Hot Take: Rebooted AJ Styles, Not Seth Rollins, Must Be New Face of WWE Raw

AJ Styles is the best thing running in WWE. 

And WWE knows it. 

Viewers were told this much over a not-so-inconsequential stretch of holiday programming around the Christmas holiday. Those shows usually don't have much of anything happening, and some get taped in advance, so it wasn't realistic to expect much even on the heels of the whole McMahon family promising massive changes the week prior. 

Yet at the end of SmackDown, there was Vince McMahon himself poking and prodding Styles in a show-ending segment until the program's top star sucker-punched the 73-year-old man, also known as his boss. 

The knee-jerk reaction might be to think this is a heel turn for Styles. But McMahon's smirk while on his back as the show went off the air suggests otherwise—and when is decking Vince in the face ever considered something a bad guy would do (it is sometimes, but come on)? 

Rather than a full-blown heel turn, expect Styles to turn into something refreshing WWE hasn't had in a while now—a good guy with a serious edge. 

WWE has a heel problem right now. The most interesting characters are bad guys, which explains Dean Ambrose, Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens on Raw. Daniel Bryan just turned heel on SmackDown and feel free to add in Randy Orton, Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura. Meanwhile, guys like Finn Balor and Seth Rollins are putting viewers to sleep. 

And that last point is most important—Styles shifting into the flirtations with being a bad guy while ultimately serving as a face primes his move to Raw and as the face of the company. 

Or as he might put it, The Face That Runs The Place. 

The Rollins experiment? It's over. A dud. It seemed like WWE gave Rollins a platform to seize the top overall spot after Roman Reigns' leaving the company. What could be better than an intense feud with Ambrose after getting betrayed on the night Reigns announced he had to leave and battle cancer? 

Not much, but Rollins went out on a pay-per-view match with Ambrose, a blood feud with brutal expectations, only to wrestle the same old-same old match again, selling the knee injury suffered years ago and ultimately picking up a boring finish. 

It's fitting, really, as Rollins has been stuck in a rut. He worked as the scared, run-first-fight-later heel playing off The Authority. He worked as the guy hunting down Triple H. But we don't know what his character is anymore and you can't be the face of WWE without character. All we know about Rollins anymore is he has a couple of nicknames (The Architect, Kingslayer) that have nothing to do with much right now and a catchy theme song.  

Which isn't to say Rollins doesn't have a spot, nor is he in an impossible situation where he can't still grow and seize the top spot. But right now it seems rather clear he's better playing off others than leading the whole thing. 

Styles, on the other hand, has worked on both brands, has dramatically—and this can't be stressed enough—dramatically improved on the mic since joining WWE and his character is well-defined. He's been brilliant as a cocky heel, a lovable bad guy and even made programs with James Ellsworth pop, not to mention been entrusted with massive spots like, say, a bout with Brock Lesnar. 

Do you want arguably the most believable guy in the company who can stand toe-to-toe with Lesnar and take him down? 

It's Styles. 

By now, it is clear there are certain Superstars Lesnar enjoys working with, and he'll go all-out for them. Styles is one. Joe is another. Others, like Ambrose...not so much. 

One of the best matches of the past five years was the Styles-Lesnar encounter. Big enough to land strikes but athletic enough to hit his usual move set and make it all seem damaging, Styles is the perfect blend of underdog and vicious to take the universal title off Lesnar in a classic. 

The build, even if it's a repeat, has been brilliant already for a one-off encounter: 

As Paul Heyman put it, an "updated" Shawn Michaels or Bret Hart is a fitting description for Styles at this point. 

And it is only fitting Styles has enough to look like a viable threat to Lesnar—he also has a versatile enough mix to have crossover appeal to mainstream fans. He has got the look, interviews well and is already an internet darling to boot. 

It sounds too easy, right? Styles' character is a take-no-prisoners good guy who silently mows through the competition after McMahon lit the fire. He shifts to Raw, wins a rumble or whatever, then takes down Lesnar. 

And sometimes it really, really is just that simple. Look at the wave Becky Lynch is riding. Easy. Look at Bryan's rocketship out of purgatory with the heel turn. Simple. 

Next up is Styles, who, with a slight character alteration from the usual aw-shucks good guy to something more violent, is the WWE's much-needed answer to the criminally boring faces it keeps trotting out for weeks and has for years. 

It took longer than it should have, but it seems WWE is setting the stage for Styles to be the face of the company and carry it through a rough patch—as it should.