How I would book AJ Styles

Firstly, let me begin by saying I am very happy AJ is finally in the WWE and that he went straight to the main roster. I wouldn't have been disappointed to see AJ turn up in NXT; in fact, I expected him to take that route. However, I was pleasantly surprised when he made his debut in the Royal Rumble. I was even more surprised that WWE have kept the 'Phenomenal One' moniker. But, I thought Jericho's initial rationalization for feuding with AJ that he was offended by AJ calling himself phenomenal without ever being tested in the WWE had an element of reason to it.

I am an AJ mark. I want AJ to succeed in the WWE. I believe the WWE will give AJ a push. How far his push will go is uncertain; is he future WWE champion material? Whatever AJ's limit is, one thing is obvious to me: he is going to have to win something in order to maintain his phenomenal one moniker. He doesn't necessarily have to win the WWE title imo to keep or justify his phenomenal one moniker, but he is going to have to do something to earn it within the WWE.

So here's how I would book AJ in order to justify the WWE allowing him to be known as the 'phenomenal one'. As Y2AJ is now a "thing" and they have a title match against the New Day next Monday on Raw, I would have Y2AJ beat the New Day and become Tag Team champions. I think tag teaming with Jericho is a smart way of getting AJ over as Jericho can do the bulk of the promo work, while AJ wows the fans with his move set. I would have Y2AJ either retain or win the tag team titles at Mania 32 and give them a run as a tag team until around Summerslam. Then they can drop the tag team titles and go their separate ways. I wouldn't do a split/betrayal storyline as we've already had an AJ/Jericho feud, which I don't think we need to see again. Rather, I would have it be by mutual consent, both men agreeing to go their separate ways and concentrate on their solo careers - Jericho going after the IC title, while AJ focusses on the US title.

So then I would have AJ feud with the current US champion and have him win the US title. It doesn't really matter if the US champion is heel or face as I think AJ could have some match of the year candidate matches with whoever it is with a focus on pure competition. So AJ wins the US title and then defends it for a couple of months both on TV and PPV. Then rather than have AJ become the longest reigning US title or try to break some other record, I would have AJ challenge the IC champion to a champion vs. champion title match. This is where he is going to really earn his phenomenal one moniker in the context of the WWE. Let's say for argument sake that the IC champion is Kevin Owens. AJ and Owens have a title unification match at one of the big PPVs and AJ wins! AJ becomes both US and IC champion simultaneously. For the next few months AJ has to pull double duty on PPVs just as Seth Rollins did when he had to face Cena and Sting on the same night. I would have different gimmick matches to try and raise the stakes and have AJ's opponents do desperate things to try and beat him i.e. ladder matches, fatal four ways etc. AJ manages to find a way to win, beating the odds and remaining dual US/IC champion.

Finally this run will have to come to an end and he could lose dirty or clean, but what his dual title reigns will have done is cement the fact that AJ is king of the midcard and done something no other midcard champion has been able to accomplish. Thereafter, even if AJ is never given a run with the WWE title or become the next Cena, he can still legitimately be called phenomenal because of his amazing feat as both US & IC champion.

Naturally, I would love WWE to back AJ and give him the kind of push Daniel Bryan deserved and got in fits and starts in his WWE career. But, I don't know how much the WWE believe in him or how well AJ will be able to get himself over to warrant a WWE title run. Nevertheless, I think he could still create for himself a unique and accomplished midcard career worthy of a Hall of Fame induction.

If only we had more people like you on the creative teams of a certain couple of wrestling promotions.




How would you feel about being cloned?

