{"id":6621,"date":"2015-12-23T10:54:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T16:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=6621"},"modified":"2015-12-23T13:53:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T19:53:21","slug":"j-styles-talks-wrestling-future-finding-right-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/23\/j-styles-talks-wrestling-future-finding-right-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"A.J. Styles talks wrestling future, finding the right deal, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2190469288\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>A.J. Styles\u00a0and Jeff Hardy, 38, are separated by two months in age. Both wrestle a similar style and both have their own following of hardcore fans.<\/p>\n<p>Hardy is recovering from a serious leg injury suffered in a dirt bike accident, while Styles is looking ahead to not ending up in a wheelchair when he&#8217;s older after wrestling &#8220;killer matches&#8221; for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, Styles says he&#8217;s not just going to jump at any contract offered to him. He&#8217;s patiently waiting for the right deal, seeing which promotions are trying to stand out from the pack, and continue taking his own bookings, even if he reduces his workload in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe less dates because I have been going hard ever since I left TNA. I have been rocking it. Maybe less dates is something that I should look to, but as far as slowing down in the ring; no way. I have one gear and it\u2019s all or nothing with me,&#8221; Styles said on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogtalkradio.com\/ringrustradio\/2015\/12\/22\/ring-rust-radio--dec-22-w-rohs-aj-styles-and-wwe-royal-rumble-raw-chatter\" target=\"_blank\">Ring Rust Radio show with host Donald Wood<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The question of whether his career would be complete without a WWE run, even wrestling for\u00a0NXT, came up again in the interview. Styles carefully noted that it&#8217;s about business to him when he&#8217;s looking ahead to his financial future decades down the line.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The thing that makes wrestling most interesting to me is going to be the business that occurs after the match is over. A lot of people frown on that and say money isn\u2019t everything. Well I say it depends on how much you have saved. My goal when I retire is to not be in a wheelchair or walk with a limp. Wherever I go, I will do my best, work harder than anybody there, and that\u2019s just what I do. I only have one gear and if someone is looking for that and I can support my family while doing it, then that is what I will do,&#8221; Styles said.<\/p>\n<p>As for whether his career would be incomplete without a WWE run, Styles said, &#8220;It\u2019s not, it really isn\u2019t. I get to work in the Tokyo Dome on <span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_1520729874\"><span class=\"aQJ\">January 4<\/span><\/span>\u00a0in front of thousands and thousands of people. That\u2019s pretty awesome. I don\u2019t know about you guys, but the first time I watched New Japan and saw them walk down that long ramp to the ring it was unbelievable. The fact that I get to do that, that is my wrestling moment. I wouldn\u2019t say I would never go to WWE, but if it didn\u2019t happen I wouldn\u2019t go, &#8216;Oh man, I missed out. I\u2019m the one guy that missed out.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Overall, Styles said he&#8217;s going to follow the path the wrestling business sets before him,\u00a0whether it&#8217;s regular return trips to\u00a0Japan or to Lucha Underground in California or continuing his current booking schedule of Ring of Honor and indies.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-4205584384\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;Lucha Underground does great and crazy stuff over there, and it\u2019s a little bit of what we talked about with doing something different,&#8221; Styles said, relating back to TNA trying to be WWE-lite at the turn of the decade instead of being their own entity. &#8220;Wherever the business takes me, that\u2019s where I am going to go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2287717911\"><div id=\"pwtor-3288788669\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>A.J. Styles\u00a0and Jeff Hardy, 38, are separated by two months in age. Both wrestle a similar style and both have their own following of hardcore fans. Hardy is recovering from a serious leg injury suffered <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2015\/12\/23\/j-styles-talks-wrestling-future-finding-right-deal\/\" title=\"A.J. Styles talks wrestling future, finding the right deal, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,7,539,6,13,4,3],"tags":[90,206,717,87,404,167,120,71],"class_list":["post-6621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-news_etc","category-indies-news","category-news_japan","category-news_nxt","category-news_tna","category-news_wwe","tag-aj-styles","tag-jeff-hardy","tag-lucha-underground","tag-new-japan","tag-njpw","tag-roh","tag-tna","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/StylesAJhood_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6622,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6621\/revisions\/6622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}