No one ever said AJ Styles should get a Goldberg-like undefeated streak. But having him lose in less than a month after he just debuted? I have been saying every week since he debuted that how they have been handling him does not feel special. He made a surprise debut at the Royal Rumble. How they have booked him since then has just felt bland. It's like he's just automatically in the mix. It feels like he's been there for years. One of the reasons it feels like that is because there was no big debut storyline to work off of. And the storyline that is there will not generate a ton of excitement.
Whenever I have discussed AJ Styles since his debut, I have tried to bring up another WWE debut to compare it to. I am not going to get into that this time because there is a lengthy aside I will get to. But the point is that the WWE has been able to create some big debut storylines and segments. Having AJ Styles just debut at the Royal Rumble doesn't exactly take a lot of work on the part of the writers. It was a surprise for many, but it wasn't that creative. Just have him show up and wrestle. And the storyline since then has not blown anyone away. The WWE might have hyped the reaction AJ Styles got at the Royal Rumble as one of the best ever, but does how the WWE has actually handled his debut belong on any list of the greatest WWE debuts ever?
The feud against Jericho will obviously not end like that. Time for the rubber match, which Styles will likely win. Some fans have defended the booking by saying they needed to do it to develop the rivalry better. That is not what this is about. This is not about creating a feud that people will say at the end of the year was booked better than any other in wrestling. This is about creating a situation to create buzz and draw. Ratings are terrible. For Wrestlemania season, that is not good. Could the WWE have created some kind of bigger and better angle with AJ Styles to help create some buzz? I believe they could have. But they just haven't done it. This is a wasted opportunity.
Let me get to that aside. Titus O'Neil was suspended for 60 days (originally 90) for grabbing Vince McMahon on Raw during the retirement segment for Daniel Bryan. He was just goofing around, nothing malicious. When I saw it, that's how I and most other fans I saw read it. Nevertheless, if I had read that he was fined for what he did, I would not have been shocked. I probably wouldn't have even discussed it. Okay, Titus goofed off at the wrong time. He got punished for it. Nothing more to see here. Move on. But suspended for 90 days? It doesn't seem like the punishment fits the crime. Even if they lowered it to 60 days, it still does not seem fair. Chris Jericho once got suspended for kicking a flag, upsetting many fans, and making the WWE look bad. What Titus did does not seem to have been that upsetting to fans and didn't really make the WWE look bad. Regardless, it could be viewed as unprofessional conduct, so a fine would not have been shocking.
Will this hurt Titus O'Neil's push? He wasn't really getting pushed. A bunch of wins here and there without any direction does not constitute a push. You don't need to chase a title to be pushed, but you do need to be going somewhere. What Titus has gotten feels more like filler. It might have led to a push later on, but that's not for certain. As for Titus losing what standing in the company he does have, there are men that have been suspended for worse and still continued to be featured very well.
Titus O'Neil is not a bad guy. I see fans bringing up the good deeds he has done. And as I said before, what he did on Raw was obviously not meant to be malicious. I remember thinking he had potential during his solo heel run a while ago. It's no shocker the WWE didn't do more with that. He seems like a good person and a solid performer. Amazing in the ring? No, but good enough to keep around. If he had a history of being a jerk, then you might say he deserved to be punished.
You want to talk about unprofessional conduct? Let me bring up a different AJ. AJ Lee. During her time in the WWE, especially those last few years where she was pushed as a top star, there were some incidents that popped up that could definitely be viewed as unprofessional conduct. And these weren't instances where she was just goofing around. These were instances of showing a poor attitude. The biggest instance of this was arguably calling out Stephanie McMahon on Twitter during the #GiveDivasAChance drama. That wasn't part of a storyline.
How did the WWE punish her? They didn't. There was speculation that they would take the title away from her before she could beat the record for longest Diva's Championship reign. They didn't. They followed up with having her go over all the other divas at Wrestlemania. She would go on to get two more runs with the title. Even after the incident on Twitter, the WWE gave her another Wrestlemania win, leaving her undefeated at Wrestlemania. And she was the one that retired just a few days after that. They didn't fire her.
I have said before that I would have made the same decision to have Nikki Bella break AJ's record. It's not because Nikki is so amazing. It's not to be petty towards AJ Lee. It's about doing something to put your foot down with AJ Lee. A little too late for that? She probably isn't too upset about losing the record. Nevertheless, send a message to the roster that a worker cannot act like she did and get rewarded for it.
The WWE just seems like hypocrites at times. Unprofessional conduct with no malicious intent leads to a guy being suspended. On the other side of that, unprofessional conduct where it doesn't seem like just joking around leads to a woman continuing to be booked to make history. I don't care to read one day that AJ says management was unhappy with what she did and yelled at her backstage. For everything she did and continued to do, the WWE should have done more to put her in her place. They definitely should not have continued to book her so well. Some fans have said that the WWE should have just told Titus O'Neil off backstage and left it at that. Yeah, I think that punishment might be closer to the crime.Or, as I said before, fine him. I read that the WWE wants to send a message to workers to watch their behavior. You do that by picking on a guy so down the ladder as Titus O'Neil? Next time, suspend a top star for doing something like what he did.
There are some people that would say no one should be above the rules. Some coaches are respected for being just as tough on star players as they are with rookies and everyone else on the team. I am a little bit more loose than that. I would allow certain individuals that just bring amazing results or are so crucial to what you do that you would be doomed without them to get away with things here and there. Let them get away with murder? No, I won't go that far. Some talk about the power LeBron James has. He has the power to get coaches fired, supposedly. Considering how great he has been, you can understand why he has that power. I don't feel anyone in the WWE should have that power. No one is that great. Titus O'Neil is not above the law. AJ Lee certainly was not bringing A+ results. John Cena, with his mixed reactions and decade at the top while ratings have been going in the wrong direction, does not deserve to be above the rules. The WWE can lose anyone and still be in the same mess they are in. They need better management of their product. And if the WWE continues to treat individuals they want to be so great better than individuals that really are great, they will continue to be in trouble.
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