5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (May 5)

2. Respectful AJ Styles Leaves Things Open For Change

WWE's writing of AJ Styles deserves credit, the creative team are definitely doing the right thing by having him appear unsure of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Those men are still AJ's friends, but he's conflicted on the idea of using them to overcome Roman Reigns. Styles wants to do that on his own.

Add to that the fact that Reigns doesn't seem quite so respectful towards Styles, and there's a lot of room for WWE to go in multiple directions. That keeps things interesting, and the trend continued on SmackDown. During a backstage promo, AJ said he wants to win the title his way.

This led Gallows to remind his pal that Roman wasn't playing so friendly, which gave the Extreme Rules challenger food for thought. Later, following a 6-man tag bout, AJ and Reigns confronted one another in the ring. Roman lifted the WWE Title high above his head, which could be construed as another show of disrespect.