Is it time for AJ Styles to drop the WWE title?
When AJ Styles unseated Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship last fall, it felt like a revelation. After a half year of Mahal by and large cutting OK to actively bad promos, and never putting on a better than passable match, it was a relief for the strap to go to arguably the most complete wrestler on the WWE roster, and particularly SmackDown’s best in ring worker.
Nearly a year has gone by now, and Styles continues his reign. He survived a rematch with Mahal, the threat of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, Rusev, a lengthy program with Shinsuke Nakamura, and, thus far, Samoa Joe. The question now becomes, when does Styles drop the title?
A number of critics are calling the Styles reign stale at this point, and particularly so since WWE started combining rosters for PPVs again, Styles hasn’t sniffed the main event, in favor of the Universal Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, or whatever match Roman Reigns is having closing shows. Just the same, is there really a better option than Styles?
This article looks at why it is or is not time for AJ Styles to drop the title in a point-counterpoint format.
#5 Point: This reign is feeling stale
Some of the longest, most successful WWE Championship reigns in history ran far longer than AJ Styles’s has up to this point. However, guys like Hulk Hogan and Bruno Sammartino were very different kinds of wrestlers, operating in very different eras.
Styles is a fighting champion who appears on TV every week, during an era with more WWE programming than ever before. It’s understandable that fans’ patience and attention spans run shorter nowadays and it’s not his fault, but ten months now feels a lot like multiple years did back in the day. WWE could turn things around with some really electric storytelling, or a series of matches that fully take advantage of Styles' remarkable talents.
The reign feels stalled out at this point, though, just waiting for a champion WWE is more invested in to take the title off of The Phenomenal One.