Summary

AJ Styles opened up about his approach to scouting talent for WWE, laying out five areas he currently values most when evaluating potential prospects.

Speaking on the Phenomenally Retro podcast, Styles said athletic ability, charisma, in-ring wrestling, mic work, and drive are the main traits on his list right now. He also made it clear he is not expecting every prospect to arrive as a finished product.

Instead, Styles said the idea is to identify what someone already does well, send them into the WWE system, and help build up the weaker parts of their game. He pointed to Bray Wyatt and Dominik Mysterio as examples of wrestlers whose presentation changes helped unlock more from their characters.

That kind of long-view development has also shown up in how WWE positions talent once they get traction, including when established names help put over newer stars, as seen when Dragon Lee said AJ Styles approved his use of the Styles Clash.

Quote from AJ Styles

"To give advice, I just got to figure out what the qualities — I don't know if there's ever been attributes that we have in wrestling that we want everybody to have. There's athletic ability, there's charisma, there's wrestling alone, talking on the mic, drive. That's the five I have as of right now. That might change, but in my head, I don't need you to have all five. If you have all five, then just go straight to the main roster. Even guys on the main roster, including myself, I don't think I had all five. I could do all five, but I don't think I had a perfect 10 on all five. I think it's very difficult. But, they have some qualities that you can build on that we can send to the performance center. We can do better at your lowest one. If it's mic work, we can work on that. If it's charisma, we can give you the kind of gimmick that maybe you can now get some charisma through because sometimes, you don't understand the character and you're like not feeling it. There's been many guys that changed into a different character and you're like, 'Where has this guy been?'"

What AJ Styles' checklist says about WWE development

AJ Styles framing scouting this way suggests WWE is still prioritizing coachable upside over polished perfection. If a prospect already has two or three standout traits, the Performance Center can be used to round out the rest instead of waiting for a complete package to appear.

His examples matter too. By citing Bray Wyatt and Dominik Mysterio, Styles underscored that presentation can change a wrestler's ceiling just as much as raw athletic tools. For WWE, that means scouting is not only about who can wrestle now, but who can grow once the right character and environment are in place.

Sources

AJ Styles while speaking on the Phenomenally Retro podcast