As noted, AJ Styles recently appeared as a guest on Rock 100.5’s “Bailey And Southside” show for an interview. Below are some additional highlights.
On the very first ring name he ever came up with for himself: “I wanted to wear a mask! I loved those [luchadors]. I’m so glad that didn’t happen. I wanted to wear a mask and call myself ‘Velocity’. What a terrible name.”
On how he ended up with the name AJ Styles: “I didn’t have a name. Everybody always called me ‘AJ’ anyway, so I stuck with AJ. And then, [the promoter] is like, ‘Yeah, you’re tagging with Damien Still. We need a last name. Styles! Go!’ That’s it. That’s how the name [came] about. AJ Styles. I hated it. I hated Styles for a really long time.”
On whether or not WWE wanted him to change his name: “[WWE] didn’t say anything about changing it. I just assumed it would probably happen, but a year prior, maybe a couple of months prior, Samoa Joe had went to NXT and they didn’t change his name, so I thought, ‘well, maybe there’s a chance’. But, at the same time, I was like, ‘ah, I don’t care what they call me, Velocity, if you want to call me that, whatever.’ But I’m glad they stuck with AJ Styles and it actually worked out for everybody.”
Check out the complete AJ Styles interview above or at BaileyAndSouthside.com.