Last week WWE made one of the craziest booking decisions in its history, when "The Phenomenal" AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal in the main event of SmackDown Live to capture the WWE Championship for the second time in his career.
The decision came just two weeks away from the WWE's Survivor Series pay-per-view (PPV), in which each champion from each brand would go one-on-one with each other. Originally WWE Champion Jinder Mahal would be representing SmackDown Live against Universal Champion Brock Lesnar who would represent Monday Night RAW.
Instead those plans have now changed, giving wrestling fans a dream match of sorts, as Styles will now be taking on "The Beast" in one of the night's featured matches after winning the WWE Championship.
Recently former WWE Champion and Hall Of Famer Edge took to his podcast alongside former Tag Team Championship partner Christian, E&C's Pod Of Awesomeness, to discuss the recent title change.
"The Rated R Superstar" offered an interesting possible explanation as to why WWE may have made the decision to put the WWE Title on AJ Styles on SmackDown Live. Edge referred back to the 900th episode of SmackDown in which WWE stacked the episode with top talent in order to help promote the debut of a new TV show on the network (quotes via SESCoops):
“I think there [are] probably a few factors that go in. I think USA [Network] was debuting a new TV series after. And while some of you may scoff and say, ‘WWE wouldn’t change their business for that,’ yes, they would.
"The Shooter was debuting and they stacked the 900th episode of SmackDown. That’s why I was there. That’s why Taker was there.
"They’ll do those things because they’re on the USA Network and USA Network asks for a favor, so they’ll do them a favor.”
What are your thoughts on Edge's comments as to why Styles possibly downed Mahal for the WWE Championship? Do you think this was to help promote one of the USA Network's newest shows? Or was this simply a normal booking decision from WWE executives? Have YOUR say in the comments section below, and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!
Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-money-in-the-bank-fallout
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