Chris Jericho On Why He Thinks Vince McMahon Changed AJ Styles Vs. Brock Lesnar At Survivor Series
The go-home SmackDown before Survivor Series ended up having quite the dramatics thanks to what happened on Raw the night before. When Becky Lynch had her "face broken" by Nia Jax during the SmackDown women's roster invasion of Raw, that created a domino effect that affected the WWE Championship.
AJ Styles ended up losing the title to Daniel Bryan which means that Bryan will now face Brock Lesnar at The Survivor Series this Sunday. Chris Jericho gave his opinion as to why Vince McMahon made this drastic change and he says Lynch's injury played a role in it.
"I think Vince wanted a buzz going into Survivor Series because he lost his main event which was Ronda vs. Becky," Jericho said on his Talk is Jericho podcast.
Jax' punch to Lynch during the fracas was captured by fan video and it looks to be about as stiff as you can get. But Jericho says he'll hold off judgment for now.
"Stuff happens. If you see the punch that she took, oh my gosh! It didn't look like a potato, it looked like a legitimate delivered punch to the face. But whatever, we'll hold off for judgment on that," stated Jericho.
"I think that once [Vince] lost his main event, because I do think Survivor Series would have main evented with Rousey vs. Becky, he needed a buzz. I want buzz-worthy. I will change the title because to him AJ and Bryan are the same. They're both great workers. They're both the same size. They're both going to get eaten alive by Brock depending what mood Brock is in if he even wants to have a match or whatever. Because sometimes Brock will just show up and say, 'we'll just talk about it in the ring.' That's what happened with Ambrose at WrestleMania. They didn't even go over anything.
"So I think that's why they did it."
It's worth noting that the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that the WWE Championship title change was decided before Lynch's injury. Dave Meltzer noted that Bryan turning heel may have been influenced by the injury, but him winning the title was decided last weekend.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Talk is Jericho with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: Talk is Jericho