WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles joined WWE after years in TNA in 2016, debuting on the Royal Rumble. Styles spent a decade of his profession in the corporate, with nearly all of his time spent working under former chairman Vince McMahon. Upon Styles’ retirement in 2026, TKO was, and still is, running the show, after WWE merged with UFC, creating the corporate, in September 2023.
Styles spoke about working under each McMahon and the “recent regime” on an episode of his “Phenomenally Retro Podcast.” Under McMahon, Styles said he enjoyed the indisputable fact that he would at all times get a solution from McMahon when he needed it.
“There was one time where I told him I used to be attempting to read him, meaning how he felt about something,” Styles explained. “He said, ‘Don’t do this. You may’t read me.’ Things were different. I feel like guys walked around just a little bit more timid when Vince was in charge. Where now, they’ll type of give their opinions and stuff like that more freely and ask questions without being yelled at… I do not think it’s as micromanaged because it was, which is thing.”
Styles explained that McMahon liked being on top of “every little thing,” which he said was unimaginable, as WWE is such an enormous company. “The Phenomenal One” said that he can appreciate that McMahon was his boss, who gave him a possibility.
“It was neither good nor bad working for Vince,” he said. He gave me a probability to be AJ Styles in WWE and a two-time World Heavyweight Champion, so what am I to complain about?We weren’t hanging out after work, I can promise you that.”
In the event you use any quotes from this text, please credit “The Phenomenally Retro Podcast” and supply a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.