AJ Styles lastly addresses main WWE resolution post-retirement: “As long as you used to”

AJ Styles is arguably one of the most iconic stars in the world of professional wrestling. He has won Championships across the globe and is a WWE Grandslam Champion. He retired from in-ring competition earlier this year after losing to Gunther in a Career Threatening match at the Royal Rumble PLE in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

While speaking on his Phenomenally Retro podcast, AJ Styles was asked if he preferred to work on SmackDown or RAW. The Ace and Undisputed Leader of the Bullet Club chose the blue brand as it used to be a 2-hour show when he first became a part of it.

“Well, you know, for the longest time, SmackDown was two hours while Raw was three. So I would rather be on SmackDown because 3 hours is a lot to sit through, I think. So they’re pretty tired after 3 hours. Two was perfect. Two hours was perfect amount. You weren’t like… I felt like at Raw you were [in a] hurry up and waiting kind of thing. It was like, I’m ready but we still got an hour before you’re going on,” he said.

He also claimed that he preferred SmackDown in the two hour format as stars didn’t have to wait all night long to get their spot.

“Because it was so long where SmackDown was like, ‘Oh gosh, we’re already about to go out.’ You kind of want that. You don’t want to be waiting all night to do your job. So I’d prefer SmackDown at the time because of the hours. But then we get to Netflix and you’re not going as long as you used to.”

AJ Styles was the face of SmackDown from 2016 to 2019. He even had a 370+ day reign as the WWE Champion.

AJ Styles is now a WWE Hall of Famer

AJ Styles wrapped up his wrestling career at the 2026 Royal Rumble event after passing out to Gunther’s Sleeper Hold. His final match took place at the same event where he debuted a decade ago. A few weeks later on RAW, WWE decided to celebrate Styles’ career in his hometown of Atlanta.

A lot of people who played a major role in the Phenomenal One’s career were present at the show. The Undertaker made a surprise return and came out to tease another match against Styles. However, he ended up announcing AJ Styles as an inductee for the 2026 Class of Hall of Fame. The Phenomenal One was inducted into this year’s HOF class alongside Stephanie McMahon and others.

Fans loved to see AJ get the respect he deserves from the Stamford-based company.