AJ Styles Retains WWE Championship at No Mercy

The Phenomenal One is still WWE World Champion. Styles beat John Cena and Deam Ambrose in the opening match of No Mercy to retain the WWE World Championship he won last month. Styles pinned Cena after hitting him with a chair to retain the WWE World Championship. This is Styles' third consecutive win over Cena in a pay per view match.

All three competitors had chances to win the match. At one point, Styles tapped out when both Ambrose and Cena had submission holds on him, but the ref (correctly) waved the result off as there wasn't a clear winner. Ambrose also had Cena pinned, when Styles pulled the ref out of the ring.

The triple threat match has been built up over the last month, with all three competitors laying into each other both in and outside the ring. Ambrose and Cena had particularly harsh words for each other, with Cena accusing Ambrose of dropping the ball after winning the WWE World Championship earlier in the summer and Ambrose calling Cena a fake part-timer.

The WWE made the unusual decision to open No Mercy with the triple threat match, even though the bout between Styles, Cena, and Ambrose was the biggest match on the card. It's believed the WWE didn't want to compete with tonight's presidential debate and thus opened with the biggest match so fans could watch the "main event" and still watch the debate.

Styles won the WWE World Championship last month from Ambrose, taking advantage of a ref bump to give Ambrose a low blow and win the match. He also retained the championship from Ambrose two weeks ago, in part due to Cena interfering with the match.