AJ Styles has a message for wrestling’s next generation. He believes chasing a reaction someone else already got is a losing game.
Speaking on The AJ Styles Show, Styles discussed rising NXT talents like Keanu Carver, Saquon Shugars, and EK Prosper. He likes what he’s seeing from the younger crop.
However, he pointed to a structural problem. He feels that since so many wrestlers train under the same handful of coaches, they end up learning the same moves and the same transitional spots, which makes it harder for anyone to stand out.
Different is good. When you learn from the same people, and by same people, a lot of times you’re with the same coach for a while, you’ll get, you’ll learn the same moves and learn the same stuff, the cutoffs and stuff like that.
AJ Styles’ Solution
His proposed fix is having someone step in and help each wrestler identify what’s uniquely theirs, and he floated the idea of taking on that mentorship role himself as he becomes more involved backstage.
So we have to find ways to make them different. That’s what we have to work on, and maybe that’s something that I can do personally. Go, ‘Hey man, we got time. Let’s work on this with you. We’re working on these, this is your move set, this is who you are, this will make you different.’
Styles was also direct about in-match awareness: if a spot already got a reaction earlier on the card, the next match shouldn’t just repeat it and expect the same pop. He wants wrestlers actively watching the matches before their own and adjusting on the fly if something’s already been done that night.
We got to make sure you’re not doing the same stuff because unfortunately there are some stuff that a lot of them do that, you know, everybody does.”
“Like, and you have to watch the match before you and go, ‘Well, they did that already. Let’s think of something else,’ because we do it all the time, right?
Redundant Spots
He stressed this isn’t an NXT-specific problem and it happens across wrestling whenever one match gets over and everyone else tries to replicate the formula, even though what worked did so because of the specific people and moment involved, not because the spot itself is repeatable.
It gets very redundant when you, some things that you watch, and it isn’t just, you know, I’m not saying just NXT does it, but they don’t. No, that if once a match gets over, people do the same stuff, you know, and so they try to, they try to do, be the same way and do the, get the same reaction.
The same logic extends to signature moves, in Styles’ view — he’d rather fans watch a wrestler and think of that performer specifically, not immediately associate the move with whoever made it famous first.
His broader point isn’t that wrestling needs to reinvent itself, just that talent should pay closer attention to what’s already happened and lean into what makes them distinct.
Don’t let them do something different. Do, you know, something that’s more you, and so that they don’t think of them, they think of you when you do the move.
