AJ Styles Retains The WWE Championship On SmackDown, Title Match Set For The Royal Rumble

AJ Styles defended his WWE Championship against Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin on this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown Live, and it was AJ Styles who walked away with the gold.

The match was legitimately awesome from start to finish, and it featured a few exciting team ups from Dolph Ziggler and AJ Styles. The match came to an end when Baron Corbin hit Dolph Ziggler with End of Days, then AJ Styles followed up with the Phenomenal Forearm on Corbin before he pinned Ziggler to retain his title.

Earlier in the night John Cena made his return and he kicked off the show. He hyped up the main event and he talked about why he returned. He said that the whole “New Era” schtick is BS, and he said that it’s the “My Time Is Now Era.”

John Cena called out the winner of the triple threat match and challenged them to a title match at the Royal Rumble.

After AJ Styles retained, John Cena made his way down to the ring, and he confronted AJ Syles. John Cena extended his hand as he waited for AJ Styles to accept the handshake, but Styles resisted. After placing his title on the ground, AJ Styles shook John Cena’s hand, then they continued to taunt each other as the show went off the air.

The Royal Rumble will air on the WWE Network on Sunday, January 29, 2017, and so far Golberg and Brock Lesnar are the only competitors confirmed for the Royal Rumble match. In addition to the WWE Championship match, Kevin Owens will also defend his WWE Universal Championship against Roman Reigns at the big event, and Chris Jericho won’t be able to interfere as he’ll be suspended above the ring in a shark cage.