For the third consecutive week, Tuesday’s WWE Smackdown Live will feature a match designed to determine the No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. The latest No. 1 contender match is Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles.
Powell’s POV: Orton won the Royal Rumble match, then announced that he would not face champion Bray Wyatt. The idea of him challenging for the WWE Universal Championship was never mentioned. Smackdown held a battle royal to determine the new No. 1 contender, which resulted in a bad finish that supposedly resulted in AJ Styles and Luke Harper tying. They had a match on last week’s Smackdown. Styles won the match to become No. 1 contender, then Orton burned down a shed later in the show and said he wanted his title match after all. So now we get Orton vs. Styles on Tuesday. Confused?
At the very least, from a couple of Creative standpoints, I can see why this match has to happen. It just doesn’t help things that it seems to be setting up a (possible/obvious) Triple Threat at WrestleMania for the title, provided there actually is just ONE winner coming out of Randy vs. AJ and there’s nothing in the way of “controversy” at the end of the match.
I really don’t get this. Technically, both Orton and Styles earned a shot at the title, so shouldn’t it logically just be turned into a triple threat match? The idea of one of them having to up their shot that they earned because….reasons, just seems really unfair to me. I mean, obviously Orton isn’t going to lose since he’s feuding with Wyatt, but Styles losing his title match that he is still technically owed just makes Shane/Bryan look like assholes. That being said, I hope this doesn’t result in a double turn with Styles going face and Shane and/or Bryan going heel. The last thing Smackdown needs is a a heel GM.