Unfortunate update on AJ Styles following recent absence - Reports
There has been an unfortunate update regarding AJ Styles' absence from WWE television. The veteran has not competed in a televised match since his loss to Cody Rhodes at Clash at the Castle in June.
According to a new update from Fightful Select, The Phenomenal One is healthy but is just not being used by the promotion on television at the moment. Despite not having matches on TV, Styles traveled to Germany and worked several WWE Live Events before Bash in Berlin.
He has not competed in a match on SmackDown since his loss to Randy Orton in the first round of the King of the Ring tournament on May 10.
Cody Rhodes defeated AJ Style at Backlash in May to retain his title. Styles faked his retirement to get another shot at the champion but came up short once again at Clash at the Castle.
Popular WWE star names AJ Styles as his dream opponent
Pete Dunne recently shared that he looked up to AJ Styles growing up and would like to compete against him in a singles match.
Dunne competed in a massive Fatal 4-Way match in the main event of last week's episode of RAW. The Bruiserweight battled Ilja Dragunov, Braun Strowman, and Jey Uso to determine Bron Breakker's next challenger for the Intercontinental Championship. Jey Uso emerged victorious and earned a future title match against Bron Breakker.
Speaking with Sportskeeda Wrestling's Bill Apter in an exclusive interview, Dunne named Styles as his dream opponent. He noted that he grew up watching his work in TNA and on the independent wrestling scene.
"I wrestled in recently a Four-Way, but I grew up admiring AJ Styles a lot. I was a big fun of obviously his independent stuff at that time and that early TNA stuff. We had the wrestling channel back in the UK, so... And he was on it a lot and he was somebody I looked up to a lot." [1:40]
You can check out the interview with Dunne in the video below:
AJ Styles is a former two-time WWE Champion and has accomplished a lot during his time in the company. It will be interesting to see when Styles finally returns to television down the line.