Are Styles and Owens about to be "Punked"?

[Dave]

They absolutely are. 100 percent.

To me, it just really sucks to see Styles and Owens get this sort of treatment, especially when they have proved everyone wrong on their respective brands for the last few months. Sure, Owens wasn't supposed to be in the position that he is in now but he's worked so hard to keep himself at the top of the card and has been a very good heel champion since. WrestleMania is supposed to be the place where the good guy finally gets the better of the big bad heel, and both Styles and Owens deserve their WrestleMania moment, even if it is in a losing effort.

But the Royal Rumble isn't going to be their friend and, more than that, Vince McMahon isn't going to be their friend. AJ may have proved everyone wrong this last year but I get the feeling that Vince doesn't feel as though AJ deserves to be in the main event of his promotion. And if you think that Vince is done with the Reigns push then you are 100 percent mistaken. Reigns, one way or another, is going to be in the main event of WrestleMania for the third year on the bounce. And, again, if you think that's the end of his run, then you are even more mistaken.

It sucks. It truly does. But I don't see Owens or Styles managing to get to WrestleMania as Champion.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

The only problem with putting styles against balor would be the brand split and the fact that they don't really want to do inter promotional matches on these big ppv unless they really need to. Their also the fact that it'S not even sure if Balor will be cleared in time for mania anyway but if he his, they would have to find a pretty good reason to make this match because just using gallows and anderson as a reason to do a raw vs smackdown match isn't a great reason.

Finally, if you believe the rumor card that dave meltzer as reported yesterday, Aj is already pencil in against shane mcmahon for mania and they did kinda start the build up on talking smack the last couple of weeks. The plan right now for both guys are to have owens faces jericho for the us title and aj face shane mcmahon. The wwe title is rumored to be randy orton vs bray wyatt and the universal title match will be roman reigns vs the undertaker. SO both guys seem to be already booked in other programs going into mania and both programs aren't with them as champions, so i know that they might change they're minds before mania and make changes but if this card is true, i doubt they would change it this close to mania. The one match that really intrigued me in that rumored card and that i hope it happens is Samoa Joe vs John Cena. It's something new for Cena and with the quality work he'S been doing lately i just want to see if he would match well with joe.

Everything's great, but Styles vs Shane.. c'mon.. What does Styles wins from this? What does Shane even win? Plus I don't think Orton vs Wyatt is big enough for the WWE Championship. Add Styles there, make it a triple threat. If he's gonna beat Cena he will have all the momentum in the world and they're gonna waste that on Shane O'Mac?

Sad part is, rumors around this time of the year turn out to be true.. Hope they are false.

 

[XXJJ]

I don't mind Styles dropping the title at EC. But please no match w/ Shane. Much rather have him in a triple threat title match w/ Orton and Wyatt. Personally, I would prefer a singles title match at WM between AJ and Orton.

Owens title reign has been boring imo. Jericho has been the only entertaining thing about Owens run. I don't think he deserves to be champ going into WM to be honest..

 

[Jack-Hammer]

Haven't been on here in a while but randomly decided to dive back in today and wanted to here some other opinions on something.

My question is do you think both current world champs Kevin Owens, and AJ Styles are about to get "Punked" at the Royal Rumble? What I mean by punked is a horrible pun to reference when CM Punk held the WWE title for a 400 plus day title reign and then dropped the title to The Rock at the Royal Rumble to set up the WM29 John Cena Rematch.

Kevin Owens has held the Universal Title for exactly 5 months as of today. Meanwhile Roman Reigns was kept out of the world title picture for a few months possibly as an attempt to work on how he was getting over with the audience, or maybe as a small smack on the wrist for his wellness policy mix up. Either way the "Big Dog" as Michael Cole would say is back in the world title picture, and after dropping the US title it seems much more likely that he reclaims the top belt on Raw and will head into Wrestlemania to potentially headline the show for the third straight year. While i'm a big Kevin Owens fan I think they put the belt on him just to fill a void that was created by the Finn Balor injury and now are gonna go back to Reigns leading up to and through wrestlemania while Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho end up facing off for the US Title. Also it wouldn't surprise me if the continued ratings struggle would make Vince go back with Reigns thinking he'll be a better ratings draw.

Next we have the Phenomenal one. AJ styles is currently in the midst of a roughly four and a half month run as the WWE Champion and it will be the "Face that runs the place" vs "The Champ that Runs the Camp" when Styles defends his belt against Cena. With rumors running rampant of Cena vs Undertaker this year at Mania this could be when they put the strap back on Cena to set up what would be the hands down main event of WM 33. I have more hope here that AJ will some how go over Cena again. AJ Styles has had arguably one of the best single year runs in WWE history, has been the best thing on Smackdown to me, and just has too much momentum going right now not to go into WM33 as champ. Also, John Cena vs the Undertaker would be so big it wouldn't have to be for the belt. So why put the strap on Cena and possibly have Taker win the rumble when you can get to that match with out either of those things happening. However Styles is 2-0 in singles matches against Cena and I can't see him going to 3-0 with out some shenanigans .

The thing here is WWE has both world title belts on two guys who the hardcore fans, older fans,"IWC" or whatever the hell kind of label you want to put on the fans, me included, who are supporters of guys like Kevin Owens and AJ Styles during a time where there is arguably a low point in the year. The low is that septemebr to january stretch where post wrestlemania/ summerslam hype has died down and its too early to start the hype for next years wrestlmania. But with the Rumble kicking off the "Road to Wrestlemania" do you think WWE will have Owens and Styles drop their respective World Titles to Cena and Reigns who are considered more of the usual Vince McMahon/WWE top guys? Similar to how CM Punk dropped the belt to The Rock back in 2013.

So what do you guys think?

In a way, I suppose you were right as Styles was "Punked" last night and if reports are true, Kevin Owens is set to be "Punked" at Fastlane next month.

Cena going over Styles at the Royal Rumble didn't really bother me because we knew it was either coming at the Rumble or WrestleMania. It was all but written in stone that John Cena would be a 16 time World Champion so they just made the call to go for it last night. As of this morning, however, the WWE Championship picture looks to be in some trouble for WrestleMania if WWE genuinely does go for Cena vs. Orton as there's no more money left to be made from this match. Cena is set to defend the title in the Elimination Chamber, with AJ Styles officially announced earlier today as one of the participants, and Cena could drop it then. There've also been reports of Orton facing Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania for the title, which would mean either Orton or Wyatt wins the title in the Elimination Chamber. That's preferable to Cena vs. Orton, at least to me, only if Wyatt comes out of WrestleMania as WWE Champion.

If reports are true in regards to poor Kevin Owens, he's going to be offered up as a sacrificial lamb to Goldberg at Fastlane where he drops the Universal Championship to him. If this is indeed the plan, as Dave Meltzer claims, then I feel really bad for Owens and pissed off at Vince for his continual choices of using Attitude Era guys to dominate the talent that's actually carrying the company. Given that Goldberg went through Lesnar in 86 seconds, expect a match against Owens to barely last 30 seconds; last night seemed pretty obvious that Goldberg hasn't been training all that much and probably sucks in the ring even more than he did back in the day, at least if his clotheslines are any indicator. Vince giving Attitude Era guys such preferential booking, that and the restrictions he's placed on how creative modern guys can be, are why so many fans see the AE guys as being so superior.