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AJ Styles – First Year: January 2016 – January 2017
Unlike Angle, Styles’ WWE debut was both a surprise and highly-anticipated. Shortly after NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 10 event, news broke out that Styles was leaving the company. Rumors then circulated that he had signed with WWE.
This was a major announcement for many people. Styles had spent over a decade toiling away in TNA, in Japan, and on the independent scene, proving to the world just how good he is. At the time, Styles was considered arguably the best pro wrestler to never have worked for WWE.
Then Styles signed with WWE and made his surprise debut at in the 2016 Royal Rumble match, receiving the loudest ovation of any wrestler in that match.
Also unlike Angle, Styles arrived in WWE a grizzled veteran, having wrestled against the best wrestlers in the world before signing with WWE (including Angle himself). However, despite his vast experience, Styles was not thrust into the main event scene right away.
His initial feud with Chris Jericho was sort of an introductory feud that, for some reason, led to Jericho winning at WrestleMania. This decision did not make any sense whatsoever, as Styles was the rookie in WWE that needed the big win to prove how good he was.
Yet Styles managed to overcome this with his subsequent feuds. Styles entered the world title picture after WrestleMania, challenging Roman Reigns for the belt. While he did not win, Styles did manage to have two great matches with Reigns, once again showing the world how good he was.
He then entered into a feud with John Cena, which led to one of the best matches of 2016 when they faced off at SummerSlam of that year. Styles won, establishing himself as a main-event-worthy wrestler.
Styles was drafted to SmackDown during the 2016 brand extension, and soon entered competition for the now SmackDown-exclusive WWE Championship. At Backlash, Styles defeated Dean Ambrose to become WWE Champion. This was a monumental win for Styles, because it proved two things.
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One, that he actually was arguably the best wrestler in WWE at the time. Two, that despite not being the ideal picture of what a champion should look like according to the antiquated ideals of Vince McMahon, Styles won through sheer hard work and the audience not giving up on him.
Even as a full-fledged heel, it was impossible for some fans to boo Styles. After spending over a decade trying to prove to the most powerful man in wrestling that he was indeed the best, he finally did so with this victory.
Styles would essentially carry the SmackDown brand for the remainder of 2016, putting on one excellent match after another. This was despite the fact that he was also shoehorned into an unnecessary feud with comedy wrestler James Ellsworth. Though Styles suffered some humiliating losses, the quality of his main-event matches did not decrease.
Between No Mercy 2016 and the 2017 Royal Rumble PPV (the latter being the one-year anniversary of his debut), Styles had two or three genuine MOTY contenders. His matches were so good and praised to greatly that he was firmly positioning himself into a position as the best wrestler in all of WWE.