As we reported last weekend, AJ Styles was moved to the SmackDown brand at the last minute (which was likely in response to the blue brand's declining ratings on FOX). Now, Dave Meltzer has revealed on Wrestling Observer Radio that there were, in fact, long-term plans for Styles on RAW which had to be dropped as a result of this move.
According to Meltzer, the plan was for the Phenomenal One to help get several new babyfaces over. It sounds like Apollo Crews, the new United States Champion, was meat to be among them. That obviously didn't happen.
"AJ was there to make new babyfaces, that was what he was there for," Meltzer says of Styles supposed role in Mondsay nights. "How many new babyfaces did he make? None. He didn’t even lose on the way out. Well, he lost to The Undertaker but that didn’t but that does nobody any good."
"My point is that every one of these guys from Ricochet to Cedric Alexander to Humberto Carrillo – every single one of them was supposed to be in a big feud with AJ where they would get over and they would win the title and not one of them did."
Meltzer sounds convinced that Crews won't receive a big push given how Vince McMahon has treated him in the past, but there's nothing to say that Styles can't take on a similar role on SmackDown moving forward.