Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles: Winner and Reaction from WWE Backlash 2016

AJ Styles continued his string of dominance Sunday night at WWE Backlash by defeating Dean Ambrose to become the WWE world heavyweight champion for the first time in his illustrious career.

WWE provided Styles' initial reaction after he pinned Ambrose:

This old photo of Styles shows how far the wrestling star has come:

Will Pruett of ProWrestling.net believed Styles again put on an A-plus performance: 

Vaughn Johnson of Philly.com put into perspective just how incredible 2016 has been for Styles: 

Bleacher Report's Graham Matthews provided an interesting stat regarding previous Backlash winners:

Both Ambrose and Styles scored huge victories at SummerSlam, which set the stage for a highly anticipated battle at the first SmackDown-exclusive pay-per-view of the new era.

The Lunatic Fringe beat Dolph Ziggler at the biggest show of the summer to retain the world title, while Styles scored the biggest win of the night by pinning John Cena cleanly in the middle of the ring.

While Styles was already full of himself leading up to that match, his victory over Cena gave him an even bigger head, per WWE Universe:

By virtue of Styles' win over Cena, SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan decided he was deserving of a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

To make things more interesting, though, Bryan put Styles in a match against Ziggler on the post-SummerSlam edition of SmackDown with the stipulation that Ziggler would join the match at Backlash to make it a Triple Threat match if he could beat Styles.

The Phenomenal One continued to roll, however, beating The Showoff and ensuring his match against Ambrose would be a one-on-one encounter.

That immediately set into motion a feud between Styles and Ambrose, as the unstable Superstar was on commentary for Styles' match and ended up going nose-to-nose with him to close the show.

During the buildup toward Backlash, the personas of Ambrose and Styles meshed well, with Styles being boisterous and Ambrose being both laid-back and menacing at the same time.

With Cena out of the picture for the time being as he immerses himself in other ventures such as the Fox show American Grit, Sunday's match was significant in terms of establishing the clear face of SmackDown for the foreseeable future.

That distinction now belongs to Styles, which is fitting since he defeated the so-called Face That Runs the Place at SummerSlam.

Styles has been on a roll both in terms of his in-ring work and his development as a heel character, and winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship promises to give him more credibility and confidence.

His feud with Ambrose will almost certainly continue, and if he manages to come out on the winning end, perhaps a return match with Cena is in store, with the added intrigue of a title on the line.

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