The WWE Draft brought several new faces to SmackDown, including several NXT Superstars. One of those NXT superstars was Grayson Waller, and tonight was the premiere of his Waller Effect show on SmackDown. His first guest was the Phenomenal AJ Styles, who will face Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Night of Champions, and during his chat with Waller, he mentioned Rollins being on a movie set. We know from set photos that the movie is Marvel’s Captain America: New World Order, and we imagine Rollins will have his own response whenever he’s not on the set. As for Styles, he got his next challenger too, but it’s not just Waller.
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Waller started things off rather professionally, telling Styles he was a first-ballot hall of famer and reminding him of what Styles told him during this meeting in NXT. Waller then asked him about the WWE Heavyweight Championship tournament, and Styles told him he wanted it more than he could breathe. Styles then talked about his preparation and mentioned that while Rollins is on a movie set, he is here and ready to win this thing.
Waller said this is the most anticipated match of the event for him and that he’s looking forward to when the new Champion is crowned. Waller had been quite complimentary of Styles to this point, but you knew things were going to take a turn, and that they certainly did. Waller said he couldn’t wait to hear the “And New” when the new Champion is announced after the match, and when he said “And New”, he finished it with “Seth Rollins”! That obviously annoyed Styles, who stood up, threw his chair back to the ground and got in Waller’s face. Waller knew exactly what he was doing, and he met Styles face to face.
This exchange might lead you to believe that Waller is his Styles’ next feud, but later in the episode, we got a promo from Karrion Kross and Scarlett. Kross said “They say justice is blind, and surely that must be the case, because I’m the imminent threat to Justice, and it has absolutely no idea…do you…Alan.”
Scarlett then revealed a Tarot card with Styles’ image on it, and Kross ended things with “Tick Tock.” Fans were surprised to hear Kross reference Styles by his real first name, and it looks as if Kross vs Styles will be coming up soon on SmackDown. Kross previously feuded with Shinsuke Nakamura before he was drafted to Monday Night Raw.
It’s interesting that Styles has several feuds already in the works heading into the World Heavyweight Championship match with Rollins. It will be interesting to see how WWE plays this, as just because he already has other feuds doesn’t mean he won’t win the Title at Night of Champions. It does seem odd though that Styles, who is a SmackDown star and part of the SmackDown faction The O.C., would have two feuds set up and then win the Title, which is set to be defended on Monday Night Raw.
It points to Rollins once again being the favorite to win the Title, but WWE has thrown several swerves at us before, and could very well do it again here. We’ll have to wait and see, and with Night of Champions not too far off, at least we don’t have to wait too much longer to find out who walks away with the Title.
What did you think of Styles’ remarks and his next opponents? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
