WWE: Logan Paul on His WWE Career Future, AJ Styles on Criticism Of His Comments About Wanting WWE To Acquire A Japanese Promotion, New Trademark

Logan Paul Comments on His In-Ring WWE Career Future

A recent live episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show podcast at the Fanatics Fest NYC 2026 convention in New York City, New York featured Logan Paul as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Paul’s thoughts about the future of his WWE career and how much longer he would like to be in WWE if given the chance.

“WWE is hard. I would love to do WWE for minimum another five years. Maybe I’ll be one of those guys who has a ten, fifteen year career, and maybe they’ll stop booing me eventually. Not that that’s what I want, but maybe they’ll try to start cheering at one point. However, if I’m on the shorter side, I’d be very lucky if my daughter could see me professionally wrestle. I think it would be really cool for her to see her dad do something that he loves and is good at in front of the people so she understands kind of who her dad is.”

Paul also gave his thoughts about what he would like to do for a career if he wasn’t currently involved in a pro wrestling career in WWE.

“It’s a great question. To be honest with you I’m kind of still figuring it out. I love collectibles, I’m making a play in the collectibles industry right now. But WWE is my focus and I don’t even know what I would do otherwise. I’d find something. I like creating, and in the WWE I get to create. I get to make people feel. I get to tell stories and paint on the canvas that is the mat and build these matches and use my body to express the story that we’re trying to tell. I find it all very beautiful and I really enjoy it. So I’ll be doing it as long as I possibly can.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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AJ Styles Comments on Criticism Of His Comments About Wanting WWE To Acquire A Japanese Promotion

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles stated in an episode of his The Phenomenally Retro podcast earlier this month that he would like to see WWE acquire a promotion in Japan similar to their acquisition of Lucha Libre AAA in Mexico in April of 2025.

A recent episode of The Phenomenally Retro podcast featured Styles clarifying his previous comments about wanting WWE to acquire a Japanese promotion and stated that it was not directed at NJPW or NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi in response to the online criticisms he received over it.

“We hit a freaking bees nest with that one to some guys. Holy cow. I was excited. Did I ever say New Japan Pro Wrestling, I can’t remember… Just a Japanese company, that’s more what I was alluding to. People [are] like, ‘Oh, Tanahashi.’ There ain’t but one Tanahashi. The fact that Japan came out and supported him the way that I did says a lot about that country because [he’s] definitely one of my favorite guys in the wrestling business. Just a heart of gold. So just so you know, I’m not disrespecting my friend, by the way, Tanahashi. You don’t know him like I do. I promise you. I would never disrespect that guy. But hey, people are going to say what they say because they think they know everything about wrestling.”

In response to comments from co-host Tony Giles about him reading a report about internal issues in New Japan, Styles responded stating:

“So what you’re saying is, I just want to understand you clearly, that New Japan it’s not doing as well as everybody thinks it is. … This is also what I’ve heard, through other people, not on the internet. That’s why I even said what I said because I heard it from, you know firsthand information. But whatever. Internet knows everything. I’ll just keep it at that.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE Files New Trademark

WWE filed a new trademark for “Kyoki” on July 17 for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

It is currently not known how WWE intends to use the trademark nor who it might be for.

Portion of trademark filing:

IC 041: Entertainment services, namely, wrestling exhibitions and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer rendered live and through broadcast media including television and radio, and via the internet or commercial online service; providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network; providing information in the fields of sports and entertainment via an online community portal; providing a website in the field of sports entertainment information; fan club services, namely, organizing sporting events in the field of wrestling for wrestling fan club members; organizing social entertainment events for entertainment purposes for wrestling fan club members; providing online newsletters in the fields of sports entertainment; online journals, namely blogs, in the field of sports entertainment.