AJ Styles picked up his third United States Championship on Sunday night at Extreme Rules, and the win over then-champion Ricochet came thanks to some timely interference from the other two members of The Club.
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Before the match officially got underway the champ was jumped by Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Ricochet eventually got some revenge by nailing the two with a splash to the outside, but they once again helped the former WWE Champion by pointing out to the referee that Styles’ foot was under the rope after he hit a springboard Shooting Star Press.
๐ @KingRicochet
โก๏ธ https://t.co/E0MswUzX3G pic.twitter.com/JtzGZoIuxt
โ TDE Wrestling (@tde_wrestling) July 15, 2019
The final sequence saw Ricochet go after Anderson, but while the ref was distracted Gallows jumped on the apron and knocked Ricochet off the top rope, leaving him suspended on the turnbuckle. Styles used the opening to hit a Styles Clash from the second rope and pick up the win.
AJ Styles is the NEW United States Champion after defeating Ricochet at #ExtremeRules, thanks to help from Anderson and Gallows.
No Finn Balor joining The Club….yet pic.twitter.com/Mg8vCNXIWV
โ GiveMeSport – WWE (@GMS_WWE) July 15, 2019
After turning heel several weeks back at the end of an episode of Raw, Styles explained why he reformed The Club (an offshoot of the Bullet Club from New Japan Pro Wrestling) on his Mixer streaming channel.
“So, it is what it is,” Styles began. “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]. I felt like I was in prison. And I just broke out.”
“… but the character? Oh man, the guy you see on Raw has done a 180,” he continued. “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.”