10 Wrestlers That Have Soared Since WWE WrestleMania 35

9. AJ Styles

King Corbin
WWE

'The Phenomenal One' had somehow gone from brilliant to boring during his lengthy WWE Championship reign in 2018, but something clicked again for the well-travelled star following his very middle-of-the-road WrestleMania clash with Randy Orton.

Supplying Seth Rollins with a banger first major title match at Money In The Bank, a heel turn alongside Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson made Styles Raw's premier sh*t-stirrer.

He's since gone on to have tremendous mini-programmes with Ricochet and Cedric Alexander, serve as a wonderful foil for Stone Cold Steve Austin's Madison Square Garden Monday Night Raw return and even bring a smidgin of prestige back to the United States Championship.

With the pressure down and the obnoxiousness turned way, way up, Styles has come good again just at the right time - SmackDown's move to Fox will result in several bigger names leaving the brand to pop ratings. Styles may not be in that upper echelon, but is a perfect fit as a top villain on Raw, providing an extremely high quality of work in the process.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett