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This week on RAW, Rey Mysterio defended his United States Championship against former Champion AJ Styles during the main event of the show.
While AJ Styles managed to gain an upper hand for most of the match and delivered a Styles Clash which would have sealed the victory and a fourth reign for the Superstar, Randy Orton distracted Styles to allow Mysterio to pick up the victory.
Orton slid in the ring, appearing to deliver an RKO to Styles, but instead just winked at Styles and slid out again. The distraction allowed The Master of the 619 to roll up Styles for the victory, allowing him his longest US Championship reign to date.
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In this article, we will look at the 5 theories why Orton distracted Styles and allowed Mysterio to pick up the victory.
#5 To help Mysterio have a longer reign
Rey Mysterio’s first reign as the United States Champion did not last long, as The Master of the 619 had to relinquish his title two weeks after winning it due to an injury. His first win was also tainted, as Samoa Joe’s shoulders were not fully down when the Referee counted the three-count.
This week, Mysterio defended his title two weeks after winning it. The threat of a short reign loomed once again, as Styles took control of the match in the later stages.
With the distraction caused by Randy Orton, Mysterio was able to roll-up Styles for a victory and retain his Championship.
This was an easy and effective way to protect Styles from two consecutive losses against Mysterio while putting in a reason behind his loss once again.
Since Styles has had phenomenal reigns with both the WWE Championship and the US Championship in the past, it is logical that the company wouldn’t want him to lose two Championship matches in a row cleanly.
#4 To move AJ Styles out of the US Championship scene
AJ Styles has had three reigns as the United States Champion and has done well in all his three reigns. This run was his longest with the title which he won on July 14 at Extreme Rules.
Since winning the title, Styles has had good little feuds with men like Ricochet, Humberto Carrillo, Seth Rollins, and Rey Mysterio. With most of the top-tier babyface roster out of the way, it would have been difficult for the creatives to keep giving Styles good rivalries.
With that in mind, it also feels appropriate to move Styles back to the upper card once again, a place where he truly belongs.
The Phenomenal One’s loss this week could mark the end of his pursuit for the US Championship, and move him to another feud that can take him up the card.
With that in mind, it feels appropriate that Randy Orton, instead of Ricochet, Carrillo, or Dominic, came out to distract Styles to help Mysterio win.
With that, the company now has a readymade rivalry for Styles which fans can look forward to.
Just like many other top stars, Orton and Styles do not need a title around their waist to have an outstanding feud. With the title with Mysterio now, it will allow both men to have a great feud while Mysterio can keep getting other fresh rivalries for the US Championship.
#3 To turn Randy Orton face
One of the many things we’ve been watching on RAW is the softening of Randy Orton’s heart. While it seemed like Orton was ready to have a full-our feud with Ricochet just a month ago, he’s gotten in the faces of the heels instead.
Orton, who was playing a great villainous character, has now had a few good segments with other heels such as Drew McIntyre and AJ Styles. The biggest giveaway of his turn came when he helped Rey Mysterio defeat Styles for the title a couple of weeks back.
By helping Mysterio once again, it seems like Orton is now willing to align himself with the babyfaces of the Red brand.
Styles, along with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, is already playing a great heel, while Seth Rollins also seemed to have turned heel on RAW this week.
With two major pillars of RAW now playing heels, it’s good to watch Orton turn face as he can give both men a great rivalry. Orton is already one of the most decorated Superstars in the company’s history, and as a face, we could once again watch him stand up to WWE Champion Brock Lesnar sooner than later.
#2 To form a faction of the babyfaces
RAW is currently crawling with some of the best heels in the company. At a time when SmackDown seems to be finding it difficult to set up good rivalries for Roman Reigns, RAW is finding it difficult to keep top babyfaces and heels apart for long.
The O.C. was already playing the premier role of the villainous faction for RAW, while this week the brand threw another major faction at us. Seth Rollins seems to have aligned with the Authors of Pain, and we could get another huge villainous faction out of those three men.
With that in mind, there is a need for the babyfaces to have each other back at all times. We have seen Ricochet and Humberto Carrillo come to Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton’s aide recently, while Mysterio handed his lead pipe to Kevin Owens to protect himself.
With all this brewing on the Red brand, it feels like the company will be giving us a nice top babyface faction sooner than later.
RAW already had the options of pairing Ricochet, Mysterio, and Carrillo together, and now it seems like they might even add Randy Orton or Kevin Owens to the mix.
With such big names, we could witness the ultimate clash of the factions on RAW in the coming weeks.
#1 To set up a blockbuster match between the veterans at TLC 2019
While I’ve mentioned earlier that SmackDown may not have as many top stars as RAW, it seems like the SmackDown brand is shaping up better for Tables, Ladders, and Chairs 2019 (TLC 2019) than RAW.
We’ll watch Roman Reigns, King Corbin, The New Day, The Revival, Bray Wyatt, The Miz, and many more compete from the Blue brand at the event.
On the other hand, the WWE Championship will not be defended at the event from RAW, while only The Kabuki Warriors, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair seem to be the top names announced for matches at the event from RAW.
Keeping that in mind, the Red brand will have to step up and bring in their top stars for the pay-per-view before the rivalries start getting stale.
In that case, it seems likely that the company will push AJ Styles and Randy Orton to have the first match of their rivalry at the event.
Since both men are capable of delivering stellar performances, it’s likely that the company will push them both to the upper card and possibly pick the winner to challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship down the line.
