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A. J. Styles comments on whether new WWE World Heavyweight title is 'secondary'

Posted: May 23rd 2023 By: Ian Carey

A. J. Styles believes the World Heavyweight Championship is a secondary title.

Styles will wrestle Seth Rollins for the new belt Saturday at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia. He told the NY Post recently that since Roman Reigns holds all of WWE's other world titles, it's hard not to consider it secondary.

“Is it a secondary?” Styles said in a Zoom interview. “Well if the Raw championship is held by Roman, the SmackDown championship is held by Roman, then how can you argue that it’s not? We had to make a new championship because Roman holds them all.

“What happens if he decides to wrestle for the World Heavyweight championship? It is what it is and we got what we got. If we make the best of it, and if and when Roman does challenge [for it], we beat the brakes off of him, whomever it might be, then we’ll see what title’s secondary.”

When Triple H unveiled the new title belt last month, he said that part of his storyline reason for doing so was that Reigns is only contractually committed to defending the title every so often. Styles continued to say he is more used to a world champion being a workhorse for the company.

“This guy’s gonna be on the pay-per-views, he’s gonna be on the live events, he’s gonna do all these things that need to be done,” Styles continued. “When I was [WWE] champion I was on all the live events, I was on all the pay-per-views, all the TV’s. That’s what you do.

"The price for being the World Heavyweight champion is, yes, you get the recognition of being the champion, but you also have to do the job of being the world champion. You got to be there and you got to do the job.”

Styles has held world titles in several top promotions. He is a two-time WWE Champion, two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, three-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and two-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

Additionally, Styles has twice been voted the Wrestler of the Year twice (2015 & 2016) in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Awards. He was also voted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame in 2017.