Prior to his defeat by Cody Rhodes in an I Quit Match for the Undisputed WWE Title at WWE Clash at the Castle, AJ Styles took part in an interview with Inside The Ropes.
Styles discussed his feud with Adam Copeland, aka Edge, which began in 2022 and lasted four matches, two of which were singles. Their first meeting took place at WrestleMania 38, followed by a rematch at WrestleMania Backlash. He wishes Edge had been a babyface during the feud.
Here are the highlights:
On his feud with Edge: “It was a dream feud, but in the wrong context of which it should’ve been done. Edge should have never been a heel. He wasn’t a guy that you looked at as a bad guy. That would be the only thing that I would change. Other than that, we had fun, but it was just a different dynamic.”
On his fake retirement angle: “I am going to retire one day, just not when Cody thought I was going to retire. I had to get a match with Cody again. Nick Aldis wasn’t gonna give me the match. So I had to convince Cody, and I knew that the only way to do it was beat him senseless. Make him feel like a complete idiot. Because it seems like everybody thought they knew what was going on. But they weren’t sure. And I guess, Cody, maybe it might be felt that way. And then he was embarrassed—so embarrassed that he wanted to put me in an awkward match with him, where he’s gonna be more embarrassed when I have him say I quit.”
On whether Mark Henry reached out to him after the angle: “We may have talked a little bit. He may have applauded my actions in the way that it was done. He actually took a lot of more credit than he should have” (laughs).”
You can check out the interview below:
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
