WWE: Heel AJ Styles is a perfect fit for a new edgy Raw

When AJ Styles started interacting frequently with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson in backstage segments on WWE Raw, the only logical conclusion was for The Club to reunite. Now that Raw appears to be headed into a louder, edgier direction, Styles’ heel turn makes even more sense.

Although AJ Styles had a lengthy reign as a babyface WWE Champion with memorable feuds against Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura in 2018, his best work undoubtedly came as a heel in 2016-2017, particularly in his feuds with top stars John Cena and Dean Ambrose.

A Styles heel turn was first teased by Vince McMahon in December when Vince egged Styles to attack him, in an attempt to force the “real” Styles out. Months later with Paul Heyman apparently starting to run the Monday night ship, we’re finally seeing the “real” Styles who took WWE by storm in the second half of 2016.

Styles reunited with The Club, joining forces with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson after getting into some typical macho arguments with the duo backstage. For weeks, Gallows and Anderson and Styles teased a formal reunion, but that didn’t happen until Styles let all his frustrations out on United States Champion Ricochet.

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On this week’s episode of Raw, Styles took on Ricochet in the main event of Raw in a rematch, as Gallows and Anderson challenged The Phenomenal One to beat the main roster rookie in a shorter period of time. It looked like Styles had won the championship off of The One and Only, but referee John Cone saved Ricochet’s title by noting that the rising star’s foot was under the rope.

In the rematch, Ricochet managed to defeat one of the best wrestlers in the world in a star-making performance. However, the significance of Ricochet’s victory over Styles didn’t have time to mellow, as Gallows and Anderson emerged at ringside. Styles pretended to ward them off and have a show of sportsmanship with Ricochet, but he was really just looking to bait Ricochet into a false sense of security.

Styles sucker-punched Ricochet in the face, and the rest is history. He reunited with The Club, helped them beat Ricochet all over the ring, and established himself as, along with Baron Corbin and Drew McIntyre, one of the top three heels on Raw. In doing so, Styles has become one of the most exciting superstars on the roster again, as WWE fans have fond memories of The Club wreaking havoc on the rest of the roster.

The trio could be an unbeatable force, and a feud with Ricochet is a great way to put over the main roster newcomer as a babyface while also asserting the trio’s brutality. The first segment where Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley destroyed the stage set certainly made a statement about the tone of the show going forward, and an edgy, heel AJ Styles is the transition that signifies the shift in characters we can expect to see under Heyman.

That said, I don’t think anyone could have seen this tweet from Styles coming.

That is absolutely not PG, but the same can be said for some of the moments on Raw and SmackDown this week, including Kofi Kingston flipping off Samoa Joe. Now, this tweet from Styles isn’t nearly on the level of awesomeness of Kofi’s middle finger, but it might have that moment beat for shock value alone. Not long ago, Styles was the straight-and-narrow WWE Champion who loved his family, and you wouldn’t think of WWE going this route with one of their safest, most established superstars.

This tweet is a microcosm of the levels of insanity that could be reached with The Club as a reunited stable in WWE’s new direction, which, yes, is a response to AEW. The reigns on Styles have been unleashed, and The Club look like a fantastic faction to usher in this edgier period of WWE. Of course, they’ll need an equally strong dance partner, but they have a tailor-made rival in “The Bloodline” whenever WWE are ready to pull the trigger on that dream feud.