According to a report over at Fightful.com, AJ Styles doesn’t want one of those cushy Randy Orton-type contracts:

“We were only able to get one of the sources to confirm that Styles and WWE were discussing a new three-year deal, and that Styles had advocated dropping the WWE Title recently because of the time he spent away from his family over the past year. Needless to say, Styles knows he has plenty of options outside of WWE if he opts to go that route.“

Styles, in my opinion, has earned the right to negotiate a deal with less dates.  He had been on an incredible 32 PPV events since he arrived on the scene at Royal Rumble 2016.  Hadn’t missed one single event, and he’s been putting on solid matches with and without the WWE Championship.  I don’t see him going anywhere else, especially because he has spent so much time away from his family.  So that leaves a return to NJPW out of the question, and he’s out of Impact Wrestling and possibly Ring of Honor’s budget.

I think AJ Styles’ days on the independents are done, so I think we will be seeing him on WWE television for the next couple of years (don’t forget that FOX Sports deal either).