AJ Styles says he does not like Unreal, and that the audience has not earned the right to see what the show puts on screen.
Speaking on the debut episode of The AJ Styles Show with Tony Giles, Styles was asked for his view on WWE’s behind-the-scenes series for Netflix, whose third season launched last week.
“But I mean, we here’s my here’s my take on it. Do I like it? I do not, because the outside hasn’t earned the right to know what I know and be where I’ve been. They don’t get the opportunity to get into the ring and hit the ropes as much as they would like to. They shouldn’t get that opportunity. I paid a price, right?”
Styles retired in January after losing to Gunther at the Royal Rumble.
“And it’s something that I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life with these injuries that I’ve accumulated, the abuse that I put on my body, and a lot of other guys have done the same. So, in my old school opinion, they don’t deserve. They haven’t earned the right to know what goes on, what is said and all these things, and it’s just my opinion. That’s all it is.”
He was clear that his objection is not going to change anything.
“But if if there’s a way that they can make money off this, they’re going to, and that’s kind of where we’re at in this business. It’s when it comes to WWE and who is owning WWE. It’s all about making money and finding ways to do that. That’s what this is.”
Styles then softened the position by acknowledging both that plenty of people love the show and that he had felt the same pull himself years ago, watching a masked figure on television explain how wrestling worked.
“And there are some people who love it. Some people love it. Right? Do you? I don’t know about you, but years ago, maybe I can’t early ’90s or late ’90s, when there was a guy that came on with wearing a mask, and he didn’t know who it was, and he was showing us how wrestling worked. We were blown away, and everybody wanted to know what that was like, right? Like we wanted to know how things were done. So, you know, so for that, I watched it. It was like, wow, that’s how it’s done.”
“You know, maybe it’s the same kind of thing going on. I don’t know. I can’t imagine it’s changed that much, other than the fact that we’re telling you we are entertainers. We’re in the entertainment. We aren’t called wrestlers, as I think we’re called performers more than we’re called wrestlers at this point in the WWE.”
Asked whether that framing bothered him, Styles did not argue with it.
“And they’re not wrong.”
Styles’ position puts him at odds with Kevin Nash, who said on Kliq This this week that Unreal is by far his favorite thing WWE produces and that he is more interested in what happens behind the curtain than in the matches. Chelsea Green, meanwhile, credited a clip from the show’s first season with turning fans behind her on the night she won the Interim WWE Women’s Championship at SummerSlam.
