AJ Styles has only been in WWE for fifteen days, but the company has already dropped the ball when it comes to "The Phenomenal One." That may seem like a sweeping accusation, but WWE's handling of the world-class talent shows that they don't see him as a major star, and they won't rest until the fans agree. Last night, The Miz and Chris Jericho had an interminable battle of words about Styles, but the former IWGP Champion didn't get involved until after the talking was through. WWE's faith in Styles's promo ability is clearly low, and while he's never been the most colorful talker, they could at least let the newcomer speak for himself. Even worse was the treatment of Styles before he came out. Not only is the "Redneck Rookie" nickname guaranteed to fail, but calling Styles a rookie when he's been around long enough to have competed for WCW makes no sense. Likewise, Chris Jericho saying "Styles is good, but is he great?" only makes Jericho look out of touch - everyone who's seen Styles wrestle knows that he's indeed great. Hopefully, WWE gets their handling of Styles on track, but given that these are the big ideas they used to debut him, things don't look good.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
