AJ Styles Beats Ricochet, Wins US Title at WWE Extreme Rules with The Club

AJ Styles beat Ricochet at Extreme Rules on Sunday to win the United States Championship for the third time in his career.

Ricochet was in position for the 630 senton until Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson intervened. He took Anderson out of the equation, but Gallows yanked his foot out from under him. That allowed Styles to set up and connect with a Styles Clash from the second turnbuckle.

The pair first engaged in a friendly rivalry when The Phenomenal One challenged Ricochet to a match after the latter beat Samoa Joe for the U.S. title at Stomping Grounds on June 23. That led to a highly anticipated bout between the two fan favorites on Raw.

Since Styles was victorious, he earned a future shot at Ricochet's United States Championship. The former WWE champion's apparent lack of aggressiveness and fire didn't sit well with Gallows and Anderson, though.

They had seemingly been trying to get The Club back together for a few weeks, but Styles wasn't budging. That changed when they encouraged him to slap Ricochet, and he obliged.

That led to a title match on Raw, and it initially looked like Styles had beaten Ricochet for the title, but the decision was reversed due to The One and Only's foot being under the ropes. Ricochet went on to retain the championship.

After the match, Styles attacked Ricochet at the urging of Gallows and Anderson, which cemented his heel turn. Gallows and Anderson joined in, and the show ended with The Club back together again.

Then, on Monday's go-home episode of Raw, Styles attempted to stack the deck against Ricochet even more.

After the U.S. champion beat Gallows in a singles match, Styles goaded him into facing Anderson as well. Ricochet did so and picked up the win, but The Club then took advantage of the exhausted Superstar.

All three members of The Club beat Ricochet to the pulp, which left the former NXT North American champion vulnerable entering Extreme Rules.

The presence of Gallows and Anderson notwithstanding, there was a great deal of anticipation and excitement within the WWE Universe regarding what Ricochet and Styles could do in a pay-per-view singles match.

Although they already faced each other twice in recent weeks, Ricochet and Styles figured to get more time and a better opportunity to put together a story the fans could invest in at Extreme Rules.

This chapter saw Styles leave as the new U.S. champion, but with SummerSlam coming up on August 11, there is a good chance their feud will carry over to one of the biggest events of the year.

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