AJ Styles admits he probably should have stayed quiet during the Avery Styles “pay your dues” controversy. But after watching Arik Cannon repeatedly discuss his son online, the dad in him eventually took over.
While speaking on The AJ Styles Show, Styles revealed that Avery himself has largely stayed out of the drama. While everyone else has been arguing about wrestling etiquette, Avery just wants to keep wrestling.
“Yeah, like, he’s just like, ‘Can I just—I just want to wrestle. Like, I just want to do these things.’ And, you know, it is what it is. There’s no more time to give this. It shouldn’t have blown up like this, be honest with you. It should have been two guys talking to each other like adults.”
Styles said he finally responded after seeing Cannon bring the situation online for a third time. At that point, he felt Avery was being made to look bad and decided to defend him. Looking back, AJ admits that may not have been the smartest move. Styles also insisted he checked into what happened before saying anything publicly.
“But after the third time online, I was like, ‘Wait a minute. This guy’s trying to make this kid look bad. Let me say something.’ Maybe it wasn’t the best thing. Maybe I should have shut up. Probably should have. I didn’t need to bring it up, but I couldn’t help it. I’m a dad. I’m going to defend my son when somebody else is wrong. And believe you me, I checked on this first before I said anything. So, again, I’m done with it.”
The controversy started after Cannon accused Avery of avoiding setup and teardown work at a GCW event in Minneapolis. AJ argued that his son was booked to wrestle, not work ring crew, and the disagreement quickly turned into a messy Twitter war.
Cannon subsequently used Jimmy Hart and Cody Rhodes as examples of established names pitching in behind the scenes, while AJ pointed to his own ROH experience and said the promotion had a dedicated ring crew. Nattie Neidhart, whose original praise of Avery and Marcus Mathers helped bring attention to the match, also said the dispute should have been handled privately rather than online.
AJ now seems to agree. He may regret jumping into the Twitter fight, but the reason he did it isn’t complicated. Someone was publicly going after his 19-year-old son, AJ believed the story was wrong, and eventually Dad decided he’d heard enough.
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