Predicting Where All Current WWE Champions Will Be In 12 Months
10. United States Champion - AJ Styles
SmackDown has been a strange place in 2017. Jinder Mahal has been catapulted from jobber to WWE champion, while the best wrestler in the world worked over a mid-card title.
AJ Styles has performed head and shoulders above all of his peers since the Brand Extension Draft in July 2016, and Team Blue initially thrived under his de-facto leadership, even going so far as to beat RAW in the ratings for the first time in 11 years.
Viewership remains stable, but the SmackDown product is suffering without Styles at the top and WWE will realise this in time to get him back to the main event by the Royal Rumble.
The 'Phenomenal One' is the number one babyface on SmackDown and still will be a year from now, but he will have traded in his US Championship to fight over the biggest prize.