When I won the NXT championship, I found triumph among my peers. Winning the championship, though, didn’t stop my momentum. In fact, it might have even accelerated it.
On July 31, I was set to debut on WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night Raw. I was set compete in a fatal-four-way match against Sheamus, Seth Rollins, and Bo Dallas.
The days leading up to his main event on Raw, I trained harder than he had in a long time. I worked out a new move that could incapacitate my opponents as bad as my Styles Lock did.
When Raw finally started to air on the USA Network, I got excited. My match was only two-and-a-half hours away. The time went by ever so slowly, due to my impatience.
Finally, the time had come. I lined up behind the other three superstars, as I was set to come out last. Sheamus went through, then Bo Dallas, then Seth Rollins. Finally it was my time.
I was allowed to talk to the audience on the way down the ramp. So when my music played, I picked up a microphone, and walked out from behind the curtain.
As I walked onto the stage, I heard my music start to fade out. That was my cue to start speaking.
I brought the microphone up to my lips and said, “Raw just got a whole lot better.”
Then, all of a sudden, the lights went out. This was my effect. I brought the mic back up to my lips and calmly said, “I am the NXT Champion. I am NXT’s resident beast. But most importantly, I am Johnny Styles.”
Then, the lights came back on. The crowd started to boo me, but I sucked it up as if it were oxygen.
I entered the ring, and the referee called for the bell. I immediately exited the ring.
I stood by and watched as the other three competitors fought each other. Then, when I felt the time was right, I ran back into the ring.
Sheamus tried to hit me with the Brogue Kick, but I ducked out of the way. While Bo Dallas and Seth Rollins were fighting on the outside, I worked over Sheamus on the inside.
When I felt satisfied with the pain I had caused, I picked Sheamus up. I turned him around and grabbed his arm. I swung him out and pulled him back into a massive clothesline, a new move I had dubbed as the Styles-Line.
Since it was an elimination match, I pinned Sheamus without any problems. During this time, Seth and Bo had battled back into the ring.
I saw that Bo’s back was turned, so I took the opportunity to hit the Styles-Line on Bo, just like I had with Sheamus.
I moved out of the ring and let Seth get the pin over Bo.
Seth ran to the other side of the ring to allow me to reenter the ring. I did just that.
Seth tried to hit a dropkick on me, but I just swatted him away. Bad news for Seth, though, was that the missed dropkick set him up perfectly for me to lock in the Styles Lock.
Within seconds, Rollins was asleep.
“And the winner of this match, by way of submission…Johnny Styles!” Lillian Garcia announced.
I did it. I had made an impact by defeating three men in my debut match on Raw.
I picked up a microphone and started talking.
“I am the best there ever has been in this business. If someone hasn’t tapped out to me, they have passed out on me. I am the Scott Steiner of this generation. No one has beaten me, and no one will ever beat me. Get used to this face, people, because you will be seeing it a hell of a lot more. Raw just got better.”
The lights went out and the cameras cut off. Raw was over.
When I went to the back, I was stopped by the Raw match coordinator, Jacob Evans.
“Johnny. I want to give you an opportunity,” he said. “We are approaching the Battleground pay-per-view in 3 weeks. We want to put you in a rivalry against the current Money in the Bank briefcase holder, Dean Ambrose. We are still in the process of figuring things out, but we want the rivalry to culminate into a match at Night of Champions. The match that we are planning will be a Briefcase versus NXT Championship match.”
I got excited quickly. I was going to be on Raw for the next few weeks. I could be the next Mr. Money in the Bank.
Jacob continued. “Are you willing to do the rivalry?”
I nodded with enthusiasm.
“Alright then. It’s set. Starting on Smackdown, we will debut this rivalry.”
With that, Jacob walked away.
On Smackdown, my WWE run would hit with a roaring start.
