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What's the story?
It is currently being reported that AJ Styles is expected to miss next week's taping of SmackDown Live because WWE has their main Champion working on promotional duties over in Australia.
In case you didn't know...
AJ Styles successfully defended his WWE Championship in a Last Man Standing match at Money in the Bank, before Rusev was crowned the new number one contender for his Championship on SmackDown earlier this week.
Rusev and Styles had a staredown on SmackDown to round off the show before Aiden English tried to be cocky and was then assaulted by Styles for his efforts.
The heart of the matter
According to The Wrestling Observer, AJ Styles is currently in Australia doing promotional work for WWE and isn't expected to be part of any of the company's live shows this weekend and is also slated to miss next week's SmackDown Live.
It's less than four weeks until Extreme Rules and since his opponent has already been named, it will be interesting to see how WWE structure the show so that there isn't any build towards the WWE Championship match. WWE could take this time to continue to plant seeds about a potential break up between English and Rusev, something that was hinted last week when AJ Styles assaulted English and Rusev didn't even step forward to defend his friend.
What's next?
Hopefully, Styles will be back as part of the Tuesday night brand when his promotional duties come to an end the following week so that the build-up to his match with Rusev can finally be taken into a higher gear.
Do you think AJ should be missing a show in the middle of a storyline? Have your say in the comments section below...
