AJ Styles’ surprise debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble remains one of WWE’s most iconic moments, but behind the scenes, Vince McMahon wasn’t impressed. On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Styles admitted that McMahon had little faith in him from the start.
“A lot of people don’t know this, but he did not like AJ Styles. I gave him plenty of reasons—I’m not the tallest guy, I have a Southern accent—there were a lot of things to hate about me.”
After his Rumble appearance, Styles recalled McMahon’s blunt feedback.
“I got to the back and he told me, ‘I got a thousand guys that can do what you do.’ I was like, ‘What?!’ He wanted to see more intensity—he wanted a pitbull.”
The following week, Styles was on Miz TV, where he was encouraged to show more aggression.
“They told me, ‘Lay it in. Really put it in there.’ It was a test to see if I could bring that pitbull mentality.”
That change in approach won McMahon over, and Styles quickly became a top star.
“Once he saw that, everything took off,” he said.
Today, Styles is a two-time WWE Champion, proving that even if McMahon wasn’t convinced at first, the fans certainly were.
