If not for a very impressive main event, Chris Jericho vs. AJ Styles would have been the best match on the Fastlane 2016 card. It’s strange when an undercard match is expected to be the best, but I know a lot of people were expecting it to steal the show. Because anyone who knew anything about wrestling outside the WWE knew that AJ Styles very much earned his monicker “Phenomenal” through nearly twenty years of classic matches in the United States and Japan. And Chris Jericho, well, enough said, right? Really, though, this was a great introduction to AJ Styles on WWE PPV in a singles match.
Though they would both turn heel later in the year, Styles and Jericho went into this match as faces, although Jericho did get in some heel-ish taunts. As a result, you got the whole dueling chants thing going on, with fans seemingly equally behind both men. In fact, it seemed like the same people chanting for both of them. The two wrestlers would, of course, form the very short-lived tag team Y2AJ after this match, setting up a final confrontation at Wrestlemania where Chris Jericho was the definite heel. Their Fastlane match was the rubber match after two traded wins on Raw and Smackdown.
I’ve never been a fan of setting up a PPV match by having a series of matches on regular TV, and I felt the same way about this match. Hell, I don’t even like when PPV opponents fight each other in tag team matches on Raw or Smackdown before their big PPV showdown. Dilutes the anticipation factor, you know? But Styles and Jericho are in-ring masters who could probably make hundreds of unique matches, so I found this rubber match at least mildly acceptable. Plus, the idea behind trading wins is to show how evenly matched these guys are, how either one could come out on top on any given night, and was fairly solid.
With a little less time available than their later Wrestlemania match, Styles and Jericho don’t spend much time feeling each other out. JBL makes mention of all of Jericho’s WWE championships, making sure to note that he was the first Undisputed Champion. He also vaguely mentions Styles’ accomplishments, saying he’s “won titles all over the world,” which is true enough, but sounds a bit silly when JBL isn’t allowed to list any of them because they involved competing organizations. Still, he does an effective job of establishing the credentials of both wrestlers and hyping the competitiveness of the match. Jericho is the veteran, sure, but he’s only six years older than Styles, so the two are pretty evenly matched. It’s not like Jericho is taking on a much younger guy, giving Styles a perceived age advantage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3sm_19js44
No huge high risk moves in this one. Neither wrestler needs to go there to establish themselves, and besides, there’s not a whole lot of high-risk to be found in the modern WWE anyway. Each of them gets in some nice bottom rope moonsaults. AJ executes a very impressive second-rope moonsault/neckbreaker combination. Styles also gets in a nice pele kick on Jericho as he sits on the top turnbuckle.
Each of them survives the other’s finishing move. I still wonder if it was the right thing to have someone kick out of the Styles Clash so early into AJ’s WWE run. I mean the move just looks so devastating. A man getting his entire body shoved face-first into the mat should be the finisher of finishers. Maybe they should have saved Jericho’s Styles Clash kickout for Wrestlemania? Ultimately, Styles did pick up a win after an ankle lock, but Jericho got his win back in a much more spectacular fashion at Wrestlemania in a match that was a bit more exciting because of the flurry of false finishes in the final five minutes.
As I said, this match came close to being the show stealer, but the Ambrose vs. Reigns vs. Lesnar main event told a more effective, engaging story, so I would have to give that one the match of the night. If there’s a match that has the potential to be a show-stealer this year, it might be Jack Gallagher vs. Neville for the cruiserweight title. I’m excited to see the high flyer vs. the grappler and I think the mix of styles could lead to an engaging match. Plus, Neville is crazy good as a bastard heel.
Depending on what they do with the Owens vs. Goldberg match, though, there’s definite potential for the main event. I don’t think anyone expects a straight one-on-one match, so certain outside interferences might make for engaging storytelling, especially as emotional as the Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho feud has been so far.
Whatever happens, I’m hoping that Goldberg is gone after Wrestlemania, and we can go on watching people who have a passion for the industry, people like Chris Jericho and AJ Styles, put on exciting matches and tell great stories.
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