Daniel Bryan vs. AJ Styles announced for WWE Royal Rumble

The WWE Championship match for the Royal Rumble was announced on the New Year’s Day edition of SmackDown.

AJ Styles won a number one contender’s fatal five-way match that aired in this week’s main event and will challenge for Daniel Bryan’s WWE title at the Royal Rumble. Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Mustafa Ali, and Samoa Joe were the other wrestlers in the fatal five-way.

The finishing sequence ended with Styles hitting a springboard 450 on Orton and pinning him.

Joe had defeated Jeff Hardy earlier in the show in a match where the stipulation was that the winner would get the last spot in the fatal five-way.

WWE also continued the storyline of Vince McMahon wanting to see the “real AJ Styles.”  Last Tuesday’s SmackDown ended with an angle where Vince tried to get a reaction out of Styles. He slapped Styles in the face, then Styles punched Vince. On this week’s episode, Styles told Vince and Shane McMahon that he wasn’t going to apologize for last week. He said Vince intentionally provoked him, and they’ll see the real Styles tonight.

Shane asked Vince if he was sure he wanted to see the real Styles, and Vince replied by saying “absolutely.” Shane told him to be careful what he wishes for.

Royal Rumble 2019 is taking place at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona on January 27. The men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches, Brock Lesnar defending the Universal Championship against Braun Strowman, and Buddy Murphy defending the Cruiserweight Championship in a fatal four-way match are also set for the pay-per-view.