5 Reasons why someone other than Humberto Carrillo should challenge AJ Styles
By virtue of defeating Karl Anderson on the latest episode of RAW, Humberto Carrillo has "earned" himself another shot at AJ Styles and the United States Championship. The Mexican star has already faced Styles twice, losing in his second match on RAW. He also fell to the 'Phenomenal One' at Crown Jewel after earning the right to challenge Styles by winning a 20-man Battle Royal.
It's perfectly fine for a newer and fresher Superstar to be challenging for a title. The only problem is that they've already run the match a few times and Carrillo only pinned Styles in a Six-man Match and when did pinning Karl Anderson net someone a shot at Styles?
Carrillo is a talented and exciting star with an extremely bright future. One main complaint with him repeatedly face Styles for the US Championship is that there has been little story or build behind any of it it. AJ Styles challenged Carrillo because he had a good match with Seth Rollins. That's basically it and since then, he's challenged for the United States Championship on three separate occasions. WWE did the same thing with Cedric Alexander, and it quickly stalled any momentum he had built up.
While the former member of 205 Live is a star of the future, there are others who have at least had some storytelling (Kevin Owens, Aleister Black) behind them that should be challenging Styles instead. Here are five reasons why someone other than Carrillo should be challenging AJ Styles for the United States Championship.
#5 They've already had the pairing a few times
As mentioned in the introduction, Styles and Carrillo have faced off twice before. In his second match as a member of RAW, the former 205-Liver faced the current United States Champion and lost. At Crown Jewel last month, Carrillo fell short in a bid to win the title once more.
The two were also on different sides of a Six-man Tag Team Match when Carillo teamed with The Street Profits against The OC. In that match, the RAW rookie picked up the win for his team after pinning the United States Champion. For that reason, and by virtue of pinning Karl Anderson on RAW, he has now received a third such match with Styles.
It's uncertain whether the end game includes Carrillo winning the title, but the same thing was done with Cedric Alexander after SummerSlam. He failed to the win the title and his momentum has stalled since the loss. The two men produce great matches whenever they square off, but doing the same match over and over can sometimes become uninteresting.