10 Last-Minute WWE Payback 2016 Rumors You Need To Know

9. AJ Styles Wins The WWE World Heavyweight Championship

finn balor bullet club
WWE

Just like Roman Reigns is sure to continue as WWE's top babyface, he's (almost) equally as sure to continue reigning as WWE World Heavyweight Champion.

His path to the top was famously stilted - at WrestleMania 31, Reigns was deemed too unpopular to put over Brock Lesnar, so Seth Rollins walked out with the title. The company spent the rest of 2015 trying to get Reigns over as a babyface by having him dominate opponents and get screwed out of the WWE Title, and it almost worked - when he won the belt for the second time, fans were actually excited. Soon after, though, it all fell apart, and fans turned on Reigns worse than ever in the lead-up to WrestleMania 32.

Despite the fans' hatred, WWE stuck with their plan to put Reigns over, and he became a three-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the show of shows. They didn't ruin WrestleMania's main event just to undo it a month later.

Admittedly, there's always an outside chance that Styles could turn, accept help from Anderson and Gallows, and claim the title, but it's very unlikely. The potentially collusion between Styles and his former teammates is clearly a red herring, and Reigns will keep being champ.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013