After weeks of speculation and WWE themselves covering the rumors of Styles leaving NJPW for WWE, on January 20, 2016 it was confirmed that he had signed with WWE. Prior to signing, Styles had also had extensive discussions with TNA and according to them, Styles had agreed to return to the promotion with Bullet Club stablemates Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson, before being offered a "blow-away deal" by WWE. After not being on WWE television since his "Metal" match in 2002, Styles made his re-debut in WWE on January 24 at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view during the Royal Rumble match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, entering at number three. Styles went on to eliminate Curtis Axel and Tyler Breeze, before being eliminated by Kevin Owens, lasting just under 29 minutes in the match. Styles then entered a storyline with Chris Jericho, with the two exchanging victories on both "Raw" and "SmackDown", which ultimately led to an encounter between the two on February 21 at Fastlane, where Styles emerged victorious via submission. After Fastlane, Jericho and Styles formed a tag team, dubbed "Y2AJ", and went on to defeat The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) in two non-title matches. This led to a match for the WWE Tag Team Championship on the March 7 episode of "Raw", which Y2AJ failed to win, after which Jericho turned on Styles and attacked him, officially ending their team. The two subsequently interfered in each other's matches, leading to Styles challenging Jericho to a match at WrestleMania 32, which Jericho ultimately accepted on the March 28 episode of "Raw". At WrestleMania 32 on April 3, Styles lost to Jericho.