AJ Styles still thinks his WrestleMania 35 match with Randy Orton deserved a better reaction than it got. According to Styles, the match order changed because Brock Lesnar wanted to go earlier—and that left Styles and Orton wrestling in front of fans who were being blinded by the stadium lights.
Speaking on WWE Retrospective, Styles first had nothing but praise for Orton. He went as far as saying that Orton essentially represents WWE, especially after the RKO became something much bigger than just a wrestling finisher.
“I think Randy Orton is WWE. I mean, ever since the freaking RKO blew up on memes everywhere, everybody wants to get RKO’d or they want to RKO you.”
Styles pointed out that you don’t even need to watch wrestling to know what an RKO is anymore. Pools, trampolines and countless viral videos helped turn Orton’s finisher into part of pop culture.
“He has one of the most famous wrestling finishers in wrestling. I mean, everybody wants to do it. You can’t go near a pool without getting RKOd. Trampoline, not safe, you’ll get RKOd.”
That popularity is why Styles doesn’t believe WWE will ever have another Randy Orton. He made it clear that he considers Orton one of a kind.
“So I mean, that says a lot about Randy and how popular he is. I mean, there’ll never be another like him. There’s no doubt about that.”
Their WrestleMania 35 match is a different story. Styles believes they had a good match, but he knows it isn’t exactly one that fans constantly bring up when discussing either man’s WrestleMania career. According to him, the lack of crowd reaction had a lot to do with something completely outside their control.
“Now, this match, it was good, but most don’t remember it ’cause nobody was making noise.”
The problem wasn’t that Styles thought fans disliked what they were watching. He says a large portion of the crowd was dealing with the stadium lights shining directly into their eyes: “’Cause in this match, they were being blinded by the lights.”
That’s where Styles brought Brock Lesnar into it. According to Styles, his match with Orton was originally supposed to happen either first or second on the WrestleMania 35 card. That apparently changed because Lesnar wanted his Universal Championship match earlier in the show.
“Why were they being blinded? ’Cause I do believe we were either second or first, but that got changed because Brock wanted to go.”
Styles didn’t exactly hide how he felt about that change either. Looking back at the situation, he took a sarcastic shot at just how much influence Lesnar had.
“And so apparently we follow the rules of Brock Lesnar when it comes to deciding who goes first or second.”
Lesnar ultimately opened WrestleMania 35 against Seth Rollins, while Styles and Orton followed later. More than seven years later, Styles still believes that change hurt his match because the crowd spent part of it fighting the stadium lights instead of getting fully involved.
Do you think AJ Styles and Randy Orton’s WrestleMania 35 match would be remembered differently if it had kept its original spot? Let us know in the comments.
