In a recent episode of the “Insight” podcast, AJ Styles divulged an interesting tidbit about his past dealings with former WWE Chairman, Vince McMahon. Apparently, during Styles’ feud with fellow wrestling star John Cena, McMahon stonewalled an initiative of his.
AJ Styles had an idea for a shirt design bearing the phrase, “Beat Up John Cena.” However, McMahon vociferously objected to the idea. Stunned by the refusal, Styles keenly remembered the incident, saying emphatically, “We tried to get a shirt made and Vince was like ‘Absolutely not.’ I was like ‘Why?’ But yeah we tried to get the shirt out there, he said absolutely not. I thought it was going to be good.”
Even though his proposed shirt designs never saw the light of day, Styles along with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson managed to popularize the phrase on live television.
That year, Styles enjoyed quite the winning streak over Cena, triumphing over him in back-to-back matches in two major pay-per-view events – Money In The Bank and SummerSlam.