AJ Styles Injury: Updates on WWE Superstar's Ankle and Return

AJ Styles will be fighting for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on May 22, but he'll be taking a short break from the ring to heal an ankle injury. However, he is expected to return to the ring soon.

Continue for updates.

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Styles Comments on Injury and Status

Saturday, May 14

Raw falls on May 16, which is the week before WWE Extreme Rules, where he will take on Roman Reigns in a rematch for the title.

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Styles To Be Held Out of Weekend's House Shows

Thursday, May 12

The WWE has pulled The Phenomenal One from this weekend's WWE live events due to what seems to be a back injury, according to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com.

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WWE's Rash of Injuries Worsens

This seems like a huge scare for WWE, especially with WWE's bad luck with injuries for the last number of months. Any injury news has to be taken seriously. Meltzer pointed out Styles has been dealing with back troubles for the last few months. If that's the case, it hasn't shown on TV.

Styles has been involved in some of WWE's best matches of 2016 since making his debut at the Royal Rumble. Despite the finish being questionable, his bout with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 32 was one of the best matches of the night. Styles followed that with a stellar performance at WWE Payback on May 1 against Reigns in a match that featured great storytelling.

This is a precautionary move by WWE and a safe one considering Styles is the main event draw in 10 days. In a short time, Styles has become one of the company's best performers because of his innovative offense. A bad back would limit him from performing his aerial offense, as well as hamper the chances of hitting the near-270-pound Reigns with his Styles Clash finisher.

Extreme Rules matches tend to call for big bumps. Keeping Styles out of in-ring competition between now and the pay-per-view is important to ensure the Styles-Reigns rematch lives up to the billing like their match at Payback.

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