What’s the story?
An extremely emotional AJ Styles angrily confronted Shane McMahon after this week’s SmackDown Live went off the air. In a backstage video posted on WWE’s Twitter account, you can see Styles scream at Shane about not getting a World Title shot at Wrestlemania after his loss to Randy Orton earlier in the night.
In case you didn’t know...
When Randy Orton announced two weeks ago that he wouldn’t be fighting Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania despite winning the Royal Rumble, Smackdown Commissioner, Shane McMahon, made a No. 1 Contender’s match last week which was duly won by The Phenomenal One, except Orton changed his mind and betrayed Wyatt in the process.
Now with two contenders for the belt, a match was made between The Viper and Styles to determine who would go on to face Wyatt at The Grandest Stage of Them All. Orton overcame Styles in a great match, leaving the Georgia native in a state of extreme frustration.
The heart of the matter
You can understand AJ Styles’ frustration with the whole matter as he went through a number of challenges only to be denied his title opportunity at the 11th hour. We can clearly see his frustrations boil over in this video with Road Dogg and Michael Hayes attempting to diffuse the situation:
What’s interesting about this is that Shane had to be held back himself and was visibly angry himself, exclaiming that Styles had his shot and blew it.
What’s next?
It appears as though the main event for Wrestlemania is now decided with Bray Wyatt defending his WWE Championship against Randy Orton in order to bring an end to a storyline which started months ago with Orton joining – and eventually betraying – Wyatt.
As for AJ Styles, it seems like the rumoured Wrestlemania match between The Phenomenal One and Shane McMahon is on the cards. Despite fan backlash to rumours of Styles being used in such a low-profile match against someone who really isn’t a wrestler, WWE Creative can often be stubborn when it comes to these things.
Sportskeeda’s take
It will be a real tragedy if we see AJ Styles relegated to such a mediocre spot on a Wrestlemania card, especially considering the stellar 2016 the former WWE Champion has had.
The only way this can be truly salvaged is if WWE decides to come to their senses and try spin the angle with someone else fighting Styles on behalf of Shane. Who knows? If we’re lucky Shinsuke Nakamura will be that man. I wouldn’t be holding my breath, though.
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