WWE truly pulled out all of the stops for AJ Styles’ retirement, all the way through Raw’s closing moments when the Undertaker arrived with a very special announcement for his former WrestleMania foe.<\/p>\n
The night was billed as an AJ Styles tribute show, and it didn’t disappoint. Well, that sentiment is true for most. One person who was disappointed was Gunther, who kicked off the show demanding that he be the one honored as Atlanta was the very place his run as the Career Killer began. Adam Pearce quickly shut that down, as did Dragon Lee, who attacked Gunther multiple times on his way out of the arena. Throughout the night, Styles’ career was highlighted as moments such as his Royal Rumble debut, first title win, and more were showcased, along with wrestlers backstage with whom Styles had a shared past.<\/p>\n
Cody Rhodes led the SmackDown contingent that included the MFT, with whom Styles worked in New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Bullet Club. Frankie Kazarian joined TNA personnel, turned WWE producers, Bobby Roode, Abyss, Petey Williams, and Jeremy Borash to celebrate Styles. The Good Brothers were also shown along with the returning Omos, who won the tag team titles with Styles a few years back. CM Punk paid his tribute to Styles in the ring along with guys like Shinsuke Nakamura, Finn Balor, Randy Orton, the Miz, and others, sharing thoughtful words during pre-recorded videos. Then came the main event. A video package that extensively featured Styles’ time in TNA and nodded to his time in NJPW aired before Styles made his way out to the crowd. There, he thanked the fans, his colleagues, and his family for their support through it all. Styles noted one thing he hadn’t done in his career was be a full-time dad, and now he would have that chance. Styles admitted he didn’t want things to end the way they did at the Royal Rumble, but acknowledged it was poetic that he got to end his career at the same event where it all began.<\/p>\n
Then came the gloves. Styles addressed why he didn’t leave them in the ring in Saudi Arabia. People speculated there was meaning to it, and there was. He wanted to bring his gloves home, and that he did. Styles took off his vest and gloves and left them in the Atlanta ring in a stadium under an hour away from where he grew up and first realized he wanted to live out his dream as a professional wrestler. Styles gave one final pose as wrestlers filled the stage, including the aforementioned names and others from both SmackDown and Raw’s locker rooms. Triple H was also there, as any lingering doubt that Styles was sticking around seemed to be extinguished. But then…the gong.<\/p>\n
The Undertaker, in his American Badass persona, rode his bike to the ring, where he told Styles they had unfinished business. Undertaker seemed to be hinting at one more match (at least that’s what the fans chanted for), but in the end, he was just there to bestow upon Styles the honor of being the newest inductee in the 2026 Class of the WWE Hall of Fame. He’ll join Stephanie McMahon and others to be announced later<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Styles and Undertaker embraced, Styles’ family made their way inside the ring. He embraced his wife and kids before playing to the crowd one last time as Raw went off the air.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WWE truly pulled out all of the stops for AJ Styles’ retirement, all the way through Raw’s closing moments when the Undertaker arrived with a very special announcement for his former WrestleMania foe. AJ Styles Leaves His Gloves in the Ring and Says Goodbye The night was billed as an AJ Styles tribute show, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2418,"featured_media":153782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12,2192,25,8959,4,3],"tags":[145,9106,297,573],"class_list":["post-153781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-tna-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-aj-styles","tag-raw-on-netflix","tag-the-undertaker","tag-wwe-hall-of-fame"],"modified_by":"Marilee Gallagher, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153781"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153786,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153781\/revisions\/153786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}