AJ Styles was kept out of action on Smackdown for the past few weeks owing to an injury. This turned out to be a major roadblock for the champion while heading towards the biggest event of the year against a dream opponent. We did not know whether it was bothering him or not.
In the meantime, the contender for the WWE Championship, Shinsuke Nakamura picked up all the momentums by his side with some consecutive wins in recent times. Not only he won by himself but also helped AJ Styles from other ambushes, doing him a favor.
Every time he was reminded that at Wrestlemania, his reign is coming to an end.
In this interesting situation, we received a huge matchup on the go-home episode of Smackdown Live, yesterday.
AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura teamed up in a tag team match against the team of Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin. We were in doubts whether they could go along just five days prior to Wrestlemania.
The mind games continue amongst the TEAM of @AJStylesOrg & @ShinsukeN five nights before their DREAM MATCH showdown at #WrestleMania! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/cCgXQTKLjv
— WWE (@WWE) April 4, 2018
With that in mind, the scheduled match was hosted in the main event spot on Smackdown Live.
The WWE Champion looked fired up while proving that he is a 100 percent fit and better than Nakamura in the match. A verbal confrontation broke out between them inside the ring. However, the babyfaces managed to get the upper hand on the heels.
After back and forth going, Nakamura got the tag on AJ who delivered a neck-breaker on Gable and went outside to set up for the Phenomenal Forearm. While having a face-off, he delivered it successfully to win the contest. After the match, ‘the face that runs the place’ celebrated with his title outside of the ring.
The @WWE Champion @AJStylesOrg will see @ShinsukeN this Sunday at #WrestleMania… #SDLive pic.twitter.com/H23hboj5fl
— WWE (@WWE) April 4, 2018
Nakamura was distracted towards his Wrestlemania opponent when Benjamin attacked him from behind.
AJ Styles watched it from the apron and did not run in to make the save.
The Artist managed to take down Benjamin turning his back from Styles which allowed the latter one for another Phenomenal Forearm on Nakamura.
#PhenomenalForearm to @WWEGable, MESSAGE SENT to @ShinsukeN! @AJStylesOrg picks up the victory for his team on #SDLive! #WrestleMania @Sheltyb803 pic.twitter.com/sjvA6YgPWq
— WWE (@WWE) April 4, 2018
But, he never hit it reminding us of last week when Nakamura charged in for the Kinshasa but never delivered it keeping this intact for Wrestlemania.
AJ Styles did the exact same sending a perfect message that was much needed. He patted on the head of his opponent before leaving the ring. A powerful segment ended the go-home episode of Smackdown for Wrestlemania 34.
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