What’s the story?
WWE conducted a poll on their website asking fans who they thought was the better world champion.
While the result itself was not surprising, the vast difference in numbers of how AJ Styles won was what shocked many. WWE Champion AJ Styles got a whopping 91%, while Universal Champion Kevin Owens got 9% of the votes.
In case you didn’t know...
AJ Styles has been WWE champion since he won it at Backlash on September 11th, 2016. Kevin Owens became the second Universal Champion when he won it on the second Raw after Summerslam.
While AJ Styles has had a successful and entertaining run as the world champion so far, Kevin Owens has been a victim of bad booking, according to many fans and pundits. One of the other drawbacks of his title run according to many fans has been his storyline best friend Chris Jericho, who’s overshadowed the reign.
The heart of the matter
WWE polls have often been criticized for being removed if the results don’t go “in favor" of what they are looking for. However, it is not known whether the poll results have any impact on creative and storylines.
Despite the fact that AJ Styles has been booked as a cowardly heel, who has had only two clean defenses of his title, he is still perceived by the vocal majority of the fans as a babyface. He arguably gets the best reaction on the entire WWE roster.
While Kevin Owens also is a cowardly heel with no clean title defenses, the booking of Raw in general, where he has had only two babyfaces to wrestle week in and week out has made the fans disinterested in his reign. It should be noted that Owens too gets cheered far more than he does get booed.
What’s next?
It is ultimately a poll, and as mentioned, likely has no impact on the creative decisions of the company. It would be interesting to see if WWE notices the poll and decides to have a switch in titles, whether it is at Royal Rumble or otherwise.
Sportskeeda’s take
Kevin Owens has been the victim of circumstances, while Styles has benefited from the critically acclaimed booking of SmackDown Live. The poll vastly shows how highly WWE Universe thinks of AJ Styles. Even in a previous poll on who fans believed was the superstar of the year 2016, AJ Styles won the vote in good fashion. Styles’ popularity should lead to WWE turning him face in the near future.
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