AJ Styles has reacted after fans claimed he copied a move from The Young Bucks during his recent match on WWE RAW.
A few days ago on WWE RAW, AJ Styles and Dragon Lee defended the WWE World Tag Team Titles against The New Day. The match saw Styles and Dragon Lee hit a big double-team move to beat The New Day and retain their WWE World Tag Team Titles.
Styles dropped down on Kofi Kingston from the top rope and Dragon Lee immediately hit a double stomp. Kingston then fell straight into a Styles Clash to end the match. A fan later noted that the sequence looked similar to a Young Bucks move where they tossed their opponent into a powerbomb.
The only major difference was that Styles and Lee ended their version with the Styles Clash instead of a powerbomb. On X, formerly know as Twitter, a fan posted both clips side-by-side, pointing out the similarity. Styles saw the comparison and immediately shut down the idea that anyone could own a wrestling move.
Styles wrote, “In Prowrestling you can’t claim moves. They may be your signature, but those are still open to the public. Any confident wrestler wouldn’t ever change that. Calm down guys.” Another fan said they weren’t accusing him of stealing, just pointing out the similarity.
Styles said, “But if we do it again, is that borrowing or stealing? The answer is….neither. The job is entertainment.”
AJ Styles reacts to younger talent stealing his moves
A few weeks ago, AJ Styles appeared on the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast. When they asked him how he feels about younger wrestlers using some of his signature moves. “That’s cool. Well, I mean, if guys are doing my moves—if girls are doing my moves—that’s awesome,” AJ Styles said. “I want them to. That just means I’ve made an impact in the business, that people have watched AJ Styles and thought, ‘Great, I’d like to try that. I’d like to see if I could do that.’
“I did the same thing. I was trying shooting star presses and 450s and all kinds of stuff like that because I saw other guys do it. So the fact that someone does the Styles Clash—I don’t care. Thank you for doing it, man. That means it’s impacted the wrestling world, and that’s okay. I like that.”
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