10 Wrestlers That Have Soared Since WWE WrestleMania 35

9. AJ Styles

AJ Styles Randy Orton
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 for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he 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 on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. 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 music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.