6 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Nov 22)
2. Are You Feeling Mucky, Punk?
By this point, though he's not exactly The Rock reincarnate, AJ Styles has totally disproved those who said his promo skills would never be enough to cut it as a top-line star in WWE.
Look at his impromptu oratory on SmackDown this week, which demonstrated a few subtle differences from his colleagues' usual scripted stutterings. Not only did Styles have the presence of mind to sell the blow to the back he'd took moments earlier - again, not something we should take for granted - but possessed the necessary wit to improvise a response to the inevitable CM Punk chants emanating from the Chicago crowd.
"I'd clean him up," teased Styles, and that more or less shut people up. Having the confidence and guile to confront the intrusion instead of dying on the vine is a skill lesser seen in WWE today.