AJ Styles: #2 in the Top 10 Wrestlers of 2016

Last year, I rated AJ as the eleventh best wrestler in the world on my personal list. Through his second year in New Japan Pro Wrestling, he completely reinvented himself as an exciting star after years of mediocre booking in TNA, where he was arguably the biggest star in the company despite TNA's seeming desire to focus on anyone but him much of the time. Two IWGP Heavyweight Championship did far more for his career than any of the five world championships he won in TNA.

Then 2016 happened.

Image credit: WWE.

Opening the year against #5 wrestler on this list in front of 25,000 fans in the Tokyo Dome couldn't have been the worst way to kick off a year. While he didn't beat Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental title there, he did manage to steal the show even as he prepared to leave New Japan for greener pastures.

The 2016 Royal Rumble continued a streak of rumble matches lacking in well thought out booking, but the one thing it got right was Styles debut as the third man in the match. While it did no favors for Roman Reigns as the newcomer already had far more cheers than the supposed top babyface of the company, it cemented Styles as an important new player in WWE. He continued his battles with names on this list, battling #7 Chris Jericho in a series of show-stealing matches yet again.

From there, WWE showed they finally understood what they missed for all the years they didn't sign AJ to the promotion. Over the spring and summer, he feuded with the company's top two stars, barely losing to Roman Reigns in two title matches then turning heel on John Cena. Alongside The Club, he would go on to pick up multiple wins over "The Face That Runs the Place." When he finally beat Cena and Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Heavyweight Title, he even chose to mock Cena, dubbing himself "The Champ That Runs the Camp."

Since SummerSlam, AJ has dominated Smackdown's programming. It is hard to argue he's the best booked talent in the company today. He's been so impressive on the roster that he even was able to eat three straight losses to James Ellsworth without a bump in the step of his run on top of the WWE mountain.

While AJ turns forty later this year, he's barely lost a step in the wrestling ring since he was a young up-and-comer in the final days of WCW. One of the most seasoned stars in professional wrestling, if he stays healthy he could have an equally impressive 2017 with a place on the top of the Smackdown card very likely. Even if he should drop the title pre-Wrestlemania, AJ still has the potential to have an epic spot at that card, with rumors of Shawn Michaels coming out of retirement for one last match against "The Phenomenal One".

The final WWE Top 10

Today, I am posting the final WWE Top 10 for at least the foreseeable future. Why? Because as of SummerSlam, I will start posting individual rankings for the Raw and Smackdown rosters. Stay tuned for that, but in the mean time let's take a look at the top stars of WWE after the first week of the brand extension!

Sasha Banks, new Women's Champion

1. Sasha Banks:  The Boss finally reached the top of WWE, a place millions of fans have wanted her at since she joined the main roster. Despite some pushbacks, it is also clearly a place WWE management wants her at, as she has been groomed as the female face of the company for quite some time in advertisements and group photos. Her team with Bayley at Battleground and her huge victory on Raw make it hard to not treat her as the biggest WWE star coming out of July. (U/1)
   
2. Dean Ambrose: Dean retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for Smackdown at Battleground. The Shield three way was an amazing match and Dean looks poised to be a major face of the company for the rest of the year. (2/10)
   
3. Finn Balor: Beating four of Raw's top talents in your debut cannot be overstated. Finn is a world champion level competitor and WWE made that clear as they framed him as one of the two men that will battle for the new WWE Universal championship at Summer Slam. (U/1)
   
4. Seth Rollins: He didn't win at Battleground, but Seth Rollins is still clearly the biggest star on Raw. Whether he can maintain that role after Summer Slam is anyone's guess, but he is poised to continue his role as one of the top players in WWE for months to come. (U/1)
   
5. John Cena: Cena feels like he's suffering from a slight demotion right now, but he is still a key player for WWE and should remain so in the coming years. While he didn't win the title shot on Smackdown Live! last week, he did score his first pinfall on AJ Styles, a feat I suspect he will try to repeat at Summer Slam. (U/1)
   
6. The Club: They might not have won at Battleground, but they made a statement the next night on Raw. The Club clearly are poised to be dominant in the tag team division and that might soon cost The New Day their championships. (U/1)
7. Sami Zayn: His victory may have been a moral one only, but Zayn seems poised for bigger stakes as his WWE main roster career continues outside the shadow of Kevin Owens. (2/2)
8. The New Day: The end of July was rough on The New Day, but they did take the title of the longest reigning tag champions of the modern era. Don't suspect that reign to last much longer though under the threat of The Club. (4/6)
9. Kevin Owens: He didn't win at Battleground, but anyone in a match that good deserves a featured place on this list. (7/4)
10. Dolph Ziggler: He didn't even get a match at Battleground, but Ziggler gets a major push as he scored the number one contendership at Summer Slam. A fresh face in the Smackdown main event scene should help differentiate the blue brand going forward. (U/1)

Ziggler made a splashy entrance into his first Top 10 on the first Smackdown
of the brand extension.

Agree with the list? Disagree? Let me know your thoughts of who you think deserved to be in the post Battleground Top 10.

Looking back at Extreme Rules 2016

Like too many WWE pay-per-views, Extreme Rules had some great moments but they were tempered by far too many terrible events that just hurt the show. And of course, the news of Cody Rhodes' requested release being approved darkened the night just a bit (but more on that later this week.)

Image credit: WWE.com.

The pre-show gave us another confrontation between Big Cass and the Dudley Boyz, another segment clearly designed to promote the eventual feud between Enzo and Cass and the veteran extremists. Cass has certainly come into his own as a solo star in the last few weeks though and I suspect Vince will have a big future in mind for him.

Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler's no holds barred match had exactly one normally illegal move as Corbin set up the End of Days with a low blow. It completely wasted the stipulation, but at the same time they didn't want to do anything that would hurt the main event, which has the exact same stipulation with a different name.

The main show opened with The Usos and The Club in a tornado tag team match. Jimmy and Jey set out to have another great match in their repertoire and their battle with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows did not fail. The two teams put on a classic match in a format rarely seen on WWE television. Hopefully this will convince someone that more tornado tags will be great in the future of the tag division.