AJ Styles recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam while promoting next week’s WWE SmackDown live event in Chicago.
The topic of this week’s NXT call-ups was addressed, and Styles said he wouldn’t mind getting in the ring with EC3:
I’ve never been in the ring with EC3 before, so that will be fun to see a match with him. But, there are several that are coming up through NXT shortly, and there’s a number of them that I could have amazing matches with.
Styles’ recent history—or misfortunes—with Shinsuke Nakamura and Daniel Bryan were brought up, and Styles had a rather humorous answer for why he still won’t wear a protective cup during matches:
You know, even when I played baseball when I was younger, I didn’t like wearing a cup because it got in the way. It just was in the way. If I wore one now, and I did a splash and missed, how would that feel? There are things that could happen in a match that this whole cup thing could actually hurt me. Just sayin’. I don’t need to have any more kids anyway.
AJ also said that as much as he’s been able to accomplish in WWE and his career so far, there’s still one more level he’s hoping to reach before he feels like he’s made it to the ‘upper echelon’ of WWE:
I feel like there’s one more level that I need to reach before I really feel like this ‘WWE Superstar’ and that’s really made a difference in this business. I’m not sure how I’m going to get there, but I’m going to continue to work hard and see what happens next.
Styles also talks about his feud with Samoa Joe, the challenges of being on the road and away from his family, and much more. The Phenomenal One’s interview can be heard on Tuesday’s episode of Wrestlezone Daily; Styles’ portion begins at the 39 minute mark: