Backstage News on AJ Styles Championship Title Win & Changes to Survivor Series

During the latest installment of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed AJ Styles Championship win over Jinder Mahal on Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live and the affects it will have at Survivor Series & WrestleMania moving forward.

Meltzer explained that there is no reason now to have John Cena special guest referee Lesnar vs. Styles at next week’s Survivor Series event. Cena inclusion into the match was only to set up a future match against Mahal but those plans now could have been scraped. Meltzer says he doesn’t believe they will set up Lesnar vs. Cena for next year’s WrestleMania, so unless they switch the title back on next week’s show, Styles will face Lesnar without Cena as the special guest referee.

In regards to why the company decided to change course, Meltzer speculates it could have had to do with people “crapping all over it” and the bad rating from the Halloween edition last week.