This former World Champion has an idea as to why people reacted the way they did.

As seen at WrestleMania 34 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana on the WWE Network, AJ Styles defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to successfully retain the WWE Title.

Styles made his name known while in TNA Wrestling, now known as Impact Wrestling, from 2002–2013 well before he signed with the sports entertainment company.

While in the promotion, Styles held the NWA World Heavyweight Championship three times and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship twice. Also, he was the first holder of the X Division Championship, a title he held six times.

Styles was the first professional wrestler ever to complete the TNA Triple Crown (five times) and the TNA Grand Slam (two times). Styles accomplishments continued from there.

He appeared in Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2002–2006 where he became the first ROH Pure Champion.

In 2014, Styles signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and won his first of two IWGP Heavyweight Championships in his debut match with the company.

Styles first appeared on WWE television in 2002 but turned down a developmental contract he was offered by the company.

He signed a multi-year contract with WWE fourteen years later in January 2016 and made his re-debut at that month's Royal Rumble.

After appearing at his first WrestleMania that April against Chris Jericho, Styles headlined multiple pay-per-view events and won winning WWE Championship at Backlash in September.

He held the title up until 2017's edition of the Royal Rumble in January. Styles has also won the United States Championship twice. He then won the WWE Title in late 2017.

In the latest episode of E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness (via Wrestling Inc), Christian spoke about why he thinks the fans were quiet during the match. Here is what he had to say:

“Sometimes the crowd can affect the perception of a match, [and] I think it happened during this one a little bit. I think that’s where it started to happen when the crowd was getting fatigued. Especially, when it’s two guys that are babyfaces. And, there’s the title on the line, but emotionally, what else is going on?

And I think what they did after the match meant more than anything that did in the match. I was thinking about the babyface match I had for the world title with Randy Orton when we wrestled at Over the Limit, and I was thinking, what’s the difference between that and this other than one was at Over the Limit and one was at WrestleMania?

So, what I was thinking about is the emotion was not good guy – bad guy, heel – babyface.

The emotion was, this guy who we’ve wanted to see at this level for like 17 years has been scratching and clawing and finally won it. And then, had it snatched from a guy who’s been patented as ‘the golden boy’ for years and years, and has been molded to be a top superstar gets it back after a couple of days.

People didn’t want to see me lose it yet. That was the emotion. ‘Can he get it back? Can he get back to that level already, so quickly after he worked so hard to get there?’ People liked me, but they didn’t like what happened. That was the emotion. On this one, they liked both guys, so [fans] are just kinda choosing a side. There’s nothing else. So, to me, now I can really sink my teeth into this, because I think Nakamura now is gonna do better work. I think he’s gonna work more with a chip on his shoulder, I think he’s gonna work more aggressively. He works aggressive anyway, I think he’s gonna have a mean streak that he hasn’t had before, and I think it’s gonna amp up, and I think he’s done himself a huge favor by the aggression he had after the match, in my opinion.”