The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 AJ Styles Moments in WWE

Given just how quintessential he is to the current WWE landscape, it’s pretty ridiculous to think that AJ Styles has still only been a part of the WWE landscape for a little over two years. The guy had a whole career outside of WWE that would be objectively Hall of Fame worthy, including killer work with TNA and New Japan in particular. Then he showed up in WWE, proved himself in the upper mid-card, got progressively bigger opportunities, and delivered each time before arriving as a legitimate main event talent.

On one hand, it seems silly to rank the best moments of Styles WWE career exclusively, because he accomplished so much outside the company, and has only been in WWE for such a short time. It’s a testament to just how good Styles has been in WWE, however, that coming up with seven great moments wasn’t a challenge at all. Beyond that, I’ll concede that, while I’m aware of Styles’s accomplishments elsewhere and have watched some highlights like his triple threats with Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels, and his Wrestle Kingdom showdown with Shinsuke Nakamura, I can’t claim a comprehensive enough knowledge of his work with other promotions to fairly rank the top moments from the rest of his career.

This ranking of WWE moments is centered on the moment itself. While many of these moments apply to the ends of great matches, it’s not a ranking of the matches themselves but rather what they represented about Styles’s place in WWE, or how they advanced his legacy. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily for this countdown.

#7. Facing Finn Balor at TLC 2017

By fall 2017, AJ Styles was nicely established as the best in ring worker WWE had to offer. So, when the company had to scramble to replace Roman Reigns and Bray Wyatt just a few days before a PPV, it’s not such a surprise they’d ask Styles to cross brand lines and come onto the Raw PPV. Just the same, the guy was sick and working a tour in South America when WWE summoned him. And while Kurt Angle was the guy making the biggest headlines for returning to the ring to sub in for Roman Reigns, Styles was the guy who took an international flight to show up and work a twenty minute singles match.

Styles vs. Finn Balor was an excellent match, and it’s remarkable to think that it went down with Styles jet-lagged and recovering from illness, and went so well despite having no real storyline behind it, and no real history of Styles and Balor working in the ring together. I don’t want to take anything away from Balor, who I feel is a great talent, but Styles showing up just to put over The Demon King in a match this good was emblematic of exactly who The Phenomenal One is. He’s a selfless workhorse with all of the toughness instilled by over a decade working indies and smaller promotions, and the skill to pull out a four-star-plus match at the drop of a hat.

#6. Winning the Number One Contender Fatal-Fourway on the Raw After WrestleMania 32

At WrestleMania 32, AJ Styles underwent one of his more disappointing moments. He lost his WrestleMania debut to Chris Jericho in an unexceptional match, and in what felt like a strange booking choice after Styles had already beaten Y2J, not to mention the fact that his kayfabe standing would mostly advance past Jericho’s in the months to follow. The next night, Styles would square off with not only Jericho, but also Kevin Owens and a returning Cesaro to determine the number one contender to Roman Reigns’s WWE Championship.

Jericho had to be the favorite going into the match, given his win over Styles the night before, and that he’d fit in as a credible heel challenger for Reigns to beat back in solidifying his title reign. Owens would have been a curveball, but similarly could have been a heel of fairly high standing for Reigns to beat back. Cesaro had the surprise return playing in his favor, and it was a reasonably opportune time for WWE to finally pull the trigger on giving him a shot at the main event.

Against the odds, however, Styles would emerge victorious. It was a twist that played nicely to the indie-friendly Raw after WrestleMania crowd. Moreover, the win confirmed that WWE was taking Styles seriously, letting him prove himself in a rivalry with the chosen one top star of the company. This feud would not only produce some surprisingly excellent matches, but set up Styles for the heel turn that led him to more solid footing as a main eventer.

#5. Debuting at the Royal Rumble 2016

The 2016 Royal Rumble generally isn’t remembered so fondly, for being poorly plotted, featuring some lethargic work by top stars, and ultimately proving predictable. One of the few bright spots, however, was the surprise debut of AJ Styles. While WWE purportedly had its doubts about how fans would react to him, Styles had enough indie cred behind him, and enough Orlando fans familiar with him from his TNA days to make an immediate impact (see what I did there?). Fans not only recognized him but cheered him with a fervor. Styles’s successful arrival in WWE was not only a good sign for his career, but helped further cement the trend toward WWE trusting guys who had honed their craft on the independent circuit, and giving them big opportunities in NXT and on the main roster.

What’s more, Styles worked for twenty-eight minutes that night. While Roman Reigns, Chris Jericho, and Dean Ambrose technically worked longer in that match, serious asterisks belong next to their names for Reigns missing half the match backstage with a kayfabe injury, Jericho powdering out at ringside for a good bit of his run, and Ambrose not looking especially motivated for a good chunk of his Rumble tenure. Par for the course, Styles came to play, and did himself proud in his WWE debut.

