Wednesday 13 December 2017 12:01, UK
AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal kept it civilised in their in-ring meeting on SmackDown but things turned vicious backstage.
Styles had earlier taken out his frustrations on the Singh brothers, who approached the WWE champion with promises of staying out of their title match at Clash of Champions, live on Sky Sports Box Office on Sunday night.
The duo - who have continuously come up short in their physical confrontations with Styles - pledged to not interfere in Sunday night's main event and even went as far as criticising Mahal.
Styles was having none of it, and beat down both brothers after Mahal made his entrance, throwing them out of the ring to emphasise his point.
The stand-off ended but that was not the conclusion of the dispute, as Styles would find to his cost when doing a backstage interview later in the show.
Enter Mahal, who underlined his desire to regain his crown with a series of vicious forearms which left the champion down and out.
