For the past couple of weeks, AJ Styles has been going after Dominik Mysterio. He hasn’t just randomly targeted him for no reason. Mysterio is the reigning Intercontinental Champion, having won it at WrestleMania 41.
The two were supposed to face off for Mysterio’s championship at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. However, it was announced the week before that, due to an injury to Mysterio, the match would not be taking place at the PLE. Since then, Styles has been begging him to get cleared so he could have the match.
On the July 21, 2025 episode of Monday Night Raw, Styles disguised himself as many different people in order to get his point across to Mysterio. It was later announced that he was cleared and that the match was on. Styles’ actions on Raw were funny and a necessary reminder that wrestling is allowed to be fun.
AJ Styles Showed Everyone His Desperation to Get the Match
Waiting for something that has been delayed can be a painful process. You can do a lot of things to pass the time, including trying something new or revisiting the old version if it’s a piece of media. In Styles’ case, he is waiting for a championship opportunity that was taken from him.
It’s nobody’s fault, as injuries happen all the time in wrestling. However, with SummerSlam next week, he was done waiting for Mysterio to be cleared. All night, he bugged him, assuming various roles to directly interact with him.
He was a car valet, a janitor, and a ringside doctor, all in an effort to get him cleared. It seems like his disguises worked, as he got his match. He knew Mysterio wouldn’t listen if he was just himself.
By placing himself into every situation he was in, he forced himself to get his business done.
His Comedy Showed a Side That’s Good for Him and Wrestling
In WWE and professional wrestling as a whole, the selling points of many feuds are hatred and violence. Perhaps the hatred causes the violence in the build-up to the match. Maybe the violence happens during the match, like a Hell in a Cell, Steel Cage, or WarGames match.
That’s a lot of tense situations happening from week to week. To combat that, there have always been comedy characters there to lighten the mood. People like the Alpha Academy, pre-heel turn New Day, and pre-return R-Truth are around to make both the audience and fellow wrestlers laugh.
Styles is known for being serious, so many fans probably didn’t know he could pull off his performance on Monday. He delighted everyone by pretending to be many people to get a match with Mysterio. Sometimes comedy is needed to balance out the highly charged emotions in a wrestling program.
AJ Styles Did What He Had to Do to Get the Match
Dominik Mysterio is a smart man. If he doesn’t get himself cleared by medical, he won’t have to defend and potentially lose his Intercontinental Championship. He could go the Roman Reigns route and wrestle seven or eight times a year.
That’s why he was trying to evade getting checked out. But AJ Styles isn’t a patient man. When he wants his title opportunity, he will try his hardest to get that opportunity.
He already had to wait a month since Mysterio was injured before Night of Champions. There was no way he was missing SummerSlam as well. But he didn’t do it forcefully.
Styles did it in a way that was creative and made people laugh. Disguising himself throughout the night didn’t hurt Mysterio at all or put the match in jeopardy. He used comedy skills to get what he wanted without risking his spot at SummerSlam.
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