It never fails to dishearten me how quickly WWE goes out their way to crush stars in record time, outside of Cena, Lesnar and Reigns on top and your Ryders and Social Outcasts on the bottom everyone is stuck in a big midcard blob running on an endless hamster wheel of wins and losses that mean sod all

With the greatest respect to your ideas essentially boil down to have AJ win matches, and that isn't a critisicm of you but rather how WWE seem to ignore the bafflingly simple, AJ Styles is already a pre established brand, he has done a great amount of hard work in conjunction with NJPW, ROH and for better or worse TNA  to make himself are wrestler people take seriously and are excited about seeing , AJ was the talk of the wrestling world for 2015, Wrestler of the Year and most outstanding worker, the Styles Clash was voted move of the year having been built up as a killer move having taken the momentum from the real life injuries caused it felled all who took the move and illicted actual gasps and screams from Japanese fans whenever it was hit

You could say a lot of what I just said comes from a very much smark perspective but how a new wrestler is percieved comes very much from what WWE allows them to be perceived as, I remember as a kid thinking how Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch were hot Poopie as they came in, won all their matches, won the titles and then held them forever, AJ comes in with a laundry list of accomplishments including the IWGP and ROH pedigree which people will associate with Brock Lesnar, Punk and Bryan

You could say I'm overreacting but I think Styles current run shows the symptoms of the larger problems infecting WWEs current star problmes, they seem petrified to allow anyone to stand out, Styles comes in with all the rep and all the talent and after a debut where the crowd loses their minds for him, then he gets bogged down going life and death with Jericho, the usual 'well he's not done it in WWE yet' crap rears its head, why does that even matter?! Why is it more beneficial in making a reputable star to cut off his previous achievements at the legs rather than run with them? The Styles Clash is already, after a couple of weeks of teases and a win over Curtis Axel, just another move as mid 40s mid carder Jericho kicks out of it on Fastlane for no real reason, I'm not prophecising doom here or anything but the move of the year fell into WWEs lap and they just threw it away, now we have this tag team that at best a set up for AJ/Jericho 4, at this point Styles feels closer to the midcard hamster wheel than anything else

Call me crazy but what if Styles had just won all his matches? Come out kill people with the Clash, put over that he's held the same belts as Punk, Bryan, Rollins and Lesnar, put over the Clash as this move of death that has legit broken necks and is right their on Google as actual factual information, I think they could have had him ready for Reigns coming out of Mania if they really wanted

WWE seems terrified to commit to creating a star, either they come off hot out of the gates and the pull back like they did with Owens most recently, the Cena win was peed away within months and now the guy is going life and death with Ziggler, or they get the tepid start while they 'prove themselves' like we're seeing with AJ right now, or Bryan or even Lesnar to as much as they could do to a guy with that much rep and money invested in him, and don't even get me started on the stop/start push that has effectively killed Ziggler as anything worth giving a damn about and Cesaro also finds himself plagued with

It's ironic that if you look at the 3 men who seem to be emerging from this generation of WWE it would be the Shield who came in protected, got over with the masses because we were told they were a threat, and by and large they have been treated with sustained momentum and interest to the point where they can be allowed to feel like main event talent, though whether people like Reigns being there is a different rant

WWE for me, if they ever want to get themselves out of their rut needs to commit to where they see guys on the cards for a year or two and really dare to let them stand out, organise guys into levels from main eventers to jobbers and never have a level 2 guy pin a level 1 etc, eventually it will allow people to get used to the idea that some guys are better than others when there are upset losses it will mean something, if a guy gets a series of wins over people on a higher level, he's getting pushed and moving up, it's something that Japanese companies excel in and sure it can be a bit predictable at times but it makes that stars that much more important and the shocks that much greater

Anyways I realise I've just hijacked your thread as an excuse to rant so for that I thank you

WWE booking - JR "I given up trying to make sense of it a long time ago". Now, if that isn't damning I don't know what is. I know some people don't like JR, but he's knowledgeable and he has a great way with words. He made a great point about Reigns on the PWT pod. "The destination is spot on, but the journey is all wrong". Couldn't agree more to be honest. WWE creative are destroying this guy.

PS: Nice booing TP btw

*booking

liverbnz wrote:*booking