AJ Styles (Best Of CVV) - Retiring in 2026, His Phenomenal Career in WWE & TNA, The Undertaker, John Cena

INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet

Chris Van Vliet

Sports, Business, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Entrepreneurship, Wrestling

4.9 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 25 December 2025

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

AJ Styles (@AJStylesOrg) is a professional wrestler currently signed to WWE. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at the DDPY Performance Center in Atlanta, GA in this interview from Episode #727 in March 2025. He discusses his legendary wrestling career, saying no to WWE in 2001, his legendary matches in TNA, why he hated working in the six-sided ring, his shocking Royal Rumble debut that the cameras missed, being The Undertaker's final opponent, the John Cena retirement tour, coming back from a near career-ending injury, when he thinks his in-ring career will end and more! Please support our sponsors! PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFFSTASH: Go to https://get.stash.com/INSIGHTto see how you can receive $25 towards your first stock purchase and to view important disclosures SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!FACTOR: Use code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year!GLD: New customers get 50% Off with code INSIGHT at https://GLD.com PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure! VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVVand use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests. Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Van Flea!
0:05.0	Yeah.
0:06.0	We're finally making this happen. Finally. Finally. Holy cap. It's more my fault than yours, obviously. We were supposed to do a bad blood weekend. Yep. And I got a text from you the night before, and you're like, I think I might have broken my ankle or foot or both. Yeah, little did I know. It was actually worse than breaking it. You know, I didn't know at the time, but yeah, that was like, oh, crap. So, eh. How heartbreaking was it, though? It's your return and then you get put on the shelf again. Oh, man. And I knew I'd broke it, right? Because if you've broken it before, same foot. I was like, I broke it again. And I'm,
0:55.1	pissed because now I know how long it's going to take to get back. But like, again, little did I
1:01.7	know. It was much worse than a break. What was worse about it? Because it's tendons. And
1:07.8	my doctor, who is also my friend,
1:11.5	it was like,
1:12.6	do not look this up.
1:13.7	I'm like,
1:15.2	I'm going to look this up.
1:17.0	And it's a career ending energy.
1:20.7	And it happens in car wrecks and in professional football mostly.
1:21.9	That's usually when it happens.
1:23.7	And in football,
1:24.4	of course,
1:25.8	like it's one of those things, depending how severe it is.
1:28.3	And I was literally by the skin of my teeth, I was able to, they were, they're like, we can
1:33.3	have surgery, we can do surgery on your foot.
1:35.7	And it will heal faster.
1:38.0	But there could be complications as you get older.
1:42.5	We don't know.
1:43.4	If we don't have to start out have surgery, let's try to do some
	...

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