Chris Jericho's Failure to Turn Heel Hurts Dynamic of Feud with AJ Styles

Following another loss to AJ Styles at WWE Fastlane on Sunday, an enraged Chris Jericho—who had been behaving like a heel throughout the match—appeared as if he was going to attack Styles.

Unfortunately, Jericho shook Styles' hand and WWE threw to the next segment. No heel turn. No storyline development. Just wrestling.

The wrestling between Styles and Jericho has improved with every outing. The two icons are developing chemistry as they continue to work together. But if this third match at Fastlane was their final encounter, I can't help but feel that there was a wasted opportunity to prolong the feud with a heel Jericho.

The stars seemed to be aligned for Jericho to become a villain.

Prior to his match against Styles, Jericho addressed concerns that Styles' Raw victory was eating away at him. Throughout the match, he expressed frustration, took liberties with the rules, cursed at Styles and even screamed, "You're a stupid man!" which was a staple of his lauded heel run from 2008 to 2010.

But when all was said and done, Jericho didn't cement his change of attitude. He simply brushed it off.

Jericho has done some of his best work as a heel. In 2010, Jericho entered WrestleMania 26 as a world champion. Two years later, he challenged CM Punk for the WWE Championship as a villain. Heel Jericho gave the world the "armbar" segment.

Jericho has more creative freedom as a heel, and as the losses mount during the late stages of his career, he has every reason to become bitter.

There's nothing intriguing about a babyface Jericho who continues to take losses and shake them off. Getting angry, taking cheap shots in defeat and behaving like a sore loser would show how deeply Jericho cares about winning.

It would also give Jericho and Styles an excuse to have a WrestleMania match without seeming like a rerun.

Maybe the plan is for Styles to move on to his next feud. But at this point, with a limited, banged-up roster, it will be difficult to find an opponent who can match Styles' skill set like Jericho can.

If this is the end of the Jericho-Styles feud, it feels too soon. There's no storyline arc in exchanging wins and losses with no new developments. Very little was learned over the past month, except this time was Styles' turn to win.

Had Jericho become a villain for the first time since 2012, at least there would be another chapter. Even if the two went their separate ways, potential feuds with Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler and even John Cena would be refreshing for a newly minted Lionheart.

Jericho can only do so much as a rehash of his stale Y2J act. His wrestling is still very sharp, and without a strong character to complement his in-ring abilities, he is simply being wasted.

 Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and an on-air host for Bleacher Report. Like him on Facebook and listen to him on WZDaily.