The long goodbye of a modern day legend
AJ Styles retiring in early 2026 felt like a punch to the gut for anyone who actually spent their Tuesday nights watching wrestling for the craft rather than the soap opera tropes. Frankie Kazarian recently sat down to talk about his history with Styles, and if you have any soul, it hits hard.
These two aren't just colleagues who shared a locker room once during a taping. They were the architects of a specific style that defined an era of professional wrestling, moving away from the stiff, powerhouse spots of the past toward something faster, cleaner, and frankly more athletic.
The evolution of a friendship
Kazarian described a bond built on decades of traveling, sharing hotel rooms that probably smelled like gym bags and cheap airport food, and performing in front of crowds that ranged from three hundred people in a high school gym to sold-out arenas. As Wrestling Inc reports, the transition to retirement has altered the dynamic of their relationship.
It is one thing to grind alongside someone, but it is another to watch them step out of the spotlight for good. We keep waiting for the surprise cameo or the inevitable return-to-ring announcement, but this retirement feels permanent because Styles was always someone who valued his personal timing over the industry's demands.
Missing the technical masterclass
Let us address the elephant in the ring. Modern wrestling focuses on spectacle, pyro, and twenty-minute promos. While Styles could cut it on the microphone, he dominated because he understood how to use his body to tell a story without saying a word. Watching him transition into a post-in-ring life leaves a void in the upper-mid-card technical ranks that nobody currently on the circuit can fill.
You can see where companies are struggling to replace that specific blend of veteran presence and high-octane work rate. There is a glaring hole in the creative booking of major shows when you cannot rely on a guy who hits a 450 splash or a Styles Clash at the right moment to turn a dead crowd back into a frenzy.
Booking mistakes and the post-Styles era
The industry is currently obsessed with chasing the next big narrative arc, but they have forgotten how to build a match that matters on its own merits without needing a thirty-minute video package. That was AJ’s bread and butter. He made you care about the bell-to-bell action, something that has been missing for a while now.
I talk to him constantly, we're all still friends. But it's different now. You don't have that shared mission every single day.
The booking teams at the major organizations have been fumbling the ball by favoring character work over the actual sport. Seeing someone like Kazarian, who still maintains that old-school respect for the craft, talk about Styles serves as a brutal reminder of what we lost.
Maybe we all got too comfortable assuming the legends would just keep showing up. With the 2026 FIFA World Cup starting in just 5 days, the eyes of the world are turning elsewhere, and the wrestling world is finally starting to process the reality of a roster that no longer includes the Phenomenal One. It is a transition that smells suspiciously like the end of an era, and frankly, I am not sure the product is ready to thrive without him.
