On Wednesday WWE instituted major cost-cutting measures company-wide, and in doing so let a substantial number of wrestlers go from their contracts. There were some surprising names on that list, especially true of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, who together with AJ Styles formed the O.C. stable. Not only were they a consistent fixture on television (including WrestleMania’s Boneyard match with Undertaker) but they had just recently signed extensions with WWE. That’s why many were shocked to see them released, and that included AJ Styles, who addressed the releases during his most recent Mixer stream (via PW Insider). Styles was clearly saddened by what happened to his friends in the stream, starting off with “I wish I was a little bit more upbeat, but some crazy things have happened in the past couple of days that just…just sucks, that’s all I can say.”
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After talking a bit about the coronavirus’s effects on the world and WWE’s releases overall, he addressed Gallows and Anderson specifically. “If you didn’t know Gallows and Anderson, guys who were like my brothers, were released yesterday and it uh…that one hurt, that one hurt really bad. Really bad,” Styles said.
He then went into more detail about their departure, saying in a weird way he feels like he let his little brothers down in all this.
“I mean, it’s just like the only way I know how to explain it is like these guys are my family and I couldn’t take care of my little brothers, you know what I’m saying? Like that’s the way I feel about it,” Styles said. “Like I’m the oldest and I’m supposed to take care of them and I didn’t manage to do that and I feel responsible in some weird way for them being released. It’s devastating, I don’t know any other way to explain it.”
Styles also spoke a bit about the host of other talents, both in the ring and behind the scenes, that were released by WWE, and while it is becoming standard by businesses during this pandemic, it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with or see happen to your friends and family.
You can view his whole stream here.
WWE is back in action tonight, as SmackDown on FOX kicks off at 7 pm CST.
