Ranking the WWE Champions of 2016

#2 AJ Styles

AJ Styles after winning his first ever WWE Championship. One of the many world titles he’s held in his career.

By the time AJ Styles won the WWE Championship, he already had some of his best feuds. His matches with Chris Jericho, Roman Reigns, and John Cena were some of the best matches all year, and they helped to establish Styles as a main event player in WWE to the fans who never watched the indies.

Once Styles won the WWE Championship, he established himself as one of the all-time greats with a lot of great matches and world championships galore on his resume. Unfortunately, his Championship reign has been a mixed bag.

While Styles has managed to put on some good matches with Dean Ambrose and Cena as Champion, there have also been the overbearing comedy angles with James Ellsworth that take away from his first run with the belt. He has been the Champion for the past four months, yet his feuds have been more about comedy with Ellsworth than the rivalry he has with Ambrose.

He is the current WWE Champion and appears to be moving on from Ambrose as an opponent so that may help, but if his level of opponents doesn’t change, the Phenomenal One’s WWE Championship Reign will be in danger of being remembered as average at best.