5 reasons why AJ Styles lost the US title at WWE Hell in a Cell 2017
Of all the potential title changes at Hell In A Cell 2017, few expected AJ Styles to lose his United States Championship.
“The Phenomenal One” was originally set to take on Baron Corbin at the pay-per-view, but general manager Daniel Bryan announced on the kick-off show that Tye Dillinger would also be in the match following his victory over “The Lone Wolf” on SmackDown Live last week.
In the closing stages of the Triple Threat match, AJ was on course to retain when he connected with a Phenomenal Forearm on Dillinger, only for Corbin to knock the champ through the ropes and pin Tye for the 1-2-3.
Baron is now a champion in WWE for the first time in his career, but where does this leave Styles? In this article, we look at five possible reasons why “The Face That Runs The Place” no longer has the US title.
#1 Shane McMahon needs a tag partner
Hell In A Cell was the best SmackDown-exclusive PPV of 2017, with the highlight being the closing stages of the main event between Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens.
Just as Shane was about to drop an elbow on Owens from the top of the 20ft high cell, Sami Zayn appeared out of nowhere to pull his former best friend out of the way before draping his body over the SmackDown commissioner for the win.
Viewers of Talking Smack will already know where we’re going with this. It seemed pretty clear from AJ’s comments on the show that his next direction will be to feud with Owens and Zayn. Styles said that while he and Shane haven’t always seen eye to eye, he’d be happy to help if he needs an ally.
With Survivor Series on the horizon, don’t be surprised to see Styles/Shane vs. Owens/Zayn on the card.