In a recent interview with Alex McCarthy of TalkSport, AJ Styles revealed that he had no idea that his cinematic Boneyard match at the WrestlMania 36 earlier this year was going to be The Undertaker’s last match in WWE. That means Styles will go down in history as The Undertaker’s last WWE opponent, unless of course he decides to come out of retirement.
“Well, as far as the match and him thinking that was going to be his last, I don’t think he knew, nor did I, that that was the one that he needed to end on,” said Styles in an interview hosted by Inside the Ropes.
“It just kind of happened and, you know, I literally called him a month after WrestleMania and said, ‘Listen, I need to know if you’re done.’ And, well, he never called me back because I think he was afraid that I’d try to talk him into one more.”
Styles, however, said that he was happy to see the legend drawing the curtains on his career on his own terms rather than being forced to bow out because of some injury.
“He did it the right way,” felt Styles. “He did it on his own terms. He didn’t have to do it because of an injury or something else. He’s the one who said, ‘You know what? I’m OK with ending it right here.’
“And there’s something to be said about something like that, because injuries plague this business, you know, and you never know how long you’re going to be able to hold out and good for him that he was able to call his own shot.”
Styles was still “haunted” by The Undertaker on screen even a few months after WrestleMania 36, more so during the Money in the Bank Ladder match. This created speculations about Styles and Undertaker meeting once again. However, Styles said that he had no clue that WWE were going to shoot that angle at MITB.
“I have no idea. I didn’t call that,” he recalled. “I didn’t say anything about that. They said, ‘Hey, what if we did this?’ And I was like, ‘You know, whatever’ – but I have no idea why they put something like that in there. Maybe it was a just-in-case.”