AJ Styles In WWE - What Went RIGHT?

Matches with John Cena at Money In The Bank and SummerSlam in 2016 and Royal Rumble in 2017 were immediately etched in WWE lore as bona fide classics. They were worthy of the acclaim too. Cena had cribbed much of New Japan's breathless fight-till-the-end multiple finisher formula during his celebrated 2015 United States Title run, but he'd bastardised it too. Cena did as Cena does, with more always being more to the point where the first, second and third strikes of his finishers didn't generate half or even third of the reaction because he'd cauterised the tension.

It fell to Styles - by then a veteran of that particular style - to reign 'Big Match John' in and remind him how real main events worked. Their Money In The Bank thriller was intentionally scaled back as a first chapter, but the SummerSlam and Rumble belters both made compelling arguments for five star ratings they never received.

The gap between those matches was as significant as the contests themselves. AJ had done something even more unthinkable than pinning John Cena in his maiden year; he'd won the WWE Championship. He was 39 when he did it, but the TNA years had been kind to his body and bump card. Age ain't nothing but a number, particularly when the power of perception packed the same punch as a Phenomenal Forearm. Styles was brand spanking new to some fans and a long-standing icon to others - the perfect blend of performer to carry a title damaged by the Triple H > Roman Reigns > Seth Rollins > Dean Ambrose trajectory it had travelled that year. It would be this reign, even more than the first, that would seal AJ's place in the company's upper echelon.

CON'T...