Real Reason AJ Styles Was Added To WWE Raw Last Minute

Here's why WWE brought SmackDown's AJ Styles over to Raw on Monday.

by Andy H Murray
Seth Rollins AJ STyles
WWE.com

SmackDown's AJ Styles was a surprise guest on Monday's WWE Raw, showing respect to Night Of Champions 2023 opponent Seth Rollins in the opening segment before teaming with the new World Heavyweight Champion against The Judgment Day in the main event - and it all came from Vince McMahon.

PWInsider's Mike Johnson reports that adding Styles to Raw was the Executive Chairman's call, with parts of the show redone in order to accommodate AJ's segment and match. Otherwise, the show was largely unchanged and went down as originally planned, resulting in "an easy night in terms of creative, production, and execution for the company."

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Styles lost to Rollins at Night Of Champions on Saturday, failing to become the new World Heavyweight Champion in the process. The duo were accosted by The Judgment Day on Raw, leading to Seth and AJ teaming against Damian Priest and Finn Balor in the main event, emerging victorious.

McMahon, 77, has the final say on all things WWE creative, despite Paul 'Triple H' Levesque's status as Chief Content Officer.

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Styles and the rest of The OC were drafted from Raw to SmackDown in April.

 
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Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.