10 Reasons AJ Styles Is The Best WWE Signing Of The Decade
5. The Hitman
AJ Styles wasn't originally the man destined to walk into November 2017's Raw Vs Smackdown Live! Survivor Series as WWE Champion. Nor was he, presumably, the performer daubed on the whiteboard to tiptoe past John Cena towards WrestleMania 33 with his Championship in tact earlier that year.
In almost record time for the notoriously fickle promotion, 'The Phenomenal One' has become the company's topline utility man. Styles' aforementioned liberation of the WWE Championship from Jinder Mahal shortly before his comically mismatched clash with Brock Lesnar came cathartically ahead of schedule because Styles was such a safe pair of hands. Too safe, regrettably, to argue the toss that his first reign shouldn't have been punctuated in order to feed into an angle with Shane McMahon at his second 'Show Of Shows'.
It's a role many don't aspire to achieve because so few can excel within it. The glaring exception executed excellence on an almost nightly basis in order to persistently rise above an unfair placeholder tag. The WWE Title (and the profession in general) was as real as it got for 'The Hitman', underscoring why he was the perfect choice to steer the ship without ever being permitted to take the captaincy.