{"id":2250565,"date":"2026-01-26T06:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2250565"},"modified":"2026-01-26T06:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:10:21","slug":"nakamuras-post-suggests-aj-styles-may-retire-at-royal-rumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/nakamuras-post-suggests-aj-styles-may-retire-at-royal-rumble\/","title":{"rendered":"Nakamura\u2019s post suggests AJ Styles may retire at Royal Rumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shinsuke Nakamura may have hinted at the finish of AJ Styles\u2019 match with Gunther at this Saturday\u2019s Royal Rumble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Hours after facing Styles at Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event<\/em><\/a>, Nakamura shared an Instagram Story titled \u201cThe diary I wrote the day before,\u201d which has since been deleted. In it, he recalled a speech Styles gave during WWE\u2019s Australia tour in October that suggested he was nearing the end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As the tour moved on to Japan, Nakamura said he asked Styles directly, on the way to a meet-and-greet, when he planned to retire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe Royal Rumble. I\u2019ve already decided,\u201d Styles replied, according to Nakamura.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The retirement of AJ Styles has been a topic of conversation for nearly two years. Before WrestleMania XL in 2024, Styles told The Ringer<\/em> that the end was near<\/a>. Said the former WWE Champion:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m done. I\u2019m going to retire. I\u2019m getting to that point where I am worried about embarrassing myself. My brain says, \u2018We can do this.\u2019 My body is like, \u2018You\u2019re stupid. We cannot do this. We\u2019re hurting every day when we roll out of bed.\u2019 At some point, this has to come to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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In his post, Nakamura said he asked to wrestle Styles one more time before he retired. He cited their matches against each other in New Japan and, later, in WWE.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen it comes to professional wrestling, his balance of expression and technique is the best in the world. Truly one of a kind,\u201d Nakamura wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The two delivered a hard-hitting, Japanese-style classic at Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event<\/em>. Styles ultimately won with a Phenomenal Forearm and Styles Clash, building momentum heading into his Royal Rumble showdown with Gunther.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Styles\u2019 program with Gunther began shortly after \u201cThe Ring General\u201d forced John Cena to tap out in Cena\u2019s final match in December. Fed up with Gunther\u2019s constant disrespect of Cena, Styles demanded a match against Gunther.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On the Jan. 12 edition of Raw<\/em>, Styles turned the tables and forced Gunther to tap out. However, the referee didn\u2019t see the tap. After Styles released the hold, Gunther struck with a low blow that led to his victory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Last Monday on Raw<\/em>, Styles called for a rematch, which Gunther accepted under one condition: Styles must put his career on the line. After taking time to think it through, Styles accepted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Plans can change in pro wrestling, and Styles may have since changed his mind. If Nakamura\u2019s account is accurate, Saturday\u2019s match in Riyadh could be Styles\u2019 last.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cagesideseats.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shinsuke Nakamura may have hinted at the finish of AJ Styles\u2019 match with Gunther at this Saturday\u2019s Royal Rumble. Hours after facing Styles at Saturday Night\u2019s Main Event, Nakamura shared an Instagram Story titled \u201cThe diary I wrote the day before,\u201d which has since been deleted. In it, he recalled a speech Styles gave during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2250567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[23675,433447],"class_list":["post-2250565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-royal-rumble"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Nakamuras-post-suggests-AJ-Styles-may-retire-at-Royal-Rumble.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2250569,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250565\/revisions\/2250569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2250567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}