AJ Styles is set to face John Cena at Crown Jewel in Perth, Australia on Saturday. They wanted to face each other one last time before “Never Seen Seventeen” retired to end their rivalry once and for all. It turns out that Styles is also now on a retirement run as he confirmed on Friday that he will indeed retire some time next year. It was initially reported in an interview with Tokyo Sports.
Styles pointed to his age as a factor for his impending retirement. Just last month, Styles seemed to hint that his contract would be ending soon. He had posted an image on Instagram of an hour glass with his logo in it. During the September 8th episode of “Raw”, he got on the mic and said that he felt no one really had his back anymore. He mentioned that his good friends, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, were gone. His OC stablemate, Michin, is now on “SmackDown”. He claimed that “someone doesn’t want me here.”
On their Talk N’ Shop podcast, The Good Brothers, addressed the promo. Gallows said everyone was asking them about it and they “didn’t have a f******’ clue.” He brought up “The Phenomenal One” facing Cena in Perth. “Listen, we’re not going to be able to help ya, AJ. We’re gonna be at the Honorary Wrestling Federation. So don’t call and ask.”
Anderson chimed in to say, “we’re not canceling anything. If we said we’re going, we have to go.” Gallows quipped, “it’s called Honorary Wrestling, you think we’re not going to honor that?” Anderson stated that won’t cancel for anyone and said they’re booked through February 2026. Australian fans can catch them in February 2026 as World Series Wrestling just announced them for several dates. They were also just announced for NWA’s Samhain 3 show next weekend.
