AJ Styles Becomes WWE Champion On Smackdown

AJ Styles is the new WWE champion.

At tonight’s Smackdown tapings in Manchester, England, AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal to win the WWE championship after pinning him with the Phenomenal Forearm. This presumably sets up AJ Styles vs. Brock Lesnar in a champion vs. champion match at Survivor Series, replacing Jinder Mahal.

Jinder Mahal was champion for about six months, or 139 days, defeating Randy Orton at Backlash on May 21st in a surprise. He had been a relatively successful champion, defending the title among the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura and Randy Orton in the time that he was champion.

It was originally announced that the tours in New Delhi, India would have WWE title matches with Jinder Mahal defending against Kevin Owens. That has obviously changed now with Styles' win.

This is Styles’ second run with the title. He defeated Dean Ambrose for the championship at Money in the Bank last year. John Cena pinned him in January to win the championship. 

Brock Lesnar will be on Raw Monday, with Paul Heyman in tow. Their feud will likely kick off there, culminating at Survivor Series.

This comes right as another match has changed for Survivor Series, as The Bar regained the Raw tag team titles yesterday, putting them in the spot against the Usos in a champions vs. champions match.

You can see Fightful.com's Smackdown post-show at this link.