#5. Wrestling John Cena at the Royal Rumble 2017

Three entries into this countdown and we’ve already got three losses on a list of great AJ Styles moments. So what gives? The thing is that while styles is a terrific champion and winner, he’s also got the ability to put over colleagues remarkably well.

By the 2017 Royal Rumble PPV AJ Styles had already pretty conclusively won his feud with John Cena, and facing off with him one more time felt like an add on to either further establish Styles as the guy on SmackDown, or transition him out of the title scene going into WrestleMania season. While the latter was the case, Cena was the perfect dance partner to unseat The Phenomenal One. Cena had the credibility such that there was no shame in losing to him. Moreover, while Styles has proven his ability to pull good to great matches out of far lesser talents, Cena is the kind of talent who can readily play up to a great opponent, and this was a fine example as he more than held up his end of the bargain to deliver a borderline five-star match.

No, I wasn’t happy to see Styles drop the title and not get to carry it into ‘Mania, but if he were to lose it, doing so in front of a monster live crowd at the Alamodome at one of the biggest shows of the year, and putting forth a super-early MOTYC in the process was befitting of his legacy as champion.

#3. Defeating Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship at Backlash 2016

AJ Styles has put on some classics in his short time with WWE. The match in which he unseated Dean Ambrose to win his first WWE Championship doesn’t necessarily rate (it wasn’t a bad match, just not a great one). Nonetheless, this match marked one of the most important moments in not only Styles’s WWE tenure, but his entire wrestling career. The Phenomenal One had collected gold around the world, but as recently as 2015, the conventional wisdom suggested he was going to go down as one of the top stars of his generation never to work under a WWE contract. Here was, not only getting his shot in WWE, but winning the very same championship once held by the likes of Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, and John Cena. Styles had truly arrived at the top of the business.

And this did not feel like an experimental title run. Unlike a guy like Jinder Mahal who got hot-shotted into the world title picture, Styles worked his way up the card and put on good to great matches with anyone WWE put him in the ring with. By Backlash, Dean Ambrose was a lukewarm WWE Champion and Styles felt right as the guy to lead his brand forward.

Styles would have gone down as a wrestling great, regardless of whether he made it to WWE. Capturing the WWE Championship shored up his legacy so that even those fans who watch nothing but WWE can’t deny that he belongs in the conversation of greatest stars of his generation, and maybe even among the greatest performers of all time.

#2. Beating Jinder Mahal on SmackDown, November 2017

Jinder Mahal was one of the least well received WWE Champions of all time. Some of it has to do with his build—getting hot-shotted from lower mid card status straight to the main event. Some of it has to do with his failure to advance as an in ring performer or talker, despite the opportunities to shine. In the end, he’s a passable mid card guy, and it seemed pretty transparent that WWE was only trying to appeal to a growing fan base in India—a gambit that wasn’t particularly successful.

By contrast, while AJ Styles may not be everyone’s favorite, any serious fan has to respect him as a gifted in ring performer. On top of that, by fall 2017 he’d proven himself as one of the company’s great work horses, who, in addition to putting in great performances against a range of opponents, kept his nose clean in terms of avoiding controversy backstage, or any problematic behavior away from the business.

In an episode of SmackDown, pre-taped from from the UK, Styles defeated Mahal to end his 170 day reign with the top prize in wrestling. Not only did this mark a change in direction as WWE put the title back on a star whom everyone could agree deserved it, but in typical Phenomenal fashion, Styles would give Mahal the best match of his career to end his awful title reign on a high note.

#1. Beating John Cena at Summerslam 2016

That AJ Styles was positioned to feud with John Cena, in and of itself, was a testament to WWE taking the guy seriously. Yes, he’d feuded with Chris Jericho already, including a one-on-one match at WrestleMania, and yes he’d gotten the nod for a world title program with Roman Reigns. The Cena feud, however, seemed to cement Styles as someone WWE really did have faith in and was going to build as a top guy for the immediate years to follow. Styles would defeat Cena at the Money in the Bank PPV, but it was colored by outside interference from Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Cena would get his win back in a six-man tag match the following month, recruiting Enzo and Big Cass to even the odds.

This led to a rubber match of sorts at SummerSlam. Styles doesn’t really have bad matches, and as noted earlier in this column, Cena tends to play up to great competition. As such, it’s no surprise they’d assemble a great match together. It was a more of a surprise, however, that Styles went over. While Cena had done similar favors for the likes of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan at previous SummerSlams, each match had extenuating circumstances like Cena’s foot being under the ropes when he was pinned by Punk, and Cena working injured against Bryan. In Styles’s case, there were no excuses—just one great wrestler defeating another in the best match of one of the biggest shows of the year.

Styles would win his first WWE Championship a month later, but one could argue that beating Cena clean as a sheet marked his true ascension to the top of the company.

Which moments would you add to the list? Successfully defending the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34 and best Dean Ambrose at TLC 2016 were my top runners up. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.