AJ Styles vs. John Cena Feud for WWE World Championship is Inevitable

AJ Styles was crowned the new WWE World champion at WWE Backlash after defeating Dean Ambrose through nefarious means. Styles' win continues a tidal wave of momentum that dates back to his two victories over John Cena.

Styles' antics and the pre-match vignette strongly indicate that a match against Cena is on the horizon. With the WWE Championship on the line, this will have all the star power to make SmackDown the envy of that other flagship.

Styles was featured wearing Cena's arm band and insisted on being announced as "The New Face That Runs The Place." He spent just as much time taunting the former 15-time world champion as he did feuding with Ambrose. With Ambrose out of the way for now, and assuming Styles retains if Ambrose uses his rematch clause, Styles is on a collision course with Cena. And Styles should win again. 

Cena is on the doorstep of history as he is one win from tying Ric Flair with a 16th world championship win. Cena has been stuck on 15 for quite some time, presumably because WWE romanticizes Flair's 16 world championship wins. And why not? It always seems like one of those records that only Flair should own.

Pro wrestling romance aside, Cena is on the back end of his run with WWE. Not only does he not need a world title reign, but Cena is just as valuable as a gatekeeper who takes meaningful losses to wrestlers of a lower stature.

Similar to Styles, Cena took a clean loss to Kevin Owens last year. One year later, Owens is the reigning WWE Universal champion.

As the world champion on SmackDown, Styles comes off as a big star. SmackDown needs a top heel like Styles, whose overconfidence has been a joy to watch. As long as he stays healthy, Styles should not drop the WWE Championship any time soon.

A third consecutive loss to Styles in a future pay-per-view match would not harm Cena in the least. For Styles, it could be the pendulum swing that makes the SmackDown brand a legit threat to Raw when it comes to ratings. It's been quite some time since WWE has had a strong, dominant world champion. WWE has crowned several first-time champions this year, often with very little buildup, and the follow-through just hasn't been there.

The demand of Styles winning the world championship was there. The big wins were there. It's now time for WWE to execute during the title reign.

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.