WWE Extreme Rules could elevate Ricochet to new heights

Win or lose, the WWE superstar we may end up talking about the most coming out of Extreme Rules is Ricochet.

In an uneven performance for WWE on Raw this week, 1 rivalry clearly shone through what ended up being a somewhat muddled show.

AJ Styles, with his newly reclaimed sauntering and swaggering demeanor, quickly became one of the undisputed highlights of the show the moment he came on screen.

Styles can be one of the best heels in WWE when the company lets him. Everything he does just screams cocky and overconfident in a way that a lot of less dynamic superstars can’t match, and that was on full display on Raw.

The impetus for reclaiming that heel persona, besides the reunion with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, is Styles’ growing feud over the United States Championship. The current titleholder, Ricochet, put out one of the better performances on Monday night too, as he was able to match the tenor of the rivalry perfectly by playing his role as the underdog to a tee.

Put those 2 performances together, and it’s easy to see how you get a rivalry that’s worth tuning in for, no matter how the rest of the show goes.

There’s no reason to expect anything different come Extreme Rules this Sunday either.

When Styles and Ricochet go head-to-head again, it won’t be under the guise of mutual respect or admiration. It will be an all-out war, the type of match that leaves everyone on the edge of their seating waiting to see what happens next.

It’s no secret that both Ricochet and AJ Styles are 2 of the most entertaining in-ring performers in WWE today. If they’re given free range to do what they do best at Extreme Rules, the outcome is practically guaranteed to be something special.

Both of these superstars are firing on all cylinders right now. Give WWE some credit on this one, Styles and Ricochet are both in the roles they were clearly meant to play. Not only is Styles an elite heel, but Ricochet is obviously at his best when he’s clawing his way back from seemingly insurmountable odds using his unmatched agility and athleticism.

Unfortunately, it’s been hard to say we’ve been able to see that version of Ricochet highlighted on WWE programming until now. Before his match of the night performance against Samoa Joe at Stomping Grounds leading into this feud, Ricochet was basically treading water in WWE.

When he did go up against the bigger, badder Samoa Joe though, we saw just how great Ricochet can be when he’s given an actual developed storyline to work with.

That’s why this match at Extreme Rules might very well end up holding so much weight for Ricochet’s future in WWE. When you consider how great this version of AJ Styles can be, it makes for an even better opportunity than the one presented at Stomping Grounds for Ricochet to show what can happen when WWE invests their time and effort in pushing him in a major storyline.

We’ve seen Ricochet rise to the occasion time and time again when given these kinds of opportunities too, dating all the way back to his time as Prince Puma in Lucha Underground through his run in NXT.

In other words, don’t be surprised if Ricochet is the most talked about superstar come this Sunday, and continues in that role for many more Sundays to come as a result.