AJ Styles In WWE - What Went RIGHT?

Roman Reigns needed AJ Styles more than AJ Styles needed Roman Reigns.

If 'The Phenomenal One' really did feel (reasonably so) as though the middle of the show was his WWE ceiling, he had to know his main event appearances against 'The Big Dog' at Payback and Extreme Rules 2016 were strictly cameos. Not so for Reigns. Before an unseemly wellness suspension in June, Roman was early into the headline run designed to finally cement him as the next John Cena before the first one had even left, and his contests with AJ Styles brought him as close to the promised land as he'd get for the next two years.

The matches were utterly exhilarating. AJ - a sentimental favourite of vociferous crowds in Chicago and New Jersey - played a babyface in peril without ever rendering Roman the wrestling heel. Though audiences still booed the former Shield man, they did so with a begrudging respect as he snuck by the super-skilled Styles in exhausting, absorbing wars.

It was transparent and expert work from a 15-year pro. It mattered not that Styles had what was considered by some to be the "stink" of TNA or "stigma" of New Japan. He was an unusually adaptable performer in an usually adaptable company, and his own expedited rise was cemented just a fortnight later when a heel turn on John Cena kickstarted the second programme in a row to steal focus away from everything else going on in the organisation.

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