There is a rumor floating around via Billi Bhatti of The Dirty Sheets podcast that one of next year’s WrestleMania 34 events will see AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Championship.
There are several reasons why this story is false, much like most of his other stories. The first reason to debunk this rumor has a lot to do with the timing of it. Nakamura was just brought to the main roster and hasn’t really had much of a chance to showcase his work to the larger audience of the WWE Universe. Basically, there is no indication if Nakamura is a major draw yet.
Another reason why this story is speculation by Bhatti is because the plan as of last week was for Styles to be on the RAW brand. Those plans were eventually changed last minute and Styles remained on SmackDown Live. Long story short, there is no way WWE changed their plans and decided in just a few days that Styles vs. Nakamura will be a headliner for next year’s Mania event.
It’s also worth pointing out that WWE is still planning another draft this year. Nakamura or Styles could still be drafted to opposite brands. There is no telling where they will be at in several months from now when the draft takes place after SummerSlam.
Historically, WWE likes to have at least one match in mind for WrestleMania and most of the time it involves a Superstar that they know can draw numbers (The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, etc), which is Roman Reigns vs. Lesnar. In most cases the company has a good direction on the secondary main event after SummerSlam or Survivor Series. Not nearly a year in advanced. This story is premature speculation and has no actual facts to support any of it’s statements.
You can hear Bhatti’s story below:
