AJ Styles: 'We Had To Make A New Championship Because Roman Holds Them All'

As he prepares for a showdown against Seth Rollins in the final of the World Heavyweight Championship tournament, AJ Styles has shut down the notion the title is a "secondary" world title to Roman Reigns' Undisputed Universal WWE Championship. 

In an interview with "New York Post," Styles implied that WWE had no choice but to create a new title, citing "The Tribal Chief" working a part-time schedule since last year.

"Is it a secondary?" Styles asked. "Well if the Raw championship is held by Roman, the SmackDown championship is held by Roman, then how can you argue that it's not? We had to make a new championship because Roman holds them all.

"What happens if he decides to wrestle for the World Heavyweight Championship? It is what it is and we got what we got. If we make the best of it, and if and when Roman does challenge [for it], we beat the brakes off of him, whomever it might be, then we'll see what title's secondary."

As he spoke further on Reigns' reign, Styles guaranteed that the inaugural World Heavyweight Champion, be it himself or Rollins, will be a workhorse champion who frequently defends the titles across televised and live events.

"This guy's gonna be on the pay-per-views, he's gonna be on the live events, he's gonna do all these things that need to be done," Styles stressed. "The price for being the World Heavyweight champion is, yes, you get the recognition of being the champion, but you also have to do the job of being the world champion."

While Styles last held the WWE Championship in 2018, Rollins has been mostly away from the world title picture – except for his brief program against Reigns in 2022 — since losing the Universal Championship to The Fiend in 2019.