On December 18, WWE will have their final pay-per-view — Roadblock: End of the Line — before the Royal Rumble , which officially kicks off the build towards the company’s biggest show of the year, WrestleMania .
There’s already a ton of rumors surrounding the Royal Rumble show, one of which involves the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion, AJ Styles. Most of you probably have already heard the rumor by now, but if you haven’t, let’s get you up to speed. The rumor, which was first published on Forbes , suggests that AJ Styles will defend his championship against the returning Undertaker at the Royal Rumble show.
In a recent interview with Planeta Wrestling , Styles said that he’d be open to wrestling The Undertaker, but only if it’s a match that the WWE fans want to see.
“It may be a dream match for The Undertaker. More importantly, is it a dream match for the WWE Universe? If they want Undertaker vs. AJ Styles, I say we give it to them.”
Before the Styles vs. Undertaker rumor came out, there was a rumor which suggested that The Phenomenal One would face Shawn Michaels — who hasn’t wrestled since 2010 — at the Royal Rumble show. The rumor was even pumped up by Styles himself, who posted a photo — which can be seen below — of him facing off with the Heartbreak Kid on his Twitter page.
Interesting photo….. is it not? pic.twitter.com/MKgF4XoAF1
— AJ Styles (@AJStylesOrg) October 20, 2016
Shawn Michaels has recently been reintroduced into the WWE system, as the company has made him a coach at their performance center in Florida. Some believe that Michaels’ new role as a coach will get him interested in wrestling again, but according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter , those who are close to the WWE legend have said that he’s content with how his career ended, and that he doesn’t want to risk ending his career on a bad note by coming back for one more match.
So, with Michaels presumably out of the picture, it looks like the Styles vs. Undertaker rumor may actually end up being true.
It’s been reported by Forbes that WWE is planning an Undertaker vs. John Cena match for WrestleMania 33 next April. It’s also been reported that the match will be for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, which suggests that The Deadman will beat Styles for the title on January 29.
As of this writing, John Cena — who has been off of WWE television for several months — is the favorite to win the Royal Rumble match, which will earn him a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at the biggest show of the year. So, if you put everything together, it looks like we will see Cena vs. Undertaker fight over SmackDown’s main championship in Orlando next spring. But, where does that leave AJ Styles?
The top matches for SmackDown at WWE’s biggest show the year will likely be Cena vs. Undertaker, Dean Ambrose vs. Shane McMahon, and Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt. So, unless WWE is planning to do a brand vs. brand match on the show, or put Styles against James Ellsworth, which seems unlikely, The Phenomenal One doesn’t have a top guy to go against on the show. Unless, of course, they add him to the Cena vs. Undertaker title match.
Just in case you couldn’t SEE @JohnCena host @nbcsnl , we collected his most HILARIOUS highlights! #CenaOnSNL https://t.co/AT7XdcmBJj pic.twitter.com/YkOMu0ciDp
— WWE (@WWE) December 12, 2016
So, how can Styles be added to the rumored WrestleMania 33 main event? It’s simple: he’ll invoke his rematch clause, and say he wants his rematch at the biggest show of the year.
It’s pretty well known that WWE wants to have Cena tie Ric Flair’s record for most world title wins at WrestleMania 33 , and adding Styles to the match can ensure that the fifteen time champ ties the Nature Boy’s record by pinning Styles in the main event, thus getting his win back over Styles. Also, Undertaker can lose the title without getting pinned, which could setup a match between Cena and The Deadman somewhere down the road.
[Featured Image by WWE]