AJ Styles Blasts Paul Heyman for Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson's WWE Releases

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson buried Paul Heyman during their shoot interview podcast this past weekend, saying that he was directly responsible for getting their names on the list of wrestlers that wound up being fired on April 15. AJ Styles, Gallows & Anderson's close friend both on and off-screen followed up that interview on his first Twitch stream by once again calling Heyman a liar and explaining that his frustration toward Heyman was why he asked for the move to the SmackDown roster.

"Paul Heyman pulls me into his office and tells me he had nothing to do with it and knew nothing about it. If he knew Gallows & Anderson were getting released, he would have fought for them and that's why they didn't tell him they were getting released," Styles said (h/t Fightful) I said, 'Okay, I appreciate that, it makes a lot of sense.'"

"It was later, I told a friend what was said and he told me what he knew, which is that Gallows & Anderson weren't on the list, but Paul Heyman spoke out abundantly like 'we gotta get these guys out of here. We don't need them, they're getting paid too much.' The one thing Paul Heyman is good at is talking, he's very convincing," he continued. "One thing led to another, Paul advocated to get them released. Their name wasn't on the list until Paul brought it up. I think the reason why he did what he did, well, he's just a liar, but it's because he knew he had nothing we wanted to do with them. He didn't want to get them to the next level or do anything for them. The best way to do that after what he said, was to get them out of there."

He continued — "The reason I went to SmackDown is because I couldn't stand looking at him. I can't stand a liar. I'm a grown man, you're a grown man, why lie? I talked to a lot of guys about this situation. You wouldn't believe how many people that I work with despise this guy because of his lies and he'd find ways to throw them under the bus when he screwed up. I heard this from several people. It's almost hard to find someone who likes him. I didn't know this, I assumed everyone liked him and I was the only one. Vince is a very smart man and he can see through a lot of crap and I think he saw what everybody knew. 'You've done some great things in the past, but you're not well liked here, hit the bricks.' The only person he can blame for this is himself. Just don't lie to people."

Heyman was fired from his position as Raw's executive director on June 11.