AJ Styles Should Win The Royal Rumble... & Challenge NXT Champion Bron Breakker
As is often the case, there’s no shortage of rumors and predictions about what will happen at the Royal Rumble, and particularly who will the men’s and women’s Rumble matches. Particularly given the turmoil around Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Championship at Day 1 and questions about what that will mean for the long-rumored WrestleMania match between him and Reigns, the field for the men's Rumble itself is relatively open. AJ Styles is certainly a dark horse given he’s just stepping out of the tag division (and did so by promptly losing to Omos) and his recent dabbling in NXT. But what if The Phenomenal One were to win and flip the script by using this Rumble victory for a WrestleMania match with NXT Champion Bron Breakker?
Re-establishing The NXT Championship
In recent years, there has been some question whether the NXT Championship can be considered a world title. After all, besides the WWE and Universal Championships, the NXT title has been the top title with the most exposure for wrestling fans around the world. The developmental nature of NXT and uneven track record of success for its champions on the main roster introduced doubt, though. That doubt has arguably only heightened since NXT’s rebranding for its 2.0 version, more cleanly focused on developing new WWE Superstars.
Having the men’s Royal Rumble winner use his WrestleMania title shot to go after young Bron Breakker from NXT would be a fine way of clearing up any confusion and legitimizing the NXT Championship as a top prize in the business. Moreover, there is some precedent for this choice, given that women’s Rumble winner Charlotte Flair used her WrestleMania title shot to go after the NXT Women’s Championship in 2020. Not so different from The Queen, Styles is also an established star who has held world titles before, and so it’s all the more believable he would look at the NXT Championship not as a step down, but a new frontier for him to conquer.
A Final Feather In The Cap For AJ Styles
For years, one of the greatest claims to fame AJ Styles had was being the greatest wrestler of his generation not to have worked in WWE. After wrestling for WCW in its dying days, he went on to be a top star for TNA, ROH, and NJPW, before at last debuting for WWE at the 2016 Royal Rumble.
Since signing with WWE, Styles has had a remarkable run that included twice winning the WWE Championship, in addition to holding the Intercontinental, United States, and Raw Tag Team titles. Additionally, he has racked up less official honorifics like appearing in a WrestleMania main event and the final match of The Undertaker in 2020, plus successfully defending a world title at WrestleMania in 2018. As he closes in on 45 years of age, Styles can still hang with the best of the business, but it's unlikely he’ll be the face of the company moving forward. Styles is now among the greatest wrestlers to never win a Royal Rumble; doing so would be a fine cap and “lifetime achievement award”-style honor for the Phenomenal One at this point.
AJ Styles Could Give Bron Breakker His Best Match
Depending on how the WWE Championship match between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley shakes out the Royal Rumble PPV, there are a number of top contenders who can logically transition into the WrestleMania world title pictures--most notably including Big E, Drew McIntyre, and Lesnar himself. These are talents who can lay claim to a title shot on their own merits, or by winning an Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia. None of these talents need a Royal Rumble victory on the Road to WrestleMania.
So, there is an opportunity to do something experimental in regards to the Royal Rumble setting up an NXT Championship match. Moreover, there’s the reality that AJ Styles vs. Bron Breakker would probably be quite good. Breakker himself a highly promising talent who has performed well thus far and would benefit from a WrestleMania coming out party. Meanwhile, Styles is the ideal opponent to accentuate what the youngster can do. After all, not only is Styles incredibly talented, but he has spent the last year making another big man, Omos, look like a star, first as his tag team partner and most recently as an opponent. The Phenomenal One should have an easier time with the talented Breakker.
AJ Styles can’t be considered a favorite in this year’s Royal Rumble, with a number of big names announced and the specter of potential surprise entrants who could win it all. Styles winning would make a lot of sense though, to reward his sensational work of the past six years and set up the NXT title and Bron Breakker alike for their best case scenarios.
