10 Fascinating WWE Facts About WrestleMania 34
5. AJ Styles Felt "Dream Match" Set Expectations Too High
When Shinsuke Nakamura improbably won the 2018 Royal Rumble, the result felt like wish fulfilment before he'd even taken the microphone and called his WrestleMania shot. He didn't campaign to win one belt or the other. He called out AJ Styles.
The reaction in the building couldn't have gone any better for WWE. A deafening roar greeted the challenge, suggesting that the match was a thrilling prospect with or without prior knowledge of an absolute blinder they'd contested at Wrestle Kingdom 10 two years earlier. Sensing that it simply couldn't fail, WWE gave it the "dream match" billing, used John Cena trying to win AJ's title as a device to further the hunger for the pairing, and welcomed audiences to dive deep into the past to inform the future.
It...didn't really match the hype on the night. And Styles himself later felt it never stood a chance. Speaking to Corey Graves in 2020, he said;
“Expectations are way too high. I felt that going in. I know Nakamura felt that too. No matter what we would have done in that match, the expectations were way too high. Here’s what a lot of people don’t understand. Fans are everything. They set the tone on what is a great match. It’s how they respond to it. In Japan, they are so respectful and when they do respond, it’s huge. ‘Wow, it’s such an amazing match.’ Had that same match been done in a WWE ring without that same response, it’s not going to be declared as that great of a match. Fans are everything, they dictate a great match. It’s the reality and the truth and something a lot of people don’t understand. The expectation were so high because of what we did at Wrestle Kingdom. I was like, ‘Oh man.’ I still think [WrestleMania] was a great match.”
It didn't really get any better from there - Styles was victorious, triggering a Nakamura heel turn and follow-up run set around relentless low blows.