AJ Styles Traded To WWE SmackDown

Just before taking on Shinsuke Nakamura in the tournament to crown a new WWE Intercontinental champion on Friday's WWE SmackDown, it was announced that Raw superstar AJ Styles had been traded to the blue brand for "future considerations".

Styles defeated Nakamura to advance to the semifinals of the tournament, where he will wrestle Elias on next week's SmackDown.

"The Phenomenal One" was SmackDown's second pick, and fourth overall selection, in the 2016 WWE Draft. Less than two months after he was selected to the show, Styles defeated Dean Ambrose in the main event of Backlash to become the WWE champion. He went on to hold the title for over four months.

It was also on SmackDown that Styles had a second reign as WWE champion, this one spanning just over one year. He defeated Jinder Mahal on SmackDown in November 2017 to capture the title, before dropping it to Daniel Bryan 53 weeks later.

After close to three years as a SmackDown regular, Styles moved to Raw in April 2019, as part of the annual Superstar Shake-Up.