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AJ Styles performance tonight...

AJ Styles In-Ring Work

3K views 35 replies 28 participants last post by  Krokro 
#1 ·
After tonight at Elimination Chamber I think AJ proved he can still go in the ring, and I'm looking forward to the match at Mania. Hopefully Taker lays down...
 
#13 ·
He's definitely slowed down, but that's understandable. I don't think adhering to the modern WWE style helps - i.e stagey chair shots/table bump and running through arsenal of sig moves before kick outs and then finishing move or two.

I like how 56 year old Mark Callaway seems to have more muscle mass now than in the Attitude Era!
 
#14 ·
The man is 42 years old!!! If there is any criticism, this needs to be at tue forefront of your mind. Even at his age, he is still able to put o the match of the night and more than hang with the younger guys (flippity flops and and all). While he may not be doing everything he did 10 or even 5 years ago, he is still among the top 5 workers in the business.
 
#17 ·
Who thinks AJ Styles isn't good? There's literally one person in this thread @Ace and he's not even bashing AJ. Just saying his previous work is better. Plus, there's always one blind, dumb hater for no reason. Look at Kratosx23.

No one thinks AJ has lost a step. He, like all humans, has had to slow down with AJ and WWE style. He's still one of the best in WWE, ever.
 
#19 ·
AJ Styles has been boring for a long time. All his big matches were disappointing. Nakamura. Samoa Joe. A few others so forgettable that I can't name em. He usually comes into a match with a ton of hype and then works an incredibly slow paced match, unaggressive, lazily limb targeting....

The match with Black was his best in a long long time
 
#22 ·
THIS is the match people are pointing to to prove AJ has "still got it"?

He's had better matches than this over the last 3-4 months on random episodes of RAW.

Don't get me wrong. It wasn't a bad match at all. But this is definitely not the match to make a thread for to prove a point about AJ's current in-ring abilities.
 
#26 ·
His best WWE match and feud with was with Cena.
The Samoa Joe feud was solid too.
 
#27 ·
He is certainly working a safer style which a don't blame him for because he is getting older and wants to preserve his body. To be honest I haven't been feeling his matches lately and this is coming from a person who's been a fan of his since 2005. Despite that, I know he can bust out classics when he needs to. He'll bring out the best in Taker at mania.
 
#29 ·
This is it for me. I've said it in other topics regarding AJ, I think his current style is a conscious decision to prolong his career. It's not that he can't do the moves or have the matches he used to, but he's getting older and signed a 5 year contract not too long ago. I think, if he wanted to, he could still do the springboard 450s and moonsault DDTs, but the risk isn't really worth the reward. A WM match with Undertaker might be the time to take some things out of the vault to help the match stand out a little more.

It might mean AJ's "regular" matches aren't as exciting, but if it means we get him for 5 more years with the occasional gem, I'll take that over him flying around like he's still 25 and ending his career early. He very nearly cost himself a Mania spot doing that crazy flip bump for Edge at the Rumble.
 
#28 ·
AJ Styles is so phenomenal that he can work less as good as he used to be and still be phenomenal in the ring. He shouldn't hang anything up until he just physically can't do it anymore and has to stop before he hurts his health. AJ is still doing fine though.
 
#31 ·
AJ will always be able to put on a good match..like HBK (not comparing, Michael's is WAY better) but AJ will put on good matches until he retires.

With that being said, AJ vs Taker is such a risky match, I don't understand why they are doing it. AJ will work as safe as possible but Taker, as much of a legend he is, isn't physically sound enough to be safe. He's done.
 
#32 ·
I think it’s pretty apparent that he has slowed down and that he isn’t putting up the top tier matches that he was doing even at the beginning of his WWE run.

And did I miss something with the Black match? It was a pretty average match as most of AJ’s matches have been lately. I love AJ, and I want to believe that he has a few classics left in him, but I’m not so sure. He’s basically a lock for a 3-3.5 star caliber match, which is really solid. But, IMO, he hasn’t it dialed it up a higher level since Nakamura at MITB 2018.
 
#33 ·
AJ is doing what a lot of guys now starting doing when over their 40's, they remove the most risky moves. Jericho is doing that too and he's 49 now.

AJ started slowing down around 36, but was still a high flyer for the most part.

It's not fair for us to expect our favorite wrestlers to keep doing the moves that defined them for their entire careers. Ric Flair is surely the absolute best example of this. By his mid 40's his body was burnt completely out because his career was very very heavy early on, and past 50, it was just chops and figure fours.
 
#35 ·
Even if you think AJ is washed up, or not quite the same, there is absolutely NO reason for him to not beat Taker at WM. None. Taker beating AJ does nothing for his career. AJ is still at least a full-timer and getting the win, even over an old, way out of his prime Undertaker, is still a bigger deal for AJ than a win is for Taker. No reason for AJ not to win. None.
 
#36 ·
What is this weird hatred over AJ Styles "not being good anymore" nowadays? He became extremely valuable to Vince, and started slowing down shortly after. He also wrestles much more than ever before. Let the man take it easy. He is still one of the best.
 
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