AJ Styles On Fans Putting Offensive Images On WWE ThunderDome, Future Match Stipulations He Wants

"The Phenomenal One" AJ Styles returned to his bi-weekly Twitch stream earlier this week to talk about all things video games and pro wrestling. During this episode, Styles opened up about how he felt when he heard Hulk Hogan was coming in to restructure some things in TNA. At first, AJ admits that he wasn't for changing up the six-sided ring, however, the four-sided ring apparently makes taking bumps hurt less.

"So I remember when Hogan came to TNA, I heard these rumors that they were going to bring these guys," AJ recalled. "I go, 'That's stupid. You wouldn't bring in all these guys.' And then I asked him, but that would never happen, and then he said he's going to change the ring too. I said, 'That's how they're defined. TNA was defined by that six-sided ring, that's who they were, that's what made them different.' Sure enough, Hogan brought his buddies in, changed the ring. I was like, 'What?!'

"But then also, within that time, I had wrestled Kurt Angle in that six-sided ring, and he gave me that belly to belly off the top and hitting that ring, I was like, 'Aw! I can't take this anymore. It's rough.' And then decided I wasn't going to take it," AJ continued. "And then Kurt said, 'Hey, do you mind doing this?' That was when we had a four-sided ring, and I go, 'Yeah'. I couldn't turn Kurt down; he's such an awesome dude. And man, it was night and day pain-wise, so, it became real easy for me to go, 'You know what? Maybe it's good we got rid of that six-sided ring.' Because it seemed a lot easier to bump in a four-sided."

When it comes to his current home of WWE, AJ explained that he would like to see the King Of The Ring tournament make a return to WWE TV in some fashion.

"I think I would like to see King Of The Ring come back in a big way, I really would. That's a cool tournament. I think that definitely there are talent that can pull that off, so yes, I would like to see that," AJ said.

Beyond a KOTR tournament, AJ also revealed that he wants to see more dangerous matches become relevant, like electric cage and scaffold matches. He looked back at his Ultimate X matches from his TNA days, mentioning that it was definitely scary.

"You know what I always thought would be cool? Is to do an electric cage match. And now, I know you're going to say, 'You did that in TNA. Team 3D did it and it was terrible.' Yeah, yeah, I understand that because they made the sounds [like electricity]," AJ said. "You know, it was stupid, it was terrible. But I've seen matches where it was really electric. I don't think it was so much [voltage] that it hurt you permanently, but it was enough that there were sparks. It was really cool, and I saw it in Japan way back when. I doubt they would ever do anything like that, but what about scaffold matches? Can those still happen? I don't know. I was in one in TNA and it was definitely different. It was scary, but it was definitely different."

WWE's new setup of the ThunderDome grants the company the ability to do all sorts of new things with special effects, lighting, and pyro. However, as noted, fans have been using the fan interaction aspect to show various offensive mages. You can read the latest on what WWE had to say about fans and the ThunderDome at this link.

AJ commented on the matter, explaining that there will always be people who want to damage good things. He hopes that WWE can bring fans back in sooner rather than later so they can avoid the virtual aspect altogether.

"We're trying to do something cool and make it. I think the ThunderDome looks awesome, but you're always going to have people that do something stupid. They're always going to be there. They just can't – they just want that 5 seconds, that 1 second of fame. 'Oh, well let me post this.' Like, what? It's so dumb, but you aren't able to evade something like that. There's always going to be something like that. It's a shame that that's the way our world is. It's a shame that we can't have people ready to rock and come into the stadiums yet. Hopefully soon though, hopefully we're getting there."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Twitch with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.