Is AJ Styles the Next WWE World Heavyweight Champion?

The WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the property of SmackDown’s Dean Ambrose. Who’s the right man to take the title off Ambrose? The answer is “The Phenomenal One” AJ Styles.

It would be a great move to put the WWE Title on Styles because he has arguably been the best performer in WWE this year. From his entertaining matches with Chris Jericho (Styles should have won at WrestleMania) to two outstanding WWE Title matches against Roman Reigns and the heel turn against “the face that runs the place” John Cena, Styles has already shown that he is one of the best wrestlers alive, if not the best.

When looking at the current title picture on SmackDown, the next major title defense for Ambrose will be against Dolph Ziggler at SummerSlam. It’s a good guy matchup featuring two popular guys. Perhaps Ziggler will turn heel to spice things up a bit, but it seems like WWE will stay the course with him and simply present the best match possible.

More wwe: WrestleMania 33 Match Card Projections

As for the Ambrose/Ziggler match outcome, will they do a title change? It doesn’t feel like the right time and the right guy for it. Ziggler’s going to put up a fight and give Ambrose a great match, but he’s just a guy for Ambrose to beat.

More from SmackDown

• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline
• Potential Challengers for Roman Reigns before WrestleMania
• WWE SmackDown Predictions: AJ Styles Will Help Randy Orton
• WWE SmackDown Predictions: Street Profits Will Dethrone Judgment Day
• SmackDown reminded us of how pointless the brand split is

Styles is likely going to face John Cena at SummerSlam, just like he did at Money in the Bank when he won. At Battleground, Cena pinned Styles in a six-man tag match, so it makes sense to do the singles match at SummerSlam. With Cena set to take time off from WWE soon to film season two of the American Grit competition show, there’s really no reason for Cena to win the match. They should put Styles over again, even if it’s a cheap win.

When WWE did the draft two weeks ago they picked Ambrose first and Styles second, which meant that Styles was the first heel wrestler to be picked. The only other heel that was picked close to him that may be the guy to take the title off Ambrose is Bray Wyatt, who quite frankly isn’t booked strongly enough to be a believable WWE Champion at this point.

Styles makes the most sense as the guy to beat Ambrose because he has credibility as a top guy, you know he’s always going to put on an exciting match and he deserves it at age 39 after spending over 15 years just getting to WWE.

Ambrose has had a couple of television matches with Styles, but they haven’t had a proper feud yet. It will be very fresh when they start that rivalry, which is what the fans want. We get tired of seeing the same matches over and over, so Ambrose defending against Styles would be something to get excited about.

More from Daily DDT

• It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
• Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
• Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
• Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
• Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline

The perfect spot to do the WWE Title change would be the SmackDown only WWE Network/PPV special Backlash on September 11. The brand exclusive specials need to be seen by fans as a big deal right away, which is why that’s the perfect spot for the title change. Doing it at the October PPV or Survivor Series in November could work, but if it takes Styles a couple of matches to win the title it makes him look like a bit of a loser.

Styles as the WWE Champion could have several memorable feuds with top faces on Smackdown such as Ambrose, Cena and Randy Orton just to name a few. Dolph Ziggler is another guy that’s there too. Then you could even project into the future by looking at somebody like Apollo Crews that could be elevated as a challenger against Styles in six months or a year.

If you’re sad about Styles being on SmackDown instead of Raw, don’t be. It’s the right spot for him because the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is more prestigious than the newly created WWE Universal Championship. He’s in the perfect position opposite the babyface WWE Champion Ambrose as well.

When WWE does the next “draft lottery” next year, that’s when they can set up some other memorable matches for Styles by having him battle the likes of Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. That’s for next year, though.

Related Story: AJ Styles Should Lead SmackDown

It’s not a question of “if” AJ Styles becomes the man on Smackdown, but “when” he climbs the mountain to hold the WWE Title. The journey has been phenomenal so far and it’s only going to get better when he gets to cradle that coveted title in his arms.