6 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE No Mercy 2016

2. AJ On A Roll

Aj Styles
WWE.com

Who would have thought a year ago that AJ Styles would debut in WWE at the 2016 Royal Rumble, go on to beat John Cena at SummerSlam, win the WWE World Championship the following month and then beat Cena for the third consecutive time to retain the title Sunday?

But that’s exactly what has happened in 2016. Sure, Styles used a chair at No Mercy, waffling Cena to gain the pinfall, but all’s fair in a triple threat, where there’s no DQs. Along the way on this journey, Styles has been consistently having tremendous matches, and he, Cena and Dean Ambrose delivered a great opening bout, unloading on each other and giving fans fits with several false finishes.

In the end, AJ resorted to the chair when it became apparent that he couldn’t topple his opponents without an equalizer. Styles has now beaten both men multiple times, solidifying his position as the top guy on SmackDown.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.