When the WWE held their annual Superstar Shakeup, where wrestlers were traded between "Monday Night Raw" and "SmackDown Live" to freshen up the rosters, the talent had no idea if they would get traded or not. The decisions were changed constantly up until the actual "Monday Night Raw" and "SmackDown Live" episodes where they were announced. One wrestler that was rumored to be changing brands was AJ Styles but it never happened. In an interview with Inside the Ropes, Styles said that he is happy he wasn't traded.
AJ Styles comments about staying on "SmackDown Live"
AJ Styles said the same thing that many other wrestlers admitted to after the WWE Superstar Shakeup. No one knew if they were staying on their shows or leaving. Heath Slater said he learned he was traded to "Raw" when he saw it on Twitter. Alexa Bliss said that she didn't know that she was moving to "Raw" until she arrived at the TV taping that day. AJ Styles said that he had no idea what was going on and he had heard the rumors that he was moving to "Raw" because Vince McMahon really likes him and wanted him on the "A-brand." Styles said that he is happy those rumors were not true because he said the most important thing they can do in the WWE is to surprise viewers.
AJ said the best thing that can happen is to see something surprising happen on "Raw" or "SmackDown Live" instead of reading it on the Internet ahead of time.
AJ Styles continues on "SmackDown"
AJ Styles continues to be the best wrestler on "SmackDown Live" despite names like Randy Orton and John Cena also being members of the brand.
With names like Kevin Owens coming over to the Blue Brand, Styles has some brand new matches to work and can continue to build his name in the WWE. Meanwhile, names like Bray Wyatt moving to "Raw" opens things up for AJ Styles to eventually recapture his WWE world title in due time. AJ loves to tell people that "SmackDown Live" is the house that he built.
Styles, much like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson almost 20 years ago, loves to be the man that carries the Blue Brand on his back, week after week. It also doesn't seem to bother AJ to wrestle lower on the card for the U.S. title while someone like Jinder Mahal battles for the WWE world title against Randy Orton. As AJ Styles said last week, "SmackDown Live" is the place to build stars and when "Monday Night Raw" steals their stars, "SmackDown" will just work on building new stars and AJ Styles loves being a part of that.
