AJ Styles Appears on WWE SmackDown in a Walking Boot (Photo)

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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AJ Styles showed up at WWE SmackDown with a walking boot, seemingly making his title match for the evening canceled.

AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose put on an entertaining main event at WWE TLC for the WWE World Championship. They put each other through tables, got pushed off ladders, and made a quiet Dallas, TX crowd rise to their feet on multiple occasions. James Ellsworth ended up pushing Ambrose off the ladder so Styles could climb up, grab the title, and successfully retain it.

Following TLC, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported that Styles suffered a “minor” ankle injury in the main event of the pay-per-view. It may have come during the 450 splash that Styles hit on Ambrose. The injury isn’t considered to be severe.

On Tuesday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown, Styles had been set to defend the WWE World Championship against Ellsworth. However, it does not seem that this will happen as the former NJPW star showed up in a walking boot and said, he’s not medically cleared to compete.

This could always be a ruse for later on in the night, but based on what happened over the weekend, WWE may not want to take a chance. It’s understandable as they dealt with a flurry of injuries around this time in 2015. This caused changes to the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania match cards, which arguably hampered the shows.

Later on SmackDown, we may find out exactly when the Styles vs. Ellsworth title match will go down. It may not be for a few weeks, which wouldn’t be the worst thing since we’re early in to December and the Royal Rumble isn’t for seven weeks. That gives time for Styles to heal before getting into a potential matchup.

AJ Styles will be back in action soon enough; could it be later on SmackDown, if this turns out to be a hoax?

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