Controversial former WWE star names AJ Styles for potential return match

A former WWE Superstar recently revealed that he would love to face AJ Styles in a special stipulation match. However, The Phenomenal One has been absent from television for over two months.

The 47-year-old injured his foot during his match with Carmelo Hayes on the October 4 edition of Friday Night SmackDown. The injury was so bad that the official had to stop the contest and declare HIM the winner. Ahead of the veteran's return from injury, former WWE Superstar AJ Francis (FKA Top Dolla) has expressed his desire to wrestle Styles.

During a recent interview on Wrestleholics, the host, DC Hendrix, asked AJ Francis who he would want to work with if he returned to WWE. After expressing his desire to help out The Street Profits and his former stablemates, B-Fab & Ashante, the former Hit Row member stated he would like to compete with Trick Williams and Oba Femi.

As the TNA star has the same initials as Styles, the 34-year-old added that he would love to compete with The Phenomenal One for the right to be named AJ:

"So there’s a lot of things that could be really cool when I go back. I would love to fight AJ Styles for the right to be named AJ. I would love that. There’s a million things that I could do, but at the end of the day, until they make the call," he said. [From 26:28 to 26:46]

Check out the interview in the video below:

Former WWE champion calls his experience of facing AJ Styles 'surreal'

Former WWE Tag Team Champion Grayson Waller competed with AJ Styles in a singles match in NXT 2.0 in 2022. Although The Aussie Icon failed to better the veteran, he impressed many with his performance.

Speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Waller was asked to name any surreal moments of his career. In response, the 34-year-old recalled his match with Styles, referring to it as his transition from being a nobody to a performer who competed with one of the best wrestlers in the world.

"I think the two that—the first one was AJ Styles in NXT. I went so quickly from being the fourth best member of a WarGames team that no one cared about, that everyone was saying, 'Why is he even in it?' to four weeks later, being the guy who took [Johnny] Gargano out of NXT and wrestling AJ Styles on NXT TV. And this was back when [the] main roster guys did not come down to NXT. So I think that quick transition of being nobody into somebody in wrestling one of the best of all time, that was extremely surreal," he said. [From 38:56 to 39:32]

You can check out Grayson Waller's comments in the video below:

AJ Styles has been out of action for a large majority of the year due to injury. The Phenomenal One is likely hoping for a better 2025.