AJ Styles “Pretty Mad” About WWE SmackDown Chaos

AJ Styles is injured.

On October 4th, AJ Styles made his return to SmackDown, but things didn’t go to plan. The star’s big return was cut short by Carmelo Hayes, but the former NXT Champion turned down Styles’ challenge to a match.

However, LA Knight arrived to make an offer causing Hayes to change his mind. The United States Champion said he’d give Hayes a title shot if he could beat Styles that night.

Later in the show, Hayes and Styles finally met in the ring, but things quickly went off the rails. AJ Styles appeared to suffer an ankle and the injury and the match was waved off. It was quickly established that the injury was meant to be part of a storyline, but it was then reported that Styles had suffered a legitimate injury, sparking confusion.

AJ Styles Not Happy About SmackDown Confusion

Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Styles is legitimately injured, and wasn’t happy with how SmackDown played out.

Styles suffered a mid-foot ligament sprain in his singles match with Hayes. While he started selling when landing on his feet after a quebrada, and was selling an injury, the leg went out when he was doing an ushigoroshi and the referee stopped the match. He was pretty mad about the whole thing.

Styles was to start a storyline where this would be his farewell tour or doing a retirement tease and that’s still the idea pending MRI results showing the severity of the injury.

It’s been announced that LA Knight will defend the United States Title against Carmelo Hayes on October 11th.