AJ Styles lost his career threatening match against Gunther at the Royal Rumble, and while he did not tap out, Styles went to sleep after Gunther applied the sleeper hold, with the referee calling off the match, stunning the crowd.
The stipulation for this match was that Gunther was only going to take on Styles if AJ put up his WWE career on the line, something that AJ agreed to.
After the match ended, Styles took his time in the ring and removed his gloves to be placed in the middle of the ring, but he put them back on and saluted the crowd instead, posing for all four sides of the arena.
The departure of AJ Styles was somewhat expected heading into the show, with Styles applying to trademark terms related to his name for a post-WWE life. Shinsuke Nakamura also posted a reel on his Instagram last week saying that Styles told him he would be retiring at the Rumble.
Styles brings down the curtain on his WWE career exactly 10 years following his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, where he was the surprise entry coming in at #3.
He won the WWE title twice, the WWE Intercontinental title once, the WWE United States title three times, and the WWE World Tag Team titles twice, becoming the 32nd Triple Crown champion and 15th Grand Slam champion.
