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What’s the story?
AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal to win his second WWE Championship in Manchester, England, and his victory tonight marked two historic moments for the SmackDown brand and the title.
In case you didn’t know...
Mahal won the WWE Championship back in May at the Backlash pay-per-view and has held the title ever since, defeating Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura during his 169-day championship reign.
The Phenomenal One brought Mahal’s reign to an end after landing a Phenomenal Forearm to win the WWE Championship for the second time.
The heart of the matter
The first historical moment in Styles' title reign was mentioned by Corey Graves who said that the last time the WWE Championship changed hands on an episode of SmackDown was back in 2003 when Brock Lesnar defeated Kurt Angle in an Iron Man match; Styles' win comes 14 years after that the Beast Incarnate's victory.
The second historic aspect of Style’s title win is that it marks the first time in WWE history that a WWE Championship has changed hands outside of North America.
Technically, the first person to do it was WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki back in 1979 at a house show in Tokushima, Japan, but that title reign has never been recognized by the WWE.
What’s next?
Now that he's the WWE Champion, AJ Styles will be the one to face Brock Lesnar at WWE Survivor Series 2017. Several reports suggest that Jinder Mahal will defend the title against John Cena at WrestleMania 34.
Author’s take
The legend of AJ Styles continues to grow in WWE as he heads into a first-time match with the company's star. Who would've dared thought this was a possibility when Styles was toiling away in Japan.
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