AJ Styles Is Wrong Opponent for Rejected Roman Reigns at WWE Payback 2016

This Sunday at Payback, we'll see AJ Styles challenge for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a match against Roman Reigns—and the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, will no doubt be in support of The Phenomenal One.

Since The Big Dog graduated to the main roster, WWE management has been doing everything in its power to get fans behind Reigns. He was the showcase member of The Shield, and as a singles performer, he's racked up some big wins and major accomplishments in a short span of time.

Now, he's at the top of the mountain. Ahead of WrestleMania, most would have expected the new champion's first feud after the event to be a throwaway rivalry against some mid-level opposition—perhaps an opportunity for someone like Ryback or Sheamus to rejoin the main event scene.

Credit: WWE.com

Instead, he's going up against Styles—an athlete who's not just working as a fan favourite but is also supported by the section of fans who actively dislike Reigns.

As crowds continue to reject Reigns, it seems strange that WWE is thrusting him into a match that's only going to exacerbate the problem so soon after he claimed the world title. If WWE is still trying to present Reigns as its top face, Styles is the wrong opponent at this time.

Of course, if that's not the plan, then the booking is terrific. There's a way to make the most of the mixed response that Reigns is getting, and putting him on the opposite side of the ring as Styles is a great first step.

Styles can have a great match with anyone, so it should be no great feat for him to bring the best out of the capable Reigns. Moreover, you can have the champion tease a fully fledged heel turn—perhaps by employing the smugness we saw him show off on this year's post-WrestleMania Raw.

Credit: WWE.com

There's another important element to Sunday night's main event: the assumed involvement of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. They have shown support for Styles in recent weeks, but there's no way to tell whose side they'll be on at Payback.

It's easy to project a scenario where Anderson and Gallows instead attack Styles, aligning themselves with a debuting Finn Balor to play off the real-life personnel change The Bullet Club underwent when The Demon signed with WWE.

However, there's one problem with this sequence of events—it leaves Reigns as an accessory to a more compelling story that doesn't involve him.

WWE has done lots of work to get Reigns to the position he's at now, but if the company intends him to be the successor to John Cena, there's plenty left to do. Already, there's more buzz about the possibility of seeing Balor at Payback than there is about the champion's first defence.

"

@wwebalor See you soon, buddy.

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) April 22, 2016"

Whether it's at the hands of Styles' in-ring abilities or the star power of Balor, Reigns looks set to be upstaged this weekend. His detractors won't find much sympathy for the champion—particularly as he looks poised to retain—but it's an unexpected scenario for someone who was so protected on his rise to the top.