AJ Styles Named PWI's Wrestler of the Decade

Days before his match with Aleister Black at WWE' Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, AJ Styles was named the Wrestler of the Decade by Pro Wrestling Illustrated and its readers. "The Phenomenal One" started off 2010 as the TNA Impact World Heavyweight Champion, and over the next 10 years he left the company, won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship twice in New Japan, headlined numerous events for Ring of Honor, joined WWE and became the 12th longest-reigning WWE Champion with two reigns spanning 511 days. In 2016 he won the Wrestler of the Year award from PWI, Wrestling Observer Newsletter and Rolling Stone, and a year later he was inducted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame.

Styles spoke with PWI shortly after the award was announced.

Styles will face Black in a No DQ match at Sunday's Elimination Chamber event in Philadelphia. On top of his issues with Black, Styles is currently in a feud with The Undertaker that will reportedly carry into a match at Wrestlemania 36. Undertaker reportedly chose Styles because he felt he was "the Shawn Michaels" of the current generation.

AJ Styles named PWI Wrestler of the Decade from r/SquaredCircle

The multi-time former world champion suffered a separated shoulder injury back in January when he over-sold a Spear from Edge, as he explained during a Mixer stream shortly after.

"Just so everything's clear, Edge did nothing, absolutely 100 percent nothing, wrong," Styles said. "His move, his spear, everything he did was perfect. And if there's any blame put on anybody about what I'm dealing with my shoulder, it's me, 100 percent me. I was 'over-brothered' as they say, and I just went crazy with my bump there. The only problem with flipping over the way I did was the first thing to hit was my left shoulder. I thought I had dislocated my shoulder, they wanted to get me out of there right away," he added before explaining how he communicated with everyone else to get him out of the match as soon as possible."

He made his in-ring return at Super ShowDown, though his time in the bout was mostly spent taunting a severely injured R-Truth. "The Deadman" then arrived and pinned him with a single chokeslam.

Check out the full card for the Elimination Chamber event below:

• Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka vs. Natalya vs. Liv Morgan vs. Ruby Riott vs. Sarah Logan (Elimination Chamber Match)
• Intercontinental Championship: Braun Strowman vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro and Sami Zayn
• SmackDown Tag Team Championships: The Miz & John Morrison vs. The New Day vs. The Usos vs. Heavy Machinery vs. Lucha House Party vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode (Elimination Chamber Match)
• Raw Tag Team Champions: The Street Profits vs. Seth Rollins & Murphy
• AJ Styles vs. Aleister Black (No DQ Match)
• United States Champion Andrade vs. Humberto Carrillo
• Daniel Bryan vs. Drew Gulak