Why AJ Styles Is WWE’s 2017 Superstar of the Year

We analyze the year of “The Phenomenal One” and why AJ Styles is currently the WWE’s most important superstar.

On January 20th, 2016, AJ Styles was officially signed by the WWE. In reeling in “The Phenomenal One”, the company had made one of the best signings of all time. In Styles, the WWE suddenly had a guy who was a multiple world champion all over the globe and guy who was primed to do big things in an organization that so many longed to see him compete in. Four days after signing, AJ made his debut at the Royal Rumble, lasting a respectable 29 minutes before being eliminated by Kevin Owens.

The rest of 2016 was a very good one for Styles. After splitting victories with Chris Jericho at Fastlane and WrestleMania, AJ would then go on to feud with WWE Champion, Roman Reigns. Reigns, at that point in need of a quality feud, went on a two month program with Styles where the duo had two tremendous clashes at Payback and Extreme Rules with Styles coming out on the losing end of both occasions. But it was AJ’s veteran leadership and outstanding in-ring ability that virtually carried the young champion and solidified Reigns title run as a solid one.

Styles followed the Reigns feud up by taking on John Cena in a dream match at Money In The Bank last June. In their first of three eventual singles matches, Styles defeated Cena that night and once again two months later at SummerSlam when the duo put on a match of the year type performance.

With two wins over Cena under his belt, Styles once again set his sights on world title gold and in September made good when he defeated Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship making him the the only man to ever win that title along with the TNA World Championship and the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. A ridiculous accomplishment. AJ would go on to close out the year as champion and put on two more outstanding performances over Ambrose and Cena at No Mercy in October and against Ambrose at TLC in December.

So when the calendar switched years and 2017 began, AJ clearly had his work cut out for him if he was to repeat his productive 2016, and things didn’t start so well. Just 29 days into the year, he dropped the WWE Championship to Cena at the Royal Rumble, albeit in another top 10 match. The following month at the Elimination Chamber pay per view, it was Bray Wyatt’s night, and AJ failed to regain his belt.

Photo by WWE’s Twitter

Feeling that he was being treated unfairly, Styles turned his anger toward SmackDown Live Commissioner Shane McMahon in which a violent feud ensued leading to a showdown at WrestleMania 33. It was there that Styles once again proved that even at 40 years old, he’s still one of the best wrestlers on the planet as he carried “Shane O-Mac” to his best match since his 2001 tilt with Kurt Angle at King of the Ring.

After Mania’, Styles reverted back to more of a baby face persona, although this time with an edge and confidence that a year and a world championship run can give a guy. He spent the summer months battling Kevin Owens over the United States title where he won the belt twice before dropping it to Baron Corbin in September.

But one of Styles’s biggest MVP type contributions of the year came at TLC in October when he took the place of Bray Wyatt to face old friend Finn Balor. Styles, in South America at the time of Wyatt’s illness, flew over night to Minneapolis to take the challenge and he and “The Demon” did not disappoint. And although Styles was unsuccessful that night, he once again proved his worth to the WWE.

And it was after losing to Balor that AJ did the fans the biggest favor a superstar could do at that point. He ended the abysmal world title run of Jinder Mahal on the November 11th SmackDown in Manchester, England via Phenomenal Forearm. Styles closed out the year by having a surprisingly good match with Mahal at Clash of Champions proving that “The Phenomenal One” could make a refrigerator box look good inside the squared circle.

In between his two victories of “The Maharaja”, Styles also managed to pull off the match of the night at Survivor Series as he and Brock Lesnar had a tremendous 15 minute battle, clearly one of “The Beast Incarnate’s” best matches in years. And even in defeat, AJ came closer to toppling Lesnar than anyone else in the company has in close to a year.

If his championships and in-ring performances weren’t enough, the raw statistics can tell the tale as well. As of this writing, Styles has worked 167 matches in this calendar year (cagematch.net) which is most in the company. He’s 7th in wins which is more impressive than it looks considering the majority of the year was spent battling the company’s champions, and house shows are rarely a place that titles change hands.

Next: AJ Styles Top 10 Matches Outside of WWE

For all of these reasons and so many more, AJ Styles is the clear cut 2017 WWE MVP and at the pace he’s going, there’s no reason to think he won’t repeat this success in 2018.