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What's the story?
On Monday Night Raw, General Manager Kurt Angle found himself in a precarious situation as The Miz, The Bar and Curtis Axel were out for revenge following the events at TLC 2017. Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose interrupted to even the odds a bit, but the three men were still outnumbered until Angle revealed the ace up his sleeve: SmackDown Live superstar AJ Styles.
In case you didn't know...
AJ Styles wrestled at TLC 2017 despite it being a Raw Pay-Per-View and him being a SmackDown Live Superstar. This was because Bray Wyatt was unable to compete in his scheduled match against Finn Balor due to illness, so Styles was brought in to replace him by Raw GM Kurt Angle. Styles and Balor put on a great match and stole the show, but Styles was unable to topple 'The Demon'.
The heart of the matter
Kurt Angle revealed AJ Styles as a surprise Superstar to help even the odds against The Miz and his faction. He then announced that 'The Phenomenal One' Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose would team up to take on The Miz, Sheamus and Cesaro to open up Monday Night Raw.
Two-thirds of The Shield and AJ Styles, who was wearing uncharacteristic red attire, then proceeded to light up Monday Night Raw with an incredible flurry of quick offence, leading to several huge pops from the Raw crowd to start the match.
Cesaro, Sheamus and Miz then managed to regain control by isolated Dean Ambrose and taking it in turns to wear down 'The Lunatic Fringe'. But, as is often the case in these tag-team matches, Ambrose was able to get the hot-tag to Rollins who clears house.
Eventually, the match devolves and all six men end up in the ring and fighting in the barricade until finally, AJ Styles picks up the win with a Phenomenal Forearm to Cesaro.
What's next?
It stands to reason that AJ Styles will be a huge part of Survivor Series in team SmackDown. However, could the WWE be teasing a change of alignment and colour for 'The Phenomenal One' AJ Styles?
It also looks like once Jinder Mahal has finished with Brock Lesnar, for better or worse, that AJ Styles will be the next challenger for Mahal's WWE Title.
Author's take
It really was great to see AJ Styles on Monday Night Raw as the honorary member of the Shield. But let's not forget that two days ago this man was in Chile, then he flew to TLC competed there, and then flew to Raw to compete again. He truly is 'Phenomenal.'
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
