Styles Without The Club

After a very mediocre feud with Roman Reigns that did not see the storyline raised to another level to make things interesting, how did the WWE follow up with AJ Styles? He separates from Anderson and Gallows on Raw. He then loses to Kevin Owens. And his former partners didn't even screw him out of the match. This is all extremely dull.

AJ's entire run in the WWE has been mediocre so far. He debuted to a lot of buzz, but the feud against Jericho went on longer than it needed to, and AJ ended up losing. His feud against Roman Reigns, even though it involved Bullet Club members and references, just felt like they just went through the motions without taking it to another level. The WWE has just really coasted on what AJ Styles is and things has done prior to coming to the WWE. They have not invested in him more than that.

Yes, the likely betrayal by Anderson and Gallows will still probably happen. But can you really see it as a betrayal now? And you might still get Finn Balor debut to feud with Styles, or whatever has planned for the two. But this angle has lost some of its edge. There is something to be said for developing a story, but there just comes a time when you pull the trigger on whatever it is you are doing. If you don't, you run the risk of your readers or viewers just losing interest. Wrestling fans will be hooked on this whether the payoff takes months to come about or it happened at Extreme Rules last Sunday. But there are a lot of other fans the WWE might have been able to interest with a better storyline than this. The WWE has already planted the seeds of something happening. Whatever it is just seems like it would be boring to the wider audience. AJ Styles has not broken out yet to connect with these fans. Why should these fans care about Anderson and Gallows? Why should these fans care about Finn Balor? A lot of these type of fans don't even follow NXT. The WWE needs to stop coasting and invest better in these things, as well as create some real swerves.

This all isn't crying about AJ Styles now losing 3 PPV matches in a row. This isn't about how the WWE can honor AJ Styles for being a great wrestler. This is about how the WWE can use AJ Styles better to help them. It starts with helping him to connect with the wider audience. Simply tossing a title on him will not do. Storyline development must improve.