WWE history: AJ Styles brutalizes Roman Reigns with a steel chair prior to their title match
The backstory
Having made his WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, it didn't take too long for AJ Styles to enter the WWE title picture. At the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, The Phenomenal One was slated to challenge for The Big Dog's championship.
In the lead-up to the match, Reigns found himself having the back-up of his cousins The Usos, whereas, Styles, was reunited with his former Bullet Club stablemates Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, with the trio being dubbed as The Club in WWE.
With Styles being fresh off a feud against Chris Jericho, this was his first big opportunity in WWE to win a title. However, in order to do so, the former two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion had to go through a dominant WWE Champion like Roman Reigns.
AJ Styles finally snaps and assaults Roman Reigns
In the lead-up to AJ Styles and Roman Reigns' highly awaited WWE Championship match at Extreme Rules, Reigns' cousins The Usos and Styles' Good Brothers Anderson & Gallows collided with each other in a tag team match on the 16th May 2016 episode of Monday Night Raw.
With Styles and Reigns cheering on their respective stablemates from each corner, the four men once again put on another clinical tag-team performance in the ring. Jimmy and Jey came out on top after Jimmy pinned Anderson following a splash from the top rope in order to earn a hard-fought win.
However, following the match, Reigns certainly didn't seem too interested in celebrating The Usos' win, as he got into the ring and confronted AJ Styles. This eventually gave Gallows the opening that he needed, as he blindsided Reigns, only for The Usos to come to their cousin's aid. The Usos then prevented Karl Anderson from doing further damage, as the latter charged into the ring with a steel chair but wasn't able to do much with it anyway.
As The Usos and The Good Brothers brawled on the outside, AJ Styles finally had his eyes on the steel chair laying in the ring. But, as soon as The Phenomenal One proceeded to attack Reigns, the latter caught him with a solid right hand and prevented the assault -- only for a while though.
Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows once again tried to intervene, as Reigns caught both of them with Superman Punches, giving Styles the ample amount of time to collect the steel chair again and hit Reigns with it. What followed next was a brutal steel chair beatdown from The Phenomenal One to the WWE Champion (almost reflecting Seth Rollins' beatdown of The Shield) and the assault eventually ended with Styles hitting Reigns with the Styles Clash on the Steel Chair.
The aftermath
At Extreme Rules, Styles would eventually lose his WWE Championship match to Reigns, as 'The Big Dog' retained his title. However, the loss to Reigns was a major wake-up call for The Club and what followed next for them was a warm welcome of WWE's own hero John Cena prior to the Summer of 2016.