A.J. Styles Talks About His Name, Masks

A.J. Styles recently appeared on Georgia Rock 100.5’s radio with Bailey and Southside. Here are some of the highlights.
Wanting to be a Masked Wrestler: 
“I wanted to wear a mask! I loved those [luchadors]. I’m so glad that didn’t happen.” Styles continued, “I wanted to wear a mask and call myself ‘Velocity’. What a terrible name.”

How He Got The Styles Name: 
“I didn’t have a name. Everybody always called me ‘AJ’ anyway, so I stuck with AJ. And then, [the promoter] is like, ‘yeah, you’re tagging with Damien Still. We need a last name. Styles! Go!’ That’s it. That’s how the name [came] about. AJ Styles. I hated it. I hated Styles for a really long time.”
Getting to Stay AJ Styles: 
“[WWE] didn’t say anything about changing it. I just assumed it would probably happen, but a year prior, maybe a couple of months prior, Samoa Joe had went to NXT and they didn’t change his name, so I thought, ‘well, maybe there’s a chance’. But, at the same time, I was like, ‘ah, I don’t care what they call me, Velocity, if you want to call me that, whatever.’ But I’m glad they stuck with AJ Styles and it actually worked out for everybody.”

The appearance can be seen here: http://baileyandsouthside.com/interview-with-a-j-styles/