WWE Must Stop Using AJ Styles as Stepping Stone For SmackDown Top Prospects

Although AJ Styles will be challenging Jinder Mahal for the WWE Championship on Tuesday's edition of SmackDown Live, it is evident WWE largely looks at The Phenomenal One as a stepping stone for the blue brand's top prospects.

There can be no denying how well he has been handled by WWE since his arrival at the onset of 2016, a rarity for talents who made their names elsewhere in the wrestling world. In the near-two years he has been a part of the company, he has held the United States Championship twice, headlined multiple pay-per-views and captured the WWE Championship.

With all that being said, he has been mostly removed from the main event scene—which is where he belongs—since losing the WWE title to John Cena at January's Royal Rumble pay-per-view. He has done excellent work in the midcard scene and attempted to bring prestige to the star-spangled prize, but it is difficult justifying him at that level when Mahal is in the top spot instead.

It's clear WWE views Styles as a valuable asset to the roster. Otherwise, he would be wrestling meaningless matches more often than not like Sami Zayn had been until recently.

Instead, Styles has always found himself involved in a notable program throughout his WWE tenure, but utilizing him as a vehicle to get others over is a waste of his abilities.

His program with Mahal isn't the first time Styles has served as a stepping stone for other up-and-coming athletes. Look no further than this feud with Baron Corbin, who defeated him in clean fashion to retain the U.S. title on the Oct. 10 SmackDown Live.

Credit: WWE.com

That victory should have been a major momentum booster for Corbin as he prepared to kick off his reign as United States champion. Unfortunately, he has lost every match he has competed in over the past month, rendering his win over Styles irrelevant.

Finn Balor accomplished a similar feat at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs when he knocked off Styles in an impromptu dream match. However, anything The Demon gained from that seemingly career-changing victory was vanquished when he was beaten by Kane the next night on Raw.

In both cases, Styles suffered losses to benefit the person he was in the ring with, but WWE failed to capitalize on the opportunities to create new stars. The same mistake cannot be made in Styles' match with Mahal, a WWE champion who should feel far more special than he does.

Styles scoring his second WWE Championship this coming Tuesday isn't out of the realm of possibility. The Jinder Mahal experiment may not be the success officials initially hoped it would be, thus forcing them to abandon the potential idea of having him walk into WrestleMania 34 with the gold around his waist.

If so, WWE should have taken the title off him in one of his encounters with Shinsuke Nakamura. So the chances of Styles beating The Modern Day Maharaja aren't too high. Styles could be an interim champion before Mahal gets the belt back in time for the company's tour of India in December, which might have contributed to why he has been champion for so long.

Again, though, that would expose WWE's intent to use him in an attempt to legitimatize Mahal. No matter how many times Mahal defeats Styles in the coming months, it won't change how out of place the champion feels among the elite at the top of the card.

Credit: WWE.com

SmackDown Live has lost some of its luster with Mahal at the helm of the Tuesday night program. Not only do none of his matches or promos tend to generate excitement, but no logical endgame appears to be in sight.

Nakamura fell short of dethroning Mahal, so if Styles isn't next in line for a run at the strap, that leaves few feasible options, with free agent John Cena being chief among them. Cena versus the evil foreigner is the same song and dance fans have seen before, so one can only hope that isn't the direction the company is headed in.

WWE could avoid that atrocity all together by giving the WWE Championship back to its rightful owner, AJ Styles, and stop relegating him to secondary status in favor of top prospects who aren't as deserving.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.