What's Next for AJ Styles After Losing Out on Money in the Bank Ladder Match?

If AJ Styles fans were worried about where he was headed next after Sunday's loss at WWE Extreme Rules 2016, then the events on Raw 24 hours later will have had them pressing the panic button.

What should have been a scintillating few weeks followed by a bright future has quickly turned into a virtual drift into limbo.

The disastrous booking of The Club, some soft defeats to Roman Reigns and a failure to qualify for the Money in the Bank match have fans wondering what's next. But where is Styles headed?

Well, we've touched on them already, but if WWE is smart it will surely have him working an extensive program with The Club.

Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson have arguably been booked even worse than Styles in recent weeks, but if all three come together on a permanent basis, they could all still bounce back and go from strength to strength.

WWE seems to be teasing an angle where Styles can't catch a break, with Gallows and Anderson constantly reminding him that together they'd be a force. That was the impression before his match against Owens, with Styles sat on the ramp post-match as Raw went off the air—a telling sight.

WWE should keep working on this for the next couple of weeks—but not long enough to weaken Styles enough that the damage is beyond repair. This can be the main build for AJ's work as we head towards Money in the Bank—crucially, a pay-per-view for which WWE hasn't yet scheduled him to wrestle.

Why? Because in the go-home edition of Raw before the show, Styles can relent and unite with his former buddies from Japan once again. The Club are back together as a trio, and it's Money in the Bank where they'll make their presence felt.

They could literally go out and cause mayhem on most of the matches on the card, but it makes most sense to see them attack the participants of the show's marquee match, the one with the briefcase on the line.

They can come out and attack most of the guys in the match—not just babyfaces, not just heels. It's done in a way that doesn't give them any sort of character definition in regards to being good or bad, just a stable who do what they want, when they want. Almost like The Shield 2.0.

From here, the possibilities are endless. The immediate future can see The Club tear through the roster without any fixed plans, and eventually one of two things could happen.

As SummerSlam approaches, Finn Balor could appear on the roster and become the main opposition for Styles—setting up an incredible, dream SummerSlam match—or Gallows and Anderson could turn on AJ and align with Balor.

"

No more Club? Well, at least not with AJ Styles. Trust me ... The Club is far from done. It'll just have a different leader. #RAW @WWE

— Dalyxman's World (@The_Dalyxman) May 24, 2016"

Either way, we'd end up on the road to a dream match at one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year and a rivalry that will arguably do nothing but good for both men, as long as each of them is allowed to pick up victories along the way.

Not would this do wonders for AJ and allow him to put the disappointing Reigns feud behind him, but it would also give Gallows and Anderson a boost.

And also, it would allow Balor to come and make his debut on the main roster with a bang. That's how the best and most successful NXT graduates have done it—think Kevin Owens attacking John Cena or Sami Zayn immediately making Owens his main target. 

There's been a frightening amount of instances in which NXT alumni have come up to the main roster without any long-term and logical booking plans—Neville, The Ascension and even someone more recent like Apollo Crews are prime examples.

All in all, The Club's potential path of destruction across the roster feels like the only sensible option for Styles right now.

With his chances of winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship suffering a real hit thanks to his Reigns feud and the return of Seth Rollins, it's only right WWE allows The Club the chance to fulfil its obvious potential.

The Shield proved that it could become the talk of the roster without the need to hunt the company's biggest title. If The Club does that, the sparks will fly.

If you wanted to put them in a direct rivalry with another stable, though, there's always the possibility of The Wyatt Family.

Its best work as a group came against another stable—again, The Shield. The battles between Karl Anderson and Luke Harper, Styles and Bray Wyatt and Luke Gallows and Erick Rowan would be phenomenal. The beauty of a multi-man feud is that you can always mix it up, too. That's a lesson WWE should have learned from The Club vs. The Bloodline, where it was always the same combinations inside the ring.

No matter what WWE does with Styles, it's still highly possible he will be a success. However, right now, his alignment with The Club would give him the best chance of being a hit.