Former WWE Champion, AJ Styles revealed his thoughts on his Boneyard clash with The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36, in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report.
When quizzed whether his bout with ‘The Deadman’ was greater than his match with Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania 34, Styles said:
“The expectations for me and Nakamura were so high that I don’t think anybody could have reached them. It was a great match, it really was, and it even continued into another story with him and I. Has it been surpassed? Yeah. I think the match with The Undertaker, even though it was cinematic and the way it was. Would he and I have preferred to be in a ring? I think so, in front of thousands and thousands of people.”
Styles explained that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, he and ‘The Phenom’ were forced to make the best of the situation by competing in the Boneyard Match:
“Things happen the way they do, and we were able to have a fantastic cinematic match that worked. It really, really worked and during the process of filming you’re going, ‘This could be really good. This is really different.'”
On whether he felt comfortable about wrestling in a cinematic match as opposed to a regular encounter inside the squared circle, Styles admitted to having some reservations:
“We were excited to see… and for me, I was a little worried, too, because you never know how people are going to take these matches. But we thought we had something great, and when you see it back, you’re like, ‘Wow, that was really great.'”
Styles needn’t have been concerned. The Boneyard Match was universally acclaimed and brought the curtain down on The Undertaker’s 30 year career.