AJ Styles Misses Pair of Shows Due to Injury

It's officially time to send prayers to the Ministry of Darkness: AJ Styles is hurt.

According to the Wrestling Observer Radio, Styles missed a pair of WWE Live events over the weekend due to a lingering injury. The specifics of Style's setback are unknown, but they don't appear to be serious.

Styles did compete at March 16th's Madison Square Garden show. However, when the WWE Champion was ushered to the back by medical staff during his match, the WWE Universe collectively gasped. Everyone realized when Styles made a triumphant return and it was revealed that his "injury" was part of the match's story.

But now that it appeared that Styles is legitimately banged up, the MSG "injury" may have been a tactic to keep Styles in-ring activity limited.

By missing Saturday and Sunday's WWE Live events, it's clear that WWE is doing their best to preserve Styles' health. With just three weeks to go, WWE simply cannot afford to have Styles exacerbate whatever injury he's nursing, so look for his usage to remain limited in the coming weeks.

While it's a longshot, Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura have a chance to close WrestleMania 34. They'll face stiff competition for WWE's most hallowed real estate as Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns, John Cena vs. The Undertaker and Ronda Rousey's spectacle all could easily take that spot, but none of the above matches carry the expectations of brilliance that Styles and Nakamura can achieve.

This will be Styles third WrestleMania event with his first two opponents being Chris Jericho and Shane McMahon. However, since he'll enter New Orleans as WWE Champion, WM34 will indisputably be the biggest match of his career. However he can take solace in the fact that he'll be working with an old friend,

We'll keep an eye on Styles in the interim, but luckily, the' not much of a need for him to wrestle on SmackDown for a few weeks. Instead, he and Nakamura will tell their story with actions outside of the ring.