As seen on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live, AJ Styles earned a #1 contender shot for the WWE United States Championship by defeating Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin in the main event of the show. This surprised many, as it was expected Styles would be put back in the WWE World Title picture after WrestleMania.
We have been told that the reason Styles was put in a mid-card program for the United States Championship is to buy some time until the feud between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt for the WWE World Title concludes in a few weeks. Styles is not scheduled to win the United States Championship and the belief is that he will be put in the WWE Title picture after WWE Payback.