AJ Styles Has an Unsurprising Answer for Who Had the Best 2016

In less than a year, AJ Styles proved himself to be the most phenomenal athlete in WWE–pun intended, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

AJ knows it, too. In a new interview with Sam Roberts (transcript via WrestlingInc), AJ spoke candidly about his incredible first year in WWE.

“Well, if they’re not [saying Styles had the best 2016], something’s wrong because I did. I mean, this guy comes out of nowhere, comes from Japan, not sure what’s going to happen, even I’m not sure what’s going to happen, and one thing leads to another, and I get my shot at Roman Reigns the Monday after WrestleMania. I earned the shot to wrestle Roman Reigns for the world championship. It’s unreal, dude.”

He’d proven himself in every major promotion outside WWE, but many thought he’d never set foot inside Vince McMahon’s company. AJ says that it was Samoa Joe who paved the way for his debut.

“I knew he should be in WWE a long time ago. The guy can do it all. For his size, he shouldn’t be able to move the way he does. It really makes me angry. The guy’s an unbelievable athlete and he’s also great on the microphone, so there’s nothing Samoa Joe can’t do and he gets to come here and be Samoa Joe. Now, to tell you the truth, Samoa Joe is the one who got this thing started for everybody because he was at NXT first, so it wasn’t necessarily me that got it started. It was Joe and Joe went in there and proved that he can mix it up with anybody and have great matches and have a good attitude, most importantly.”

AJ is set to take on Shane McMahon at WrestleMania, and while it’s not the match many fans wanted to see, it’s certainly no slight from WWE to put Styles up against a McMahon.