We all knew this was coming, and it was only a matter of time. As much as fans would have rather seen AJ Styles tangle with an actual wrestler at WrestleMania 33, it looks like he’s officially being paired up with Shane McMahon.
Related: Randy Orton Earns The Right To Challenge Bray Wyatt At WrestleMania: WWE SmackDown Results 3/7/17
After Smackdown Live went off the air, AJ Styles had a heated confrontation with Shane. The Phenomenal One came so close to defeating Randy Orton in the main event of Smackdown Live and if he had won he would have faced Bray Wyatt in the main event at WrestleMania. But, Styles didn’t succeed and he wasn’t happy about it.
As you can see in the picture below which was tweeted out by WWE’s official account right after Smackdown Live, Michael Cole and Road Dogg appear taken aback by AJ’s anger as Vince McMahon’s only son seems to be trying to ease the tension in the room.
BREAKING NEWS: @AJStylesOrg confronted @shanemcmahon after #SDLive! See the chaos on #TalkingSmack following @WWE205Live on @WWENetwork! pic.twitter.com/NAGCoLFj44
— WWE (@WWE) March 8, 2017
The Face That Runs the Place wasn’t through with Shane McMahon and he laid down one of the best post-match outbursts we’ve ever seen. As much as we would love to see AJ face someone else at Mania, at least WWE is putting forth the effort of making this seem real.
It does indeed feel like a shoot as Michael PS Hayes, Road Dogg and Shane McMahon were all performing their tasks in the Gorilla Position. AJ’s frustration seems very real as well, which only adds to this angle’s intensity. Everyone pulled this off superbly and even though it might have been over as quickly as it started, it certainly made for an impactful genesis to build toward a WreslteMania showdown.
If you need even more of a reason to love this segment, just take a look at Michael Hayes’ signature fanny pack and stellar purple suit.
Shane saying that it should be AJ vs Wyatt at Smackdown was nonsense… some logic fail in here…
Shane should have been the one defending that it should be Orton vs Wyatt for this to make sense.
Agreed, that didn’t make sense at all.
I like how AJ left like a magician out the curtain. Jiminy Christmas really?
That purple suit Michael Hayes was wearing stole the show.
I was gonna mention Hayes but didn’t know where to begin.
The belt doesn’t need to be there to sell Orton vs Wyatt. There is enough history to sustain that story line. Cena should have kept that belt and lost it to Styles at WM. They are piling on the drama really thick.
[…] Smackdown Live. He let his frustrations be known after the show went off the air when he exploded on Shane McMahon backstage in one of the best-produced segments we’ve seen in a long […]