taking place.

Now more than ever, WWE has peeled the curtain back on the behind the scenes working of the company with shows like WWE Unreal and other content designed to give a look backstage at how things are done.

As such, fans have become increasingly curious about how matches are put together.

In years gone by, matches were mostly “called in the ring,” which means wrestlers wouldn’t discuss much beforehand and they’d essentially work it out together as they went along during the match, with only major things like big moments and the finish of the match actually planned out.

However, nowadays, that’s become less common, with matches sometimes planned out in their entirety ahead of time.

On his Phenomenally Retro Podcast, AJ Styles explained why this is the case and exactly what goes into pre-showtime “rehearsals.”

Styles noted that fewer live events means many talents often aren’t used to working together as much as they used to be, which makes it harder to call matches in the ring and means it’s a necessity to plan more in advance.

To call matches in the ring, a certain degree of chemistry is needed between performers – sometimes the stars just align and two wrestlers have that instant bond when they get in the ring, but a lot of the time, that’s not the case, and without live events giving talent the chance to work with someone multiple times before doing it on TV, the idea of calling it in the ring is a harder process.

Another reason is the increased importance on TV production and making sure the camera shots look the best they can for the big moments.

Styles explained that the actual wrestling isn’t rehearsed, but the ‘blocking’ of certain moments are planned out for TV purposes:

“Once you get to the ring, there will be some things we’ll rehearse. And by ‘rehearse’ – we’re not rehearsing the wrestling, we’re not doing that.

“But we wanna see what cameras are going to be in the position that we’re doing a certain thing so we can get the best shot. That’s kind of what we rehearse.

“Or maybe somebody does a run-in. You kinda wanna see how everything’s done so we can get the best shot. So those things happen.”

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The Downside Of Fewer WWE Live Events

While having fewer WWE live events is a positive for some reasons – such as talent not being on the road as much meaning they get to spend more time at home – there are certainly some downsides to it as well.

As AJ Styles noted, fewer live events means fewer reps and having to plan TV matches more in advance – this is often noticeable during matches and can actually bring the match quality down, as talents have to remember what the next planned move is, or if the crowd aren’t buying into what was planned and performers don’t adjust to fan sentiment on the fly, it can take the audience out of it completely.

More experienced performers can navigate that, but those problems are particularly evident with newer talent, who are the ones that need more reps to begin with.

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