Former WWE Star AJ Styles Says He's Started Producing Matches For EVOLVE

WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles may have wrapped up his in-ring career at the 2026 Royal Rumble, the same event where he made his WWE debut in 2016, but he's not done helping other talent. While Styles, who was retired by GUNTHER at the Rumble, initially described his new role in WWE as more of a talent scout, he revealed on an episode of the "Phenomenally Retro Podcast" that he is also helping out in WWE EVOLVE and taking on an even different role.

"When I'm at EVOLVE, I will produce a match if you need me to," he said. "Which is what I did. I produced more than one match. I did two of them, actually. I enjoy it. I like doing that, throwing all these ideas. It's good for EVOLVE, because we're taking our ID talent, putting them on the shows, showing them where cameras are, which is very important, and then why we do certain things. It is a taped show of course, but I don't like re-doing something, I'm not going to do that. You still get one shot to do it. But, it just gets them ready for 'NXT' whenever the time is that we call them up. It gets them ready... EVOLVE is a very important show for the WWE ID crew."

On a previous episode of the podcast, Styles said he thought he'd have more time to himself in retirement, but he still remains busy with his new role in WWE. He is sometimes on the road, traveling to "WWE Raw" or to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida to keep helping the stars of today and tomorrow.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "The Phenomenally Retro Podcast" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.