Monday Night Raw is about to become “Phenomenal” again according to new reports.
AJ Styles has not been seen on television since losing the Boneyard Match to The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 36. Of course, the end of the critically-acclaimed cinematic match saw Styles “buried alive” by “The Deadman.” However, it looks like AJ Styles is about to rise from the grave like an altered beast.
According to a new report by POST Wrestling, Styles is set to return on the May 4 episode of Monday Night Raw, which was taped this week as part of an amended taping schedule. While the report does not suggest how AJ might be utilized on the broadcast, it does note that AJ is expected to be a part of the May 10 WWE Money in the Bank pay-per-view in some capacity.
Circumstances will be different for AJ upon his return as he no longer has The O.C. by his side. Both Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were released by WWE on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. AJ Styles addressed their releases via a Mixer stream.
"[Gallows & Anderson] hurt really bad," said AJ (via Jeremy Lambert). "The only way I can explain it is these guys are like family and I couldn't take care of my own brothers, that's the way I feel about it. I'm the oldest, I'm supposed to take care of them and I didn't manage to do that. I feel responsible, in some weird way, for them being released. It's devastating. There's a lot of other great wrestlers (who got released). This stuff is expected with everything going on. I'm as shocked as you are with some of the guys that got released. I have my own opinions with things that could have been done differently. I'm not the CEO of the company, I don't make those decisions. Who do you blame with all this? Every company is doing this. When big companies stop making money, it's not the highest up person who takes a pay cut, everyone else does. All I know is I lost a lot of great friends."
Here's AJ Styles thoughts on the #WWE releases from yesterday -- pic.twitter.com/bdf4yMUwf5
— ChanMan -- (@ChandranTheMan) April 17, 2020
The May 4 episode of Raw is also set to feature a Gauntlet Match to fill the last spot in the men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match and see Drew McIntyre face Murphy in a non-title contest.
