WWE.com AJ Styles with the U.S. Championship.
There are only a few weeks left to go until WWE’s SummerSlam pay-per-view, but at this time, AJ Styles does not have a match scheduled. So what will Styles’ role in the event be? Who might he face?
This is all still up in the air, but there seem to be three major possibilities. One is that AJ Styles will face Chris Jericho for the U.S. Championship. Last week, Jericho returned to the WWE in order to demand a rematch for his United States Championship. He got that by way of a triple threat match on SmackDown Live, only to lose when AJ Styles pinned him. Tonight on SmackDown Live, Kevin Owens will get a rematch for the U.S. Championship. If Styles wins, Jericho could easily make the argument that he deserves another rematch just as Owens got one, and this could be scheduled for SummerSlam.
Recently, Ringside News reported on a rumored SummerSlam card, and this included a match between AJ Styles and Chris Jericho for the U.S. Championship.
When Chris Jericho returned last week, it was unclear whether this was a one-night thing or whether he was back for good. Jericho did subsequently write on Instagram “#SeeYouAgain,” which to some suggested that he’s not sticking around. But Jericho has teased the idea of leaving many times before only to not leave, and his schedule is wide open through SummerSlam, with his band not having another tour date until September.
Another possibility is that AJ Styles’ opponent will be Shinsuke Nakamura. A match between Styles and Nakamura has been teased going back to Money in the Bank, during which the two had a stare down that immediately got fans hyped up. From that, a lot of people became convinced that the plan was Nakamura vs. Styles at SummerSlam, with Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer Radio speculating as much earlier this month. Styles later said that the stare down with Nakamura was his idea, and it was intended to show Vince McMahon that people are interested in this match.
“Well not to toot my own horn here, but that was my idea,” Styles said on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness via SE Scoops. “Because I wanted to show Vince that there’s something special here. Something that people wanted to see. So let’s wait until we give it to them, and give them something bigger than just you know, a TV match. ”
Of course, we’ll get a better idea of whether Nakamura is a possibility tonight on SmackDown Live. After all, if Nakamura defeats John Cena on the August 1st episode of SmackDown Live, he will face Jinder Mahal for the World Championship at SummerSlam.
Speaking of John Cena, the third possibility is that the match will be between AJ Styles and John Cena. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter recently speculated as much, throwing out the idea that whoever loses the Cena vs. Nakamura match will become AJ Styles’ opponent.
“The winner’s getting a match with Jinder Mahal, so I think that we’re gonna get a winner, and I think the other guy’s gonna be perhaps wrestling AJ,” Meltzer said on Live Audio Wrestling. “Because AJ and Kevin Owens…they’ve wrestled so many times, it’s kind of like it’s ready to move on, so I think that the loser of that match could be the one who faces AJ, because obviously they teased Cena and Nakamura against AJ in recent weeks on TV.”
However, things have changed a bit since then, as on Monday, it was announced that John Cena is joining the cast of the Transformers spinoff Bumblebee. This movie just recently began production, making it unclear whether Cena will even be able to wrestle at SummerSlam at all.
Some other fans have suggested that AJ Styles’ opponent could be Sami Zayn or Randy Orton. But at this time, based on backstage rumors and recent episodes of SmackDown Live, the three likeliest possibilities seem to be Chris Jericho, Shinsuke Nakamura and John Cena.
UPDATE: On SmackDown Live tonight, it was announced that AJ Styles will face Kevin Owens for the U.S. Championship at SummerSlam.