A.J. Styles was recently interviewed by Bailey and Southside. He revealed his desire to wear a mask while breaking into the business and the initial name he wanted to use (transcription via Uproxx):
“I wanted to wear a mask! I loved those [masked wrestler] guys. I’m so glad that didn’t happen … You can’t breathe in masks. I don’t know how these guys do it. I wanted to wear a mask and call myself ‘Velocity.’ What a terrible name. But I could do flips and everything. That was easy for me to do in the ring …
“I did my first match ever, I was ‘Mr. Olympia.’ I wore a mask, and wore my old singlet that I took from my college, turned it inside out, and I wore wrestling shoes, and I looked absolutely ridiculous. And my next match, I didn’t have a name, and everybody always called me ‘A.J.’ anyway, so I stuck with AJ. And then, [the promoter] is like, ‘yeah, you’re tagging with Damien Steel. We need a last name. Styles! Go!’ That’s it. That’s how the name [came] about, A.J. Styles. I hated it. I hated Styles for a really long time.”
For the full interview with A.J. Styles, check out Bailey and Southside.
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