AJ Styles confirms that the reason he left Raw was because of Paul Heyman and his lies.
A few days ago we reported on the reason why Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were released. The pair revealed that the reason behind their release was because Heyman pushed for it and that he thought they made too much money. It also came out that AJ Styles confronted Heyman about rumors he was behind Gallows and Anderson’s release. Heyman denied the rumors straight to Styles’ face.
Things Escalated Quickly for AJ Styles
After it was confirmed by Vince himself that Heyman was behind the release and confirmed Heyman lied to him, Styles was furious. He asked to be moved to SmackDown and moved off Heyman’s brand.
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However, all this was according to Gallows and Anderson. We didn’t hear Styles’ side of the story. This week on Styles’ Twitch stream we finally got to hear his side of the story.
“It was said that I was so angry that Gallows and Anderson were released, so angry that I was like, ‘I don’t want to be on Raw anymore.’ That’s not the way it went down, at all. It was the person who was in charge of Raw, who had lied to me, to my face, just the most believable lie I had ever seen, directly to my face. I’m talking about Paul Heyman.
Basically said to me, here’s the kicker, there were times we were putting other guys over, Gallows & Anderson are getting beat by one guy and we’re like ‘what the heck’ and he’s like, ‘You gotta trust me, we gotta get this guy over,’ and of course that’s what you do, you help guys get over, but also, you can’t just bury us completely. I don’t mind losing, as long as there is a good story behind it. He would be like, ‘Listen, trust me. You guys, trust me. If you ever think I do you wrong, you get on social media and you bury me. You bury me.’ He said this to us.
It came down to Money in the Bank, I found out that my guys were getting released, I was upset. I wanted to go talk to Vince, but it’s already in motion and already been done. Paul Heyman pulls me into his office and tells me he had nothing to do with it and knew nothing about it. If he knew Gallows & Anderson were getting released, he would have fought for them and that’s why they didn’t tell him they were getting released. I said, ‘Okay, I appreciate that, it makes a lot of sense,’” AJ Styles said.
Heyman’s Scales Finally Revealed
This is basically the same thing Gallows and Anderson said Heyman told Styles. They didn’t say that Heyman pulled Aj Styles into an office. Heyman being proactive and taking Styles aside to make sure that he knew he had nothing to do with it, is next level shady. Either way Styles was going to be bummed because those are his friends that got released. That would have been a real standup type of thing to do…if Heyman was being honest.
AJ Styles thought it was Vince’s idea and didn’t question Vince’s decision. However, lies started to unravel when Styles talked about what Heyman said to him in that office.
“It was later, I told a friend what was said and he told me what he knew, which is that Gallows & Anderson weren’t on the list, but Paul Heyman spoke out abundantly like ‘we gotta get these guys out of here. We don’t need them, they’re getting paid too much.’ The one thing Paul Heyman is good at is talking, he’s very convincing. One thing led to another, Paul advocated to get them released. Their name wasn’t on the list until Paul brought it up. I think the reason why he did what he did, well, he’s just a liar, but it’s because he knew he had nothing we wanted to do with them. He didn’t want to get them to the next level or do anything for them. The best way to do that after what he said, was to get them out of there,” Styles said.
Great Boneyard Match BTW You’re Fired
Not only was Heyman involved, he actually advocated for their release. Heyman is the advocate, but in this case he used his powers for evil. No one was looking at Gallows and Anderson and their release was not on the table at all until Heyman. This makes a lot of sense actually that they were a last minute addition.
Everyone thought it was really weird that they were part of this very high profile WrestleMania match with Undertaker. The match was extremely well regarded and highly praised, but then shortly after they got released. It didn’t make sense at the time, but we now know it was because there was no plan to release them until Heyman spoke up.
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Once Styles found out about Heyman’s lies and backstabbing, Styles asked to be moved to SmackDown. He didn’t want to work with someone he knew he couldn’t trust. AJ Styles thought he was the only one who hated Heyman and the only one who Heyman lied to. However, AJ Styles found out he was very far from being alone in his distrust of Paul Heyman.
“The reason I went to SmackDown is because I couldn’t stand looking at him. I can’t stand a liar. I’m a grown man, you’re a grown man, why lie? I talked to a lot of guys about this situation. You wouldn’t believe how many people that I work with despise this guy because of his lies and he’d find ways to throw them under the bus when he screwed up. I heard this from several people. It’s almost hard to find someone who likes him. I didn’t know this, I assumed everyone liked him and I was the only one. Vince is a very smart man and he can see through a lot of crap and I think he saw what everybody knew. ‘You’ve done some great things in the past, but you’re not well liked here, hit the bricks.’ The only person he can blame for this is himself. Just don’t lie to people,” Styles said.
Heyman is a slimy and sneaking guy and this is common knowledge. If he wasn’t, he never would have made ECW as successful as it was. However, his shady business dealings is the same reason why it died. One would hope that in 20 or so years, he would have learned from his mistakes and matured. He asked to be buried if he was ever caught lying and it looks like he is getting his wish.
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Sources: ProWrestling, Fightful For Transcription, AJ Styles’ Twitch
