5 Ups And 1 Down From Last Night's WWE Talking Smack (Jan 24)
2. Up - A Guy From Atlanta
AJ Styles may lose the WWE Title to John Cena at Sunday's Royal Rumble, so if this was his swansong as leader of the Blue Brand, it was an incredible way to go out.
Arriving infuriated, AJ had the climax of his Smackdown Live back-and-forth with Cena swirling around his head, and ripped into the Number One Contender in response to 'Big Match John's confident prediction of victory.
Styles accused him of 'acting', suggesting that he was masking an inferiority complex against an opponent who had beaten him twice last year, and angrily shutting down Cena's dismissal of AJ's work on the Independent scene by insisting that 'The Face that Runs The Place' couldn't have made it out there.
He then let loose on the 'insulting' treatment he suffered on The Today Show, where hosts plugging the Rumble with special guest Cena referred to his opponent as 'the guy from Atlanta', which AJ rightly pointed out was both incorrect and hugely disrespectful.
Concluding his rant with a shot at his perceived internal mistreatment ('There I was on the poster right next to Rich Swann!'), it was a near-perfect sales pitch for Sunday and beyond that underscored exactly why he's the best all-rounder in the world today.