AJ Styles On If WWE Edict On Third Parties Affects His Twitch Account, Who Owns His Name

AJ Styles recently went live on Twitch and discussed the future of his popular stream channel. Styles revealed that while the initial edict sent down from Vince McMahon was vague, he believes Twitch is not one of the platforms the company is trying to keep their talent away from. Styles also said because of the pandemic, a lot of the talent were trying to come up with ways to offset their loss of revenue by participating in certain things that they knew they was not allowed.

"From the contacts that I have and the information I have received, WWE wants us to interact with our fans and that includes streaming," Styles said. "They want you to have a YouTube channel. There are things they want you to do to interact with fans. The information we got was a little vague at first, but we're going to get together and talk about what needs to happen."

"There were some things going on that we knew we couldn't do," Styles revealed. "We really knew. Times have changed and things have happened. There were no people in the arenas. It was a weird time and people were doing some things that were kind of borderline on what we could or could not do, and those things will be answered. Streaming is not one of those things that are being taken away. Neither is YouTube. I'm sure there will be changes to other areas. WWE wants us to stream and interact with our fans."

Before the letter from Vince McMahon, Mark Carrano told WWE talent on the call that they own their real names while they are under contract with the promotion, as well as their ring names. AJ Styles went on to say that he actually owns that name and has given permission to WWE to use the name so long as he is working for the company.

"Let me just let you guys know – I own my name," Styles said. "That's how I've been able to use it no matter where I've been. I've given permission for WWE to use it as long as I'm with them. Therefore, it's their property as long as I'm under contract.

"As I said before, WWE wants us to interact with you, the fans, so as far as I know, I can continue using my name for the stream, but it doesn't matter to me. I can be whatever. I can be Allen Jones or Styles Clash, whatever – it's not that big of a deal."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.