WWE: Is The Best Version Of AJ Styles Coming Back?

The holiday edition of WWE SmackDown was the perfect way of capping off a year’s worth of quality television from the Blue Brand, and nothing made more waves than AJ Styles punching Vince McMahon in the face. And yes, that actually was the lasting image of SmackDown in 2018.

On an episode where Naomi threw a shoe at Mandy Rose before kissing Jimmy Uso under the mistletoe, Mustafa Ali defeated Andrade “Cien” Almas, The Club pinned the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions, Jeff Hardy and Samoa Joe brawled like mad, Shane McMahon agreed to team up with The Miz, and Rusev defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States Championship, nobody shocked us more than AJ Styles.

Vince McMahon met Styles backstage in the final minutes of the show, shortly after Rusev defeated Nakamura in one of the feel-good moments of the year. Styles, who held the WWE Championship for most of the year before losing the title to the “New” Daniel Bryan just days before Survivor Series, received quite the egging on from Vince.

The CEO and commissioner of WWE started asking AJ who the “Real” version of The Phenomenal One is, citing Bryan’s WWE Championship reign and reckless behavior on SmackDown Live. He urged Styles to find the “animal” inside of him, noting that when Styles gets in touch with that beast within again, he will be able to “terrorize” and “brutalize” the rest of the locker room.

That was, uh, quite the request from the man in charge himself, but it wasn’t exactly surprising. I mean, that is classic Mr. McMahon.

It only got more surreal from there. Vince started physically egging on Styles after trying to light a fire under AJ with his words…and it worked. Styles punched Vince in the face, dropping WWE’s leader before screaming in his face. Officials rushed in to check on Vince, who simply smiled and confirmed that he was fine; it seems like his master plan is just starting to take hold.

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Styles has been a quality babyface on SmackDown Live over the past 22 months, as he turned face after his feud with Shane McMahon at WrestleMania 33. Recall that Styles brutalized Shane backstage by slamming him through a car window and showed absolute contempt for SmackDown leadership. That all changed when he met Shane face-to-face in the ring, producing a career-defining match for both men that may have stole the show and certainly shocked most of the WWE Universe with the quality of wrestling that took place.

Prior to all of this, Styles was a feared heel on SmackDown Live, dazzling fans in his first full year with the promotion. Styles’s feud with Dean Ambrose conjures up feelings of nostalgia for many fans, and his rivalry with John Cena was sublime. He took every shortcut possible to win but was still better than his opponents, making him an absolute juggernaut of an opponent for anyone to contend with on the SmackDown roster.

Styles has been just as impenetrable as a face, as he defeated Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe repeatedly. He even beat Daniel Bryan in a fair fight, and it took Bryan, one of the best in the world, destroying his moral compass in order to finally vanquish AJ and end his reign. Heck, Styles came inches away from beating Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series in 2017 when Brock was at the peak of his powers, easily defeating opponents bigger than Styles like Braun Strowman and Samoa Joe.

However, Styles needs to find the fire that Bryan did in order to play up to his full potential. While fans enjoy cheering AJ and were even behind him as a heel, his most compelling work came in 2016 as a villainous character on SmackDown.

Styles’s actions to close the episode of SmackDown on Christmas Day do not necessarily mean that he’s turning heel, but, rather, they indicate a shift in character towards something more dynamic. WWE is seemingly serious about giving fans fresh matchups and characters to freshen up the product, and going in this direction with Styles seems to jibe with that. After all, the reactions he received in 2016 when with The Club or feuding with Ambrose are a sign of the type of character the WWE Universe wants from him.

Since The Club picked up an impressive Four-Way victory, pinning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships tonight, perhaps a reunion is in order. Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson would be a force to be reckoned with as a unit, just as they were in the past.

Or maybe AJ Styles will forge his own path now that he’s seemingly reconnected with the beast within. Either way, we could be headed for something special, and the image of AJ punching Vince square in the face could be yet another iconic moment in Styles’s lengthy wrestling career. This could be the launching point for a big storyline on SmackDown, especially with Bryan and elite newcomer Mustafa Ali poised to do battle over the WWE Championship.

Next week’s episode of SmackDown Live has become must-watch, and it will be exciting to see how Styles’s character develops after his earth-shattering punch.