This Is the Path to An HBK vs AJ Styles Feud

Shawn Michaels has made it perfectly clear that he’s not planning on returning to the ring. But, sometimes plans change, especially when your comeback opponent will be someone as talented as AJ Styles.

On Monday’s Raw, WWE announced that Michaels will appear on next week’s show. What will he do there? That remains to be seen. He does have a movie coming out at the end of this month, so it’s likely that he’ll be there to promote that. Or, it could end up being something much bigger.

So, let’s assume that Michaels is actually planning to come out of retirement for one more match against AJ Styles, and that his appearance on next week’s show will be the beginning of his comeback angle.

Here’s how it could go down: Michaels comes out to promote his new movie, Undertaker interrupts, and gives him the OK to wrestle again. Of course, Michaels will still play it off like he has no interest in wrestling again, even though the man who retired him gave permission to step back in the ring for one more match.

Now, let’s fast forward to a future SmackDown show, where Michaels could show up and announce that he’ll be the special guest referee for the John Cena vs. AJ Styles match. We all know that WWE wants him to be on the Royal Rumble show, so making him the guest ref is a way to get him on the show, and get him in the ring with AJ.

It looks like The Undertaker is going to take on John Cena at WrestleMania 33, which means that The Deadman will probably win the Royal Rumble match, and that Cena will defeat Styles for the WWE Championship. But, there’s not really a clear direction for AJ, unless Michaels gets involved in the finish.

Now, fast forwarding to the match, it’ll look like AJ has Cena beat, and then Michaels will superkick The Phenomenal One, and assist Cena in winning the title. So, they’ll have a way to get out of doing another Cena vs. AJ match, and they’ll have a clear direction for AJ at WrestleMania 33.

If WWE does this, they’d likely be bringing Michaels back as a heel. But, they’ve already had him do heelish stuff after he retired, most notably costing Daniel Bryan the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. So, HBK being a heel really isn’t that big of a deal.

httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=EENGCMivA7c&t

In 2014, Michaels told WWE.com that he’s staying retired because he doesn’t feel like he can top what he did with The Undertaker in his final match. But now, he most certainly can with AJ Styles. Also, HBK is now heavily involved in WWE’s developmental system, which may have given him the itch to get back in the ring.

Do you think Shawn Michaels will come out of retirement to wrestle AJ Styles? Let us know in the comments below, and make sure to like our official Facebook page for all the latest WWE news.