WWE’s Senior Vice President of Live Events “Road Dogg” Brian James discussed Brock Lesnar facing AJ Styles instead of Jinder Mahal at the 2017 Survivor Series PPV on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast.
“I want to clarify, it is not that he did not want to work with Jinder. It’s that he really thought he could have a better match with AJ. So I just wanted that to be clear. Like because look, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Brock saying I don’t want [to], I’m not working with that guy. Well, I did, I did hear that with Kevin Owens, but only him.”
“Look, Brock is that kind of talent, like I just talked about, has a special relationship with Vince. And so apparently they had a conversation and, and a decision, a creative decision was made. We’re gonna go with AJ Styles as a champion into this tournament at Night of Champions.”
Lesnar and Owens did work a match together at a WWE live event in 2017, but they never had a singles match on TV or PPV. During a five-way WWE title match on Day 1 2022, Owens was one of Lesnar’s opponents.
(h/t to ITRWrestling.com)
