AJ Styles had been lobbying for a match against Triple H at this year’s edition of WrestleMania but the plans couldn’t come together for this dream match.
During his recent media call to promote the upcoming NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver event, The Game talked about a number of things and explained why he turned down the offer for a bout against the Phenomenal One.
Triple H explained how AJ Styles wanted the bout and he kept asking for it from the former world champion as the Show Of Shows came closer. He revealed that in the beginning, he hadn’t said no to the match:
“He pestered with me every time I saw him! He would ask me about it and ask me about my schedule and as we got closer, man, I’ve said this before, getting ready for WrestleMania is a different thing. And the older you get, the harder it gets.
“When he first came to me, I said, ‘AJ, I’m not going to tell you no. Personally, I’d love to work with you and at this point, you can carry me to something.’ So, I’d love it.”
However as time passed by, Triple H realised that he wouldn’t be able to get in the shape for a match at the show. Even though Styles was still hoping for it until last minute, the King Of Kings decided to cancel the plans:
“There’s a part of me that wants to do it, and then there’s just a bigger part of me that says, ‘I’m so busy 24/7, that to even try and contemplate how to train in the way I would want to train and get in-shape – and by shape, I don’t mean look—in-shape ring wise so you don’t embarrass yourself once you get in there at 52.
“It’s a lot of work and I don’t know that I have – I’m not afraid of the work. If I could make more hours in the day, I could find time to do it. It’s just time.”
After getting a negative answer from Triple H, AJ Styles is now scheduled to compete in a tag team match. He will be teaming with Omos to challenge The New Day for the Raw tag team championships on night one of WrestleMania 37.
