AJ Styles Loses at Royal Rumble, Must Retire From WWE

AJ Styles has been one of the top wrestlers of the 21st century, but it appears his WWE career is over. He had a match at the 2026 WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event against Gunther with a stipulation where he put his WWE career on the line. The match saw a lot of action, so let’s take a closer look at what happened and what this means going forward.

AJ Styles Retires From WWE

AJ Styles has been one of the top wrestlers for multiple decades, but his WWE career is officially over. He would wrestle against Gunther on Saturday and wind up losing the match. This match took place after Styles took issue with how Gunther was handling himself after retiring John Cena in December’s Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Gunther said he would only agree to this match at the Royal Rumble if Styles put his career on the line, which Styles agreed to. Gunther would hit a low-blow during the match, but Styles would kick out from the following powerbomb. Gunther would end up trapping Styles in a sleeperhold and despite attempting to fight out of it, AJ Styles would get choked out and lose the match.

Styles would remove his gloves following the match and was going to leave them in the ring. However, he would put them back on and do his signature hand gesture before leaving the ring. It was intriguing to see Styles refer to this being the end of his “WWE career” with a loss, so there is a chance he will remain wrestling outside of the company.

For Gunther, he has now retired Goldberg, John Cena, and AJ Styles as he continues to end the careers of legends. It was 10 years ago when Styles debuted in WWE, entering third in the 2016 Royal Rumble match. It will be intriguing to see what the future of both AJ Styles and Gunther looks like following this match.