Match Spotlight: AJ Styles Vs. Chris Jericho, WWE Fastlane 2016

The careers of AJ Styles and Chris Jericho have been like two ships passing in the night. Styles would spend the first half of his career making a name for himself in places like TNA, Ring of Honor, and New Japan Pro Wrestling, while Jericho would be a mainstay on the WWE roster. However, by the end of 2017, Jericho would be largely out of WWE as he took his talents back to Japan and eventually AEW, with Styles becoming a multi-time WWE Champion in his absence. Even now they can't seem to land in the same place as "The Phenomenal One" was forced to retire after losing to Gunther at the 2026 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event, just as Jericho is rumored to be making a WWE comeback.

It wasn't always like that though as from the beginning of 2016 through to the middle of 2017, Styles and Jericho were finally in the same company, and WWE wasted no time in pairing the two men together. 24 hours after he made his WWE debut in the 2016 Royal Rumble match, Styles' first one-on-one match in his new environment would be the long awaited dream match against "Y2J," which Styles would go on to win with a cheeky roll up. A few weeks later on an episode of "WWE SmackDown," Jericho baited Styles into a rematch where he was able to get his win back, tying the two men at one win each.

Naturally, a rubber match needed to be set up, and rather than waiting for WrestleMania 32 which took place on April 1, WWE opted to have the trilogy match between Styles and Jericho take place in Cleveland, Ohio at the Fastlane pay-per-view on February 21. With both men's names being regularly featured in the news cycle so far in 2026, let's roll back the clock by a decade and shine a spotlight on the first-ever pay-per-view meeting between AJ Styles and Chris Jericho at WWE Fastlane 2016.

As a full show, WWE Fastlane 2016 is not the best show in the world. During this time period, the pay-per-view between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania was one that basically blew off any unnecessary TV feuds that weren't going to get near the WrestleMania card, while also being fairly inconsequential in the main storylines as everything had largely been set in stone for WrestleMania. It was the ultimate filler event, and it's only ever felt like it has some weight to it whenever the Elimination Chamber is involved. With all that said, Styles/Jericho part three was easily one of the most anticipated matches on the entire show, and yet, it just came out feeling fine.

If you watch the two previous matches from "WWE Raw" and "WWE SmackDown," you can see some natural progression in how both men scout each other's offense. For example, Jericho can see The Phenomenal Forearm coming halfway through the bout and times a counter to perfection as he delivers a Drop Kick to Styles' legs while Styles is balanced on the top rope. Styles is also on high alert for the Walls of Jericho as "Y2J" tries to lock it in early, but Styles is able to snatch a quick Hurricanrana from his back to keep his distance. Little moments like this rewards the loyal audience for keeping track of the story leading up to the show.

However, in a vacuum, this match is perfectly fine. Compared to the rest of the matches that happened beforehand, it was easily the best match on the show, and it started off very well, but as time went on you can see the pace slow down dramatically, and both guys are sucking wind heavily by the 10 minute mark, especially Jericho which is surprising as 2016 is looked back on as one of his strongest years. Even Styles looks a bit all over the place at times here, and yes he does try his best to get the crowd going, but moves that would get a much bigger response on different nights don't even register a response at times.

There are a couple of slip-ups here and there, with Jericho not being in position for when Styles springboards off the middle rope to hit his Phenomenal Reverse DDT, something he would actually stop doing against guys he hadn't shared the ring with as the years went on. Thankfully, the crowd does wake up when both men bust out the big guns like the Walls of Jericho, the Styles Clash, and the Codebreaker. They weren't falling over themselves with excitement by the end of the bout, but the visual of seeing Jericho tap out to the Calf Crusher not only put the move over well, but gave Styles a huge victory this early into his WWE run.

A fine match all things considered, and if you want to seek it out then by all means, but if you don't, you're not missing much either.

The pairing of AJ Styles and Chris Jericho in 2016 is a weird one to look back on. For those who were watching at the time, the idea of the absolute prime version of AJ Styles taking on a Chris Jericho who could still have a good match with the right opponent sounded fantastic, but it just never seemed to click in the way most people expected. It's not that fans had the expectation of the two men having a match that would get one million stars in the Tokyo Dome or anything, but the expectations for their bouts were very high and they never quite lived up to them.

They did have the chance to rectify that though as Jericho and Styles shook hands at the end of their Fastlane match, leading to the short lived duo known as Y2AJ. Styles and Jericho would team up to beat The New Day in a non-title match, but when the WWE Tag Team Championships were up for grabs, Y2AJ couldn't get the job done and Jericho turned on Styles as a result. This led to a final singles match happening at WrestleMania 32 which, again, had lofty expectations that couldn't be met, despite it being another fine match and on par with the Fastlane bout in a lot of people's minds.

The feud-turned-partnership-turned feud with Jericho did have some fans questioning whether Styles had made the wrong move in leaving NJPW to join WWE, especially considering that NJPW only seemed to grow stronger in quality and popularity after Styles departed. However, all of those fears were put to rest after WrestleMania once the Jericho feud concluded as Styles was thrown into a feud with Roman Reigns over the WWE World Championship that truly put "The Phenomenal One" on the map in the company, and cemented his place as a WWE main event performer. While he didn't capture the title from Reigns, he did follow that rivalry up with the now legendary feud with John Cena, and that was followed up by Styles becoming the WWE Champion in September 2016.

As for Jericho, he did end up having a very good 2016. The List of Jericho was born, the friendship with Kevin Owens was one of the highlights of "WWE Raw" after the brand split was reintroduced, and his involvement in the WWE Intercontinental Championship picture was well worth a watch too. Styles and Jericho would cross paths many times after WrestleMania 32, including in what would turn out to be Jericho's final match on WWE television in the summer of 2017 where Styles won the WWE United States Championship in a Triple Threat Match that also included Kevin Owens. However, the tale of AJ Styles and Chris Jericho in WWE is one that could never live up to the expectations placed upon it, no matter how good their matches ended up being.