This week on SmackDown Live! John Cena made his spectacular return and made his intention to go after the 16th World title, clear. As of this writing, it will be AJ Styles vs. John Cena at the Royal Rumble for the WWE Championship. The reason behind this match has come to light recently and it is definitely not what one expected it to be.
AJ Styles was rumoured to face The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble for the WWE Championship for a long time. But, WWE suddenly changed its plans and went ahead with John Cena vs. Styles for the Rumble.
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The sudden change in plans raised many eyebrows but it was not surprising, as people knew that WWE had the Cena-Styles feud as a backup if things didn’t work out.
Cagesideseats reveals that the reason for this change in plans is because of the recent dismissal of Managing Writer Tom Casiello. The shift to the Cena vs. Styles feud, instead of a program with Taker and Styles, came around the same time as that of the changes in the creative team after Casiello was fired.
Tom Casiello was considered to be the biggest influence behind the recent push of the women’s division in both Raw and SmackDown. It is said that Casiello often butted heads with the traditionalists in the creative team like Kevin Dunn and Vince McMahon and pushed for new ideas.
This had reportedly created some friction and has ultimately led to the firing of Casiello.
Already the effects of a diminished creative team have been reflecting in WWE programming. Though Cena vs. Styles is a good program to go with for Royal Rumble, one has to accept that WWE has played this feud one too many times in the past.
Regardless of the star power, if there is nothing new in the feud no one is going to care about it. Taker vs. Styles could have been a fresh and very exciting feud to watch. Can the WWE pull off another Styles vs. Cena feud without boring us to death? What do you think? Leave your opinions in the comments.
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