AJ Styles lost the WWE Championship in a surprising manner on Smackdown before Survivor Series. He had a title run of 371 days that was going to continue for two more months. The target was to let him break the earlier longest reign of CM Punk with WWE Championship in the modern era. He held the prime title for 434 days.
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But Daniel Bryan dethroned AJ Styles by pinning him clean with the Running Knee. This has made several changes on the Survivor Series match card including the main event match. The Phenomenal One missed the second installment of the match against Brock Lesnar. Instead, Bryan went toe to toe against him.
Now the Dirty Sheets revealed the actual planning with Survivor Series main event. Unlike Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles was ready to tame the beast incarnate. Going forward, he was ready to defend his WWE Championship in a multi-person match. A win in this bout could have cemented his legacy even a bigger way.
As per the source, the officials indeed agreed to give the win to AJ Styles in his match against Brock Lesnar. The Universal Champion would have beaten down the WWE Champion to show over-confidence. Styles would take advantage of this complacent situation and roll him up to pick up the win.
This ‘fluke win’ was also the reason why WWE scheduled an AJ Styles special on the WWE Network immediately following Survivor Series 2018. It was an original edition of WWE 365 focussing on his journey as a two-time WWE Champion. But ironically, the former champ was unable to find a place at Survivor Series match card.
Here’s more on AJ Styles according to the source, (courtesy wwfoldschool.com)
“Lesnar would have then destroyed Styles after the match and this would’ve played into Styles heading into his TLC 2018 PPV WWE Title defense while being “hurt”. Styles was originally scheduled to defend the WWE Championship at TLC 2018 in a Fatal 4 Way TLC match with the following opponents: Jeff Hardy, The Miz & Samoa Joe. Styles was scheduled to win this match as well.”
Following TLC, Daniel Bryan was the most likely opponent to take the title away from AJ Styles. It could have happened at Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania. This title reign could have already broken CM Punk’s earlier record, by then.