WWE World Tag Team Champion AJ Styles recently weighed in on the new generation of wrestlers, like Will Ospreay and Leon Slater, adopting his signature moves. In short: he loves it.
Speaking on the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast, “The Phenomenal One” explained that seeing his offense used by others is a sign that he’s “made an impact in the business.”
“It’s crazy, right? But that’s cool. I mean, if guys are doing my moves, if girls are doing my moves, that’s awesome. I want them to. That just means that I’ve made an impact in the business that people have watched AJ Styles and go, ‘Frick, I’d like to try that. I’d like to see if I could do that.’
“Because I did the same thing. I was trying shooting star presses and 450s and all kinds of stuff like that, because I saw other guys do it. So the fact that if someone does the Styles Clash, I don’t care. Like, thank you for for doing it, man. That means it’s impacted the wrestling world and that’s okay. I like that.”
Styles also discussed his own inspirations, noting that he was drawn to “the athletes of the time” like Billy Kidman and Lance Storm, rather than just one specific person. He credited this approach with helping him create his unique style.
“I guess I started picking from a lot of different people. Thank God, because it allowed me to be different and not like everybody else.”
H/T to Fightful for the transcription. Thanks for checking out this article. Make sure to follow Jeff Jarrett and all things GFE on Facebook.
