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How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

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How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby Messiah » Oct 31, '18, 11:38 pm

AJ Styles won the title shortly before Survivor Series last year. In 6 days, he will have officially held the title for one year.

On SmackDown, he tapped Bryan out cleanly and will face Joe at Crown Jewel in a match he's 99.9% guaranteed to win. There is nobody else on SmackDown that seems like they have even a slight chance of taking the title away from him other than MAYBE The Miz, but does the WWE feel they need to have the world title on Miz? I could very well see Styles holding the title until WrestleMania.

Also, with Reigns out, is Styles officially the #1 star in the company? He's always been treated like a God on the roster. He rarely loses. His matches usually go the longest on PPV by a wide margin. By all accounts he sells a ton of merch. I'd be shocked if he wasn't drafted to Raw next year.
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby The Legend » Nov 01, '18, 9:22 am

Styles is the top star, and has been for a long time that's not debatable.

As for how long he keeps the title. I'd have Joe take the belt off of Styles Friday. Any other contender would have been a better choice to replace Bryan at Crown Jewel if the plan is for AJ to go over. Joe just doesn't need another loss to Styles and beating Joe again doesn't do much to help AJ.

I imagine that Bryan was going to be the next champion, but I also imagine him stepping out of line on Crown Jewel will also eliminate that possibility.

AJ is running out of guys to face that brings an interesting match and if they just keep the belt on him the crowd will likely start to bore of him.
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby VaderBomb » Nov 01, '18, 10:47 am

AJ's reign will surpass Punk's, which I assume has been the plan the whole time.
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby Hanley! » Nov 01, '18, 12:56 pm

I haven't really been watching his reign, but it doesn't feel like they push him as a top star. He doesn't get main events, and his feuds have been filled with fuck finishes. When you look at how long he's held the title, that makes you think it's been a dominant run. But that's not really how he's been booked.

He is still one of the top stars in the company - he's been consistently top 3 in terms of merchandise sales, he doesn't get a split reaction, and he's been world champion for almost half of his time in WWE at this stage. I don't think he'll ever be more of a star than he is now though. They'll never consider him for a Wrestlemania main event, or anything close to that. He's probably found his spot as top guy of the B-show until he retires.

He'll probably retain in Saudi Arabia, because WWE will probably do what they can to not generate much news at that show, so they can transition away from it more easily. I wouldn't be surprised if the Universal title ended in a no contest so they can crown the new Raw champion on television and not at Crown Jewel, so I seriously doubt Styles reign will end here. Which means he probably retains until TLC or the Royal Rumble at least. At this point I would say they should let him hold it to Wrestlemania, but I have a feeling that he won't last quite that long.

He really shouldn't lose it to Miz though. That'd be the worst way to end a long title reign, and Miz shouldn't be on that level generally. He's a good midcard champion, but a horrible world champion. There are no good opponents for Miz in the main event anyway. They already burned through the Daniel Bryan feud and by all accounts it didn't prove nearly entertaining enough to come back to so soon, and as a world title program this time around.
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby KaiserGlider » Nov 03, '18, 1:57 pm

Styles vs Lesnar II at Survivor Series will definitely shed some light on how much of a star AJ Styles is in WWE's eyes.

There's a damn good chance we'll get the exact same match as last year (Styles get a good match out of Brock, loses to one F5), and the only reasons they're booking it again is because both guys just happen to be champions again at this time and their match last year received a lot of praise. But if Styles loses, it undermines his reign as champion. He's held the belt for a really long time and has beaten everybody in good, competitive matches - but if he loses clean to Lesnar it will be clear that he's not that dominant and would never been world champion anywhere near that long if he was on Raw.

On the other hand, doing the same exact match twice will be boring, and Lesnar winning will definitely piss people off more than it did last year. If Styles beats Brock, it really goes a long way to legitimizing AJ's title reign, not to mention AJ himself. When I look back at his reign over the past year, it has been good for Styles but it has hurt Nakamura and Samoa Joe. If Styles beats Lesnar, maybe his reign will be looked at in a far more positive light despite those negatives that we've been discussing related to Nak and Joe.

But I'm not holding my breath on option #2...
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby Messiah » Nov 03, '18, 3:14 pm

I don't think Styles will beat Lesnar cleanly, but I expect he'll win due to Strowman interference (not sold that rivalry is finished; who else is gonna challenge Lesnar?). It could just be the optimist in me that thinks that, though.

Either way, I'm excited to see what happens.
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby Hanley! » Nov 03, '18, 3:27 pm

Styles should win, but I don't think he will.

Even when it makes no sense for Lesnar to win, he always does. Here, where the stakes are low on the surface of things, I can't see him taking a loss. Even though the loss won't mean much to him, but a win would be massive for Styles and his reign.

It could be that Styles wins due to interference from Strowman, but that would be as bad as Styles losing to be honest. A win that he doesn't earn himself means nothing. He's a big enough part of their product now that he should be worth beating Lesnar. But that's just not really how they operate.
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Re: How long will AJ Styles hold the title? / Is AJ Styles the WWE's #1 star?

Postby KaiserGlider » Nov 04, '18, 7:03 pm

After his fight last night DC called out Brock and told him to "bring his new WWE title" so he can win that too.



This is why Brock beat Strowman, and why he will probably be the champion until his UFC fight. And the sooner that fight takes place, the less work Brock will be putting into his matches due to the risk of getting hurt. If Brock is already playing it safe, that would explain the short Strowman match and could be bad news for the Styles match at Survivor Series.

Everyone is saying that DC will kill Brock no problem and Vince wouldn't want his champion looking bad, so that's why Brock will not be entering the octagon with the WWE belt. I think that's being overstated though. Brock got destroyed by Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem before returning to the WWE and he was still a believable destroyer when he came back. Ronda got beat by Holly Holm and still looked great when she came into WWE. Everyone knows wrestling is fake, they can separate the two sports. And in kayfabe, just because Brock gets caught in one UFC fight by the best UFC fighter in the world, why should that have any impact on his ability to step back into a WWE ring and pull off the Suplex City strategy that 99% of the WWE roster can't beat?

The mere possibility that Brock beats DC and brings the UFC title to WWE is too good to ignore, and I think that's why they're going to do the fight with Brock coming in as the Universal Champion. Business is all that matters here. WWE have much to gain and not much to lose.
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