After the groundbreaking rookie season he had in 2016, many people have been disappointed to see AJ Styles get knocked out of SmackDown’s main event picture for this year’s WrestleMania. Styles lost a number one contender’s match last week to Royal Rumble winner, Randy Orton, which left the former champ looking without an opponent in Orlando. After SmackDown, an off-air confrontation tweeted out by the WWE made it clear that Styles would likely be taking the road to WrestleMania with SD Live Commissioner, Shane McMahon.
Last night, the “no topics off limit” style show, Bring It To The Table, returned to the WWE Network. During which, JBL and Corey Graves joined host Peter Rosenberg to discuss several topics, including the rumored Shane McMahon vs. AJ Styles match at WrestleMania 33 on Sunday, April 2nd.
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WrestlingInc transcribed the interaction between JBL and Graves where one was clearly not in favor of the pairing. “I love it,” JBL admitted. “You’ve got one of the greatest characters ever in Shane McMahon, along with one of the greatest wrestlers of all time in AJ Styles.”
JBL called Styles “a modern day HBK” who can have a great match with anybody. Corey Graves disagreed with JBL and said that while he agrees with JBL about AJ being on of the greatest wrestlers of the current generation, the potential match-up with Shane does “nothing” for him.
“The prospect of AJ Styles vs. Shane McMahon does absolutely nothing for me,” Graves said. “I’m a fan of what Shane McMahon brings as a character to the show, he’s paid his dues, he’s been around the business his entire life.”
“AJ Styles is an artist,” Graves stated. “AJ can give you a full bell-to-bell cinematic experience, I’m talking in the veil of the ‘Hell In A Cell’ [match between] Triple H and The Undertaker [End of an Era], or anything Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker have done at WrestleMania. Those caliber of matches that from start to finish are art in its highest form.” Graves admitted that he doesn’t think that Shane can keep up with AJ, while JBL argued that very few people actually can, with John Cena being one of them.
Styles recently spoke to the Sam Roberts Podcast about the possibility of wrestling Shane O’ Mac and while he wasn’t over the moon about his opponent, he also didn’t seem too disappointed.
“Dude, I look forward to WrestleMania. You’ve got to know that this is something that I never thought I would get the opportunity to be in. I remember watching the WWE Network going, ‘wow, I will never get the opportunity to be in a WrestleMania.’ And although I tried to play the game of like, ‘naw, it’s not a big deal to me,’ it kind of is. It’s WrestleMania. It’s the biggest thing going on when it comes to what we do, and so it was a big deal to be at WrestleMania, especially with all the talent that we have to actually be there. I mean, think about all the championships we have. There’s no way we’re going to be able to defend them all at WrestleMania, at least not on the show. So to be a part of WrestleMania is a big deal to me.”
We reported earlier today that Shane was originally supposed to fight Brock Lesnar at ‘Mania, but Goldberg’s contract extension obviously changed those plans.
Look for Shane to shore up his plans with AJ on tonight’s SmackDown LIVE on the USA Network at 8pm ET.
As for the rest of WrestleMania 33, you can find the fully announced card below, as well as more images in the gallery.
United States Champion Chris Jericho vs Kevin Owens
RAW’s Women’s Champion Bayley vs Charlotte Flair vs Sasha Banks
Universal Champion Goldberg Vs Brock Lesnar
WWE Champion Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton
RAW Tag Team Champions The Club vs Enzo and Cass vs Cesaro and Sheamus
Smackdown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss Against All Smackdown Women
2017 Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal featuring Big Show, Mojo Rawley, Apollo Crews
Rumored Matches include: John Cena and Nikki Bella Tag Match against The Miz and Maryse, Shane McMahon vs AJ Styles, and Triple H vs Seth Rollins.
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