AJ Styles Reacts To New WWE World Title Being “Secondary”
AJ Styles has given his thoughts on the new WWE World Heavyweight Title just days ahead of his big match to crown the first champion.
This coming Saturday, May 27th at WWE Night of Champions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Raw’s Seth “Freakin” Rollins will face Smackdown’s AJ Styles to crown the new WWE World Heavyweight Champions.
During the May 12th edition of WWE Smackdown, AJ Styles beat Edge & Rey Mysterio in a fantastic triple threat match in the quarterfinals of the tournament to crown a new World Heavyweight Champion. Later that night, Styles beat Bobby Lashley to move on to the finals of the tournament.
Earlier that same week, Seth Rollins earned his spot in the World Title tournament finals as well.
AJ Styles is no stranger to World Titles since he’s a two-time WWE Champion that won his first championship during his first year in WWE in 2016. Prior to joining WWE seven years ago, Styles was a World Champion in TNA/Impact and New Japan Pro Wrestling as well.
To promote the upcoming Seth Rollins-AJ Styles match for the new World Heavyweight Title, AJ talked to the New York Post about what this new title means in comparison to the WWE & Universal Titles currently held by Roman Reigns.
“Is it a secondary? Well if the Raw championship is held by Roman, the SmackDown championship is held by Roman, then how can you argue that it’s not? We had to make a new championship because Roman holds them all. What happens if he decides to wrestle for the World Heavyweight championship?”
“It is what it is and we got what we got. If we make the best of it, and if and when Roman does challenge [for it], we beat the brakes off of him, whomever it might be, then we’ll see what title’s secondary.”
As he continued, AJ Styles spoke about how the new World Title will be featured more often than the championships held by Reigns.
“This guy’s gonna be on the pay-per-views, he’s gonna be on the live events, he’s gonna do all these things that need to be done. When I was [WWE] champion I was on all the live events, I was on all the pay-per-views, all the TV’s. That’s what you do.”
“The price for being the World Heavyweight champion is, yes, you get the recognition of being the champion, but you also have to do the job of being the world champion. You got to be there and you got to do the job.”
AJ Styles also chimed in on the reduced schedule that Roman Reigns has in WWE.
“This is what you want to do, this is what you want to be. This is what you’re trying to get to in your career. I’m not mad at him. I told him, ‘if I could do it I would, but I’m not Roman Reigns.’”
The current lineup for WWE Night of Champions looks like this.
* Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar
* Finals of the World Heavyweight Championship Tournament: Seth “Freakin” Rollins vs. AJ Styles
* Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships: Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens (c) vs. Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa
* Raw Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
* Intercontinental Championship: GUNTHER (c) vs. Mustafa Ali
* Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
WWE Night of Champions will stream live from Jeddah Superdome on Saturday, May 27, at 1 p.m. ET on Peacock in the United States and WWE Network everywhere else.