The Phenomenal One is confident that he can beat Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn at the Royal Rumble event to hang on to his WWE Championship, but he will get his hands on them sooner than he thinks.

BIRMINGHAM — WWE Champion AJ Styles kicked off SmackDown LIVE with an in-ring interview conducted by Renee Young. Styles vented about the position Team Blue General Manager Daniel Bryan put him in last week when he placed The Phenomenal One into a 2-on-1 Handicap Match against Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn with the WWE Title on the line at Royal Rumble. Styles stressed that he was trying to keep himself removed from the beef between Bryan and Shane McMahon, but he didn’t sound overwhelmingly thrilled with either.

Before he could continue to expand, however, he was interrupted by his Royal Rumble opponents. The “Yep!” Movement, in no uncertain terms, claimed that they would beat Styles down at Royal Rumble and go on their way to becoming co-WWE Champions. However, their dreams quickly came crashing back down to earth by the arriving Shane-O-Mac. The Commissioner revealed that they would be in yet another Handicap Match against Styles … just with Shinsuke Nakamura & Randy Orton as The Phenomenal One’s partners.