AJ Styles thought he knew exactly how one of the biggest moments in his feud with Cody Rhodes was supposed to play out. Instead, Cody’s mother had other ideas.
Speaking with Cody Rhodes on What Do You Wanna Talk About?, AJ looked back at their I Quit Match at Clash at the Castle 2024 and laughed about the unexpected moment when Cody’s mother became part of the action. According to AJ, she was only supposed to slap him once. Instead, she got caught up in the moment and hit him three times.
“Of course, we had two great matches. The I Quit Match—your mom was awesome. Your mom slapped me three times. She was supposed to slap me once. I don’t know why she did that. Why did she go three times? I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t think the first one was good enough. And she’s the sweetest person in the world, so I’m just like, ‘Wham, wham, wham.’ I’m like, ‘Three times? All right. Okay, here we go. I’m gonna smash your son’s head in for that.’”
Cody Rhodes admitted he noticed AJ’s reaction in the moment and even wondered whether Styles had secretly encouraged his mother to keep going.
“I remember seeing your face, and it was a little bit—anytime you get hit, it’s like, ‘Jeez,’ you know? I could see you firing up a little bit, and I wondered if he had told her, or if you had told her, ‘Hey, give me another one,’ or, ‘Hey—’”
AJ quickly shut that theory down, saying he never asked for the extra shots: “No, I didn’t have to. She was in the moment.” The conversation then shifted to AJ’s heel persona during that rivalry. Cody pointed out that his mother even ended up cursing during the match, while AJ also said things that fans normally wouldn’t expect to hear from him. Styles explained that once he gets into character, he’s no longer thinking like Allen Jones—he’s thinking like the heel.
“There’s a lot of times where I’m this character. It’s not me. It’s this character, and it just takes me—it takes me to a different place to be that character. And I don’t mind it. It needs to be that. Sometimes you may accidentally hear something that you weren’t supposed to. There was this mean AJ Styles.”
Even so, the WWE Hall of Famer admitted there are times when he looks back and feels bad because that’s not who he is outside the ring: “I love it, though. I feel bad when it happens, because that’s not me.”
The extra slaps weren’t part of the script, but AJ clearly isn’t holding a grudge. If anything, he seems to appreciate that Cody’s mother got so invested in the moment that she forgot exactly how it was supposed to go.
What was your favorite moment from AJ Styles and Cody Rhodes’ 2024 rivalry? Let us know in the comments below.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
