Backstage News On When WWE Decided To Make AJ Styles Champion, Why The Title Change Happened

Tuesday night’s episode of SmackDown Live was a loaded show, as it featured two championship matches. AJ Styles challenged Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship in the main event, and Styles captured the title for the second time in his career after he put Mahal away with the Phenomenal Forearm.

AJ’s big win has changed the Survivor Series card in a huge way, as he’s now set to face Universal Champion Brock Lesnar in a non-title match.

PWInsider is reporting Vince McMahon decided last week that AJ Styles would defeat Jinder Mahal and win the WWE Championship on SmackDown Live. Original plans called for John Cena to be the special referee for Jinder Mahal vs. Brock Lesnar, but after the deck was shuffled for Survivor Series, Vince also made the decision to put Cena on Team SmackDown.

In regards to why the title changed hands, Dave Meltzer speculated on Wrestling Observer Radio that the switch could have been made because people were “crapping all over” the idea of Jinder Mahal facing Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series.

SmackDown Live also took a hit in the ratings last week, but of course that was likely due to the fact that it was Halloween.

It’s also worth noting that ticket sales for SmackDown Live this week weren’t strong, so that could have played a factor as well. A fan in attendance shared a photo noting that the entire top section of the arena was tarped off.