5 biggest questions after AJ Styles moved to WWE Raw

The first night of the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-Up saw AJ Styles end his three-year stay on SmackDown Live to join Monday Night Raw.

During his first year on the blue brand, “The Phenomenal One” bragged about being the new “Face That Runs The Place” following his victory over John Cena at SummerSlam 2016, while he repeatedly claimed that SmackDown Live was “the house that AJ Styles built”.

After his four-month WWE Championship reign and WrestleMania 33 rivalry with Shane McMahon, Styles became arguably the top babyface in WWE during his feuds with Kevin Owens and Jinder Mahal in 2017.

He then defeated Mahal on an episode of SmackDown Live in November 2017 to become a two-time WWE champion, and his resulting reign lasted a total of 371 days before he finally lost the title against Daniel Bryan in November 2018.

From there, Styles suffered a dip in momentum in late 2018/early 2019 before defeating Randy Orton in a match at WrestleMania 35 which was built around Styles’ past reputation as “The King of the Indies” and Orton’s moniker as “The Face of WWE”.

Now that the former WWE and United States champion is officially part of the Raw roster, let’s take a look at five of the biggest questions that need answering ahead of what is expected to be another busy year of matches for one of WWE’s top in-ring performers.

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#5 When will he face Seth Rollins?

AJ Styles and Seth Rollins are widely regarded as two of the best in-ring talents in WWE right now, yet they have never met in a one-on-one televised match throughout their three years together on the main roster.

Why? Well, they were only on the same roster for one month after Rollins’ return from injury in the summer of 2016, and since then the Universal champion has been a mainstay on Raw while Styles has been one of the most prominent Superstars over on SmackDown Live.

The only time they faced off on WWE television came in November 2016 when Styles was part of the SmackDown Live team that defeated Rollins’ Team Raw at Survivor Series. Other than that, they have teamed up on three occasions, most recently on Monday’s Raw with Roman Reigns to defeat Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Bobby Lashley, but they have not faced each other.

A match of this calibre is undoubtedly WrestleMania-worthy, but it would not be a surprise if WWE decided to go ahead with the rivalry during the summer instead.

#4 Who will become the new ‘Face of SmackDown Live’?

As of the time of writing, the second night of the Superstar Shake-Up has not taken place, so it remains to be seen who will join SmackDown Live and fill the void left by AJ Styles.

Ali, Kevin Owens and Kofi Kingston are the three biggest babyface singles competitors on the blue brand heading into the next round of roster changes, but it is safe to assume that they will receive competition from a new recruit from Raw to be the top good guy on Tuesday nights.

WWE has teased that Vince McMahon will reveal “the biggest acquisition in SmackDown Live history” during the Shake-Up. It is unclear who that could be referring to but, judging by the number of babyfaces on Raw right now, everything seems to point towards Roman Reigns becoming the new “Face of SmackDown Live”.

If the four-time WrestleMania main-eventer does not move in the Shake-Up, then perhaps KofiMania will continue to run wild and Kingston could be given the opportunity to become the top good guy – not just in fans’ eyes but also from WWE’s perspective – on SmackDown over the next few months.

#3 Will he form a new Club?

When AJ Styles turned heel in 2016 after WrestleMania 32, he joined forces with his former Bullet Club buddies, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and became involved in high-profile rivalries with Roman Reigns and John Cena.

Then, following his move to SmackDown Live in July 2016, Styles had no back-up and he was made to go it alone as he faced Cena, Dean Ambrose and the rest of the blue brand’s top Superstars for the next 20 months.

It looked as though there could be a Club reunion when Gallows and Anderson were drafted to SmackDown Live in the 2018 Superstar Shake-Up. However, the former Raw Tag Team champions were largely forgotten about on Tuesday nights and it looks as though they could be set to leave WWE later this year.

As for former Bullet Club leader Styles, he will now join another ex-Bullet Club leader, Finn Balor, on Raw. The two men have only battled once in WWE, at TLC 2017, and they ended their match with a ‘Too Sweet’ gesture, so is there a chance we could see them form a new Club in the near future?

#2 Who will be his first rival?

WWE has a habit in recent years of giving babyfaces a relatively underwhelming rivalry after WrestleMania before propelling them further up the card towards SummerSlam and the rest of the year.

For example, Shinsuke Nakamura feuded with Dolph Ziggler in 2017 before challenging Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam, while Daniel Bryan’s first post-WrestleMania feud in 2018 saw him take on Big Cass before he faced The Miz at SummerSlam.

There are plenty of other examples – John Cena vs. Ryback (2013) and Roman Reigns vs. The Big Show (2015) also spring to mind – and it would not be a surprise if WWE went down a similar route with AJ Styles following his move to Raw.

Looking through the heels on the roster, Lars Sullivan is an obvious future opponent but it would be difficult to choose a winner if they were to face each other this early on in Sullivan’s time on Raw. As an alternative, how about Andrade or Sami Zayn?

#1 Will he remain a babyface?

The current list of high-profile babyfaces on Raw reads as follows: AJ Styles, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, Braun Strowman, Rey Mysterio, The Miz, Aleister Black, Ricochet.

The final four names on that list are guaranteed to stay on Raw – they only moved on Monday as part of the Shake-Up – while Rollins is almost certain to remain on Monday nights following his Universal Championship triumph over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 35.

Regardless of whether Reigns, Balor and/or Strowman moves to SmackDown Live on the second night of the Shake-Up, Raw is still blessed with more top babyfaces than it has had since the rosters originally separated in 2016.

When you also consider that there are several bad guys on Raw (Elias, Baron Corbin etc) but none of them can be considered elite-level heels, a possible Styles heel turn at some point in 2019 cannot be ruled out.