What’s the story?
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Chris Jericho will be dropping the United States Championship to AJ Styles on the upcoming episode of SmackDown Live.
In case you didn’t know...
AJ Styles became the number one contender for the United States Championship during the week of the Superstar Shake-Up after Kevin Owens moved to SmackDown Live with the United States Championship. It was announced that the US title would be exclusive to SmackDown Live. AJ defeated Baron Corbin and Sami Zayn to earn his title shot.
While it looked like AJ Styles would be challenging Kevin Owens for the title at Backlash, things took a turn when Jericho won the US title back from Kevin Owens at Payback. WWE.com stated that Styles vs. Jericho would be scheduled for Backlash, but there is no official word about it yet.
The heart of the matter
Despite Jericho moving over to SmackDown Live, his band Fozzy still starts their tour this week, which means that he won’t be making many appearances on the blue brand. He is still very much expected to leave sometime this month.
This is the pretext in which Meltzer said that Jericho would be dropping the title on SmackDown Live and not on Backlash.
Also read: 5 insane moves AJ Styles doesn’t do in WWE
What’s next?
SmackDown Live will be getting the gift of Jericho, albeit very little of it. AJ Styles will once more get the better of his old rival and this time capture championship gold.
Author’s take
Styles is a great opponent for Jericho to drop the title to. While it’s still surprising that he won the title back, there is no doubt that Styles is the man to elevate the title. If he is going to go on and feud with Kevin Owens at Backlash, then the fans will be looking forward to seeing that match more than the WWE Championship match between Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton.
Jericho dropping the title right off the bat does make sense if WWE plans to write him off television in the near future.
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