AJ Styles Reveals Vince McMahon Had No Idea Who He Was When He Signed With WWE
Vince McMahon was not aware of AJ Styles when he signed with WWE
May 26, 2023
Royal Rumble 2016 will go down in history, with the monumental WWE debut of AJ Style occurring during the Rumble match.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers of a generation, Styles came to WWE fresh off a title-laden run in New Japan as the leader of the then white-hot Bullet Club, but apparently Vince McMahon didn’t know who the ‘Phenomenal One’ was, as Styles revealed during an appearance on Mark Andrews’ My Love Letter to Wrestling:
"I'm not sure how I snuck in there [to WWE], I think maybe the success of the Bullet Club helped for sure," Styles said. "Maybe some of the writers asked, 'What do you think about AJ Styles?' But I can tell you this, Vince McMahon had no idea who I was. There's no way because he had no plans for me after the Royal Rumble. I wasn't supposed to be at 'Raw' the next day. Yeah, so he thought it was a fluke that I got the pop that I did in Orlando."
McMahon soon knew full well who Styles was, with AJ going on to win the WWE Championship after only eight months in the company.
H/T: Wrestling Inc.
