AJ Styles Vows To Be A Workhorse WWE World Heavyweight Champion
AJ Styles will battle Seth Rollins in the finals of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Tournament this Saturday at Night Of Champions 2023. The winner of the match will be crowned the new World Heavyweight Champion at the Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Appearing on the “My Love Letter To Wrestling” podcast ahead of Saturday’s pay-per-view event, Styles shared his perspective on the WWE World Heavyweight Title being considered ‘secondary’ to Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the perception of the new title as secondary: “A lot of people have been calling it a secondary title and I would love to disagree with them, but how can I when Roman holds the Raw and the SmackDown championships so we’ve made a new one so that he can’t have it yet? Okay, I’ll give you that. But the key to this World Heavyweight Championship is that it’s going to be the workhorse championship. That’s what I believe this is going to be. I’ve been that guy, Seth has been the guy, so you’re not going to go wrong either way.”
On the idea of Reigns potentially coming after the title: “And when Roman wants to step up and challenge for that workhorse championship, we’ll see what becomes secondary then, because I believe that the guy who’s in the ring, there’s no ring rust, you get in there and you’re doing it and you’re working on all cylinders. This time that Roman’s taking where he’s not on every show, that’s going to hurt him in the long run, because we’re going to be polished and ready for the next fight.”
AJ Styles on getting back into ring shape after his injury: “At least they didn’t throw me in two matches and then throw me in a world championship match as soon as I get back. Oh wait, they did. If you’ve ever been hurt, there is nothing like being in wrestling ring shape. The only way to do that is getting in a ring and wrestling. It doesn’t matter how much cardio you do outside of the ring, it doesn’t prepare you for in-ring. A little worried, but after being in the ring, I was like, ‘I’m okay, I’ll be alright.’”
On this being his toughest injury layoff: “This is the longest I’ve ever been out with an injury. I say this to people, after 24 years, I was due to have a pretty good injury. The last injury I had that kept me out was in TNA and I was out for six weeks, I tore my hip labrum. I was in a boot for a while, and I felt like I was trying to learn how to do things again. ‘Hold on a second, I’ve been doing this for 45 years, how did I not know how to walk right?’ It was really painful in some places. I went and got another MRI and once I realized it was this inflammation, the bones pretty much healed, the inflammation is pain, once I knew that in my head, ‘Okay, I’m not going to tear anything, I’m not going to re-break anything, I can get after it.’ Once that mental block was gone, it was easier for me to focus on what I needed to do and it seemed like it progressed a lot quicker.”
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