AJ Styles & The Rumble

AJ Styles has gone and done something I was not expecting this time yesterday. He has teased a Royal Rumble appearance.

In a post published yesterday afternoon, I wrote this about Styles' chance of being a participant in next week's Royal Rumble match:

 I checked out a story earlier today where he - in a roundabout way - denied he'll be at the Royal Rumble. What did they expect him to say? 

Then, at last night's Revolution Pro Wrestling show from London, Styles acknowledged the fans' chanting 'Royal Rumble' to him after he mentioned that he didn't know what the future holds as it pertains to his career.

He told the crowd that - if he does enter the Royal Rumble - he'll 'kick some ass' for them.

In less than a week, he has been subtle in denying he'll be there to teasing that he will.

WWE is a political minefield and he must have known that this sort of tease would get out. This is not something someone about to enter WWE should be doing, so it has me wondering whether he was given the go-ahead to do a tease like this to build up some interest to his arrival in the company.

It's not like WWE has been hiding from the fact that AJ Styles, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Shinsuke Nakamura are on their way in. The company's website acknowledged the imminent arrivals in an article published shortly after the rumour began.

As far as the betting on AJ Styles to be in the Royal Rumble - the Betfair Sportsbook has readjusted his price following last night's post-match address. He's now 1/2 to be one of the performers in the match. This is a drop from the 5/4 he was before the news spread.

The early birds who backed him when he was 33/1 are no doubt hoping he does find a slot in next weelend's battle royal.

Betfair's WWE odds are found in the 'Special Bets' section of the Betfair.com Sportsbook.