Super ShowDown: The Undertaker Makes Surprise Appearance, Beats AJ Styles in One Move

The Undertaker made a surprise appearance at Super ShowDown on Thursday, and made it clear he wants a piece of AJ Styles at WrestleMania 36. “The Phenomenal One” opened the Riyadh event by seemingly winning the six-man gauntlet match for the Tuwaiq Trophy (through shady means), only to lose in just one move to the wrestling legend. The first half of the gauntlet match saw R-Truth pull off upset wins over Bobby Lashley and Andrade, then win via DQ against Erick Rowan. Styles beat Truth after repeatedly taunting him, then had The OC attack Rey Mysterio backstage so he wouldn’t be able to compete. Styles demanded the referee hand him the trophy and declare him the winner.

The referee started a 10 count, but before he could finish the camera cut to backstage to see Undertaker standing over Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.

Undertaker sauntered his way down to the ring, chokeslammed Styles and covered him for the pin.

Reports of Undertaker wanting to face Styles at Mania have been spreading for weeks, with one source the legend “feels that Styles is the modern-day Shawn Michaels.” Since returning from his shoulder injury Styles has been proclaiming that he is the new “Mr. WrestleMania,” and has called out a number of wrestling legends. Styles’ previous Mania appearances include a loss against Chris Jericho (WrestleMania 32), a win over Shane McMahon (WrestleMania 33), a successful WWE Championship defense against Shinsuke Nakamura (WrestleMania 34) and a win over Randy Orton (WrestleMania 35).

Styles explained how his shoulder injury at the Royal Rumble happened during a recent Mixer stream.

“Just so everything’s clear, Edge did nothing, absolutely 100 percent nothing, wrong,” Styles said. “His move, his spear, everything he did was perfect. And if there’s any blame put on anybody about what I’m dealing with my shoulder, it’s me, 100 percent me. I was ‘over-brothered’ as they say, and I just went crazy with my bump there. The only problem with flipping over the way I did was the first thing to hit was my left shoulder. I thought I had dislocated my shoulder, they wanted to get me out of there right away,” he added before explaining how he communicated with everyone else to get him out of the match as soon as possible.

So far the only two matches officially booked for WrestleMania 36 are WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre and NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair.