AJ Styles vs. John Cena WWE Feud Has Unpredictable Direction

John Cena is set to battle with AJ Styles in an exciting feud, but with an unpredictable direction.

On the May 30 episode of Monday Night Raw, John Cena made his return to WWE, cutting the typical promo seen in his 14-year career. He then dove into the “New Era” and said that these fresh faces must go through him.

After that, AJ Styles, one of the top faces of the “New Era”, came out and went back and forth with Cena. It wasn’t anything special, until Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows entered the arena, which led to this.

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So the picture has been set: the Fresh Face in AJ Styles will take on the Face That Runs the Place in John Cena.

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Now what?

This feud seems to be set up as “New Era” vs. “Old Era”. The new kids on the block want to come in and take over the playground from the ones who have been there. This concept goes one step further with these new kids as the bullies, trying to get noticed and work their way to the top by aiming for the head honcho. This dynamic will work fine for the feud between Styles and Cena because it’s simple and easy to build toward multiple matches.

With the groundwork laid out, we turn to this 3 vs. 1 concept.

Throughout Cena’s career, he has stood alone. An alliance has been rare and a faction has been non-existent, so don’t expect him to form Cena Club. Instead, expect him and New Day to work together with loose ties for the beginning of this program. Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods are likely going into a feud with Anderson and Gallows for the WWE Tag Team Championships.

A reason for this being a loose alliance is Finn Balor—someone who hasn’t even debuted in WWE yet. If he is going to join Styles, Anderson, and Gallows, it can’t be as the fourth guy on The Club. New Day and Cena can’t be beating them down until Balor jumps out of nowhere to make the save—that’s just too babyface-like. Plus, Cena, Big E, Kingston, and Woods are not turning heel anytime soon. So, expect these four to briefly work together in a tag match, but that’s about it.

WWE has also placed Cena in One vs. All feuds before, like his battle with The Nexus in 2010-11 and The Wyatt Family in 2014. Cena came out on top in both feuds, so don’t expect him to be working with anyone for too long.

With victories in both programs, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Cena come out on top to show the strength of the “Old Guard” and for Vince McMahon to not feel the fans are losing faith in the 15-time World Champion. This dates back to a 2014 report during his feud with Brock Lesnar. While that was an absolute annihilation, the Chairman was worried, and there should be some thought that this may be the same, especially with Cena having missed most of the past 8 months.

So does this spell doom for Styles?

When a stable comes together, it usually means they ride an initial wave of momentum, especially with the heat that The Club has. Given the fresh heel turn in a major program for the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion as well, it should work in his favor.

Becoming a bad guy might not make this a guarantee, though. The same goes for someone turning babyface—it doesn’t always work out in their favor. This goes for Paige’s heel turn in late 2015, which led to multiple unsuccessful WWE Divas Championship attempts. Sasha Banks turned face for a WWE Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 32, but nothing came of it.

The opposite side of this is Chris Jericho, who turned heel for the fourth installment of his feud with Styles. Y2J would win their match at WrestleMania 32.

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The truth of this is it’s hard to read whether Styles will walk out of this feud a winner or not, which is a good thing. Unpredictability is always the best in wrestling. Some will say that Cena being involved makes this predictable because WWE has booked him to win most of his programs, but when it comes to someone who is being pushed as much as AJ Styles, things might be different. He’s coming off a WrestleMania match with Jericho and back to back excellent WWE World Heavyweight Championship matches with Roman Reigns. So to think the company is “burying” him is far from reality.

But Styles is also in need of a big win after losing three consecutive PPV matches and arguably was a signal of this heel turn. Will this streak be broken at Money in the Bank then?

John Cena and AJ Styles are set to ride into the summer months with a top feud. They will go to battle at Money in the Bank, and probably at WWE Battleground. How good could this program be is something we’ll find out soon, but expectations should be high.

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