After main-eventing the past two weeks of Monday Night Raw, AJ Styles and Ricochet will have their rubber match for the United States Championship at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on Sunday in Philadelphia.
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Ricochet originally won the title, his first since joining the main roster back in February, by pinning Samoa Joe at Stomping Grounds. The following night on Raw Styles challenged him to a non-title match, which the former WWE Champion won after nailing him with a Phenomenal Forearm. A week later Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson convinced the two to have a rematch, this time with the title on the line. Styles initially won three minutes into the match, but the match was restarted after a second referee ran out to point out Ricochet had one of his feet under the bottom rope. The champ finally pinned Styles minutes later with a roll-up.
This is going to be good. @KingRicochet will defend his #USTitle against @AJStylesOrg at #ExtremeRules on Sunday! https://t.co/JOkzTCIilT
— WWE (@WWE) July 8, 2019
Styles closed out the show by turning heel on Ricochet and realigning himself with Gallows and Anderson, reforming The Club trio. He explained in a Mixer live stream after the event why he opted to attack the rising star.
“So, it is what it is,” Styles said. “Some of you may have not likes it. Some of you may have absolutely loved it. And here’s the one thing that I know. There’s not a lot of people in this world that you can trust. But I do trust my family.
“I feel like AJ Styles was stuck in this, ‘I’m going to smile all the time, I’m going to be the nicest guy in the room even when I don’t feel like it, when I’m tired. He’s going to be this guy’ [mode],” he added. “I felt like I was in prison. And I just broke out.”
He then went into detail about what his new heel persona will be like.
“The guy on Raw, the AJ Styles that’s now in The Club, I’m just letting you guys know I’m taking over. That’s what’s going to happen. That AJ Styles isn’t going to put up with any crap. He’s going to be the guy that drops dudes on their face with a Styles Clash or rocks with a Phenomenal Forearm or crushes their calf. That’s the kind of thing I do. I’m not going to change how I wrestle, I’ve always wrestled aggressive. So that will never change.”
