In a stream on his official Twitch channel, WWE SmackDown superstar AJ Styles opened up on the WWE’s decision to release Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson from their contracts with the company back in April, his issues with Paul Heyman and more.
Styles said that he first learned that Gallows and Anderson had been released by the company while filming the WWE Money in the Bank ladder match at WWE Headquarters, as Paul Heyman pulled him into his office after and allegedly claimed that he had nothing to do with it and would’ve fought for Luke and Karl had he known that they were going to be released and that he was not even told beforehand.
AJ said that he told a friend behind the scenes in the company what Paul Heyman had said after and that the person in question told him that Gallows and Anderson were not on the list of people to be fired, but that Heyman pushed for them to be let go for a multitude of reasons, one of which included being paid too much. AJ said that Heyman advocated for Gallows and Anderson to get released and that their names weren’t on the list until Heyman brought it up. Styles said that Heyman is a liar and that he thinks the reason that they were released was that Heyman had nothing that he wanted to do with them and did not want to get them to the next level or help them become bigger stars.
AJ said that the reason why he asked to be moved to WWE SmackDown was because he couldn’t stand to come to work and look at Heyman, noting that he talked to a lot of guys in the same situation and a lot despised Heyman because of his lies. Styles said that Heyman would find ways to try and throw people under the bus when he screwed up, so that they would get in trouble, which he heard from several different people.
Styles went on to note that he thought that he was the only one who despised Heyman and everyone else liked him until that point and noted that he believes Vince McMahon finally had enough of Heyman in the role he was in that he pushed him back to being Brock Lesnar’s advocate. Styles also addressed being criticized for placing the blame on Paul Heyman, instead of Vince McMahon, stating that he knows who makes the calls and knows what goes on and that ultimately it was Vince, but his issue was that Heyman lied to himself, Gallows and Anderson about eveything and was the one who helped to put them on the list of names that were released by the company, a list that they initially were not even on.
The video is available in full at this link.