AJ Styles & Claire Lynch vs. John Cena & AJ Lee: Which Is Worse?

[Jack-Hammer]

I'd say that these two particular storylines have gotten more negative criticism from internet fans and dirtsheet writers alike in 2012 than these two. Generally speaking, most love story and/or affair angles don't go over well with many internet fans. There's just so much of a soap opera feel to them at times that it sometimes gets downright corny or is just plain bad altogether.

Cena & AJ has been no picnic. It just seems unnecessary it seems like something that already would've been finished with if John Cena wasn't involved. If it's been used ultimately as background for a feud between John Cena and Dolph Ziggler, there are much simpler and better ways to go about it. AJ has gotten some good praise for her promo abilities, especially at how she's able to convey emotions, so she's sort of in a tough position. In all honesty, she's already above the Divas as a whole, so going back to simply being a Diva that wrestles kind of seems like a step down for her unless there's a major overhaul of the Divas Division with AJ as its center. The angle is fairly recent but the whole thing with Vickie presenting "evidence" of an "illicit affair" that took place between Cena & AJ while AJ was GM of Raw and/or just confronting AJ in promo segments has gotten extremely stale. I'm hoping that WWE ends this aspect of the angle soon. Since AJ & Cena basically tried to swallow each other's faces this past Monday, it needs to be as there's nothing "improper" about a relationship now.

The AJ Styles & Claire Lynch storyline is one of those angles that just dragged on forever with no end in sight. The foundation of this angle started way back in February and continued for a couple of months with Daniels & Kazarian ultimately saying that they were going to reveal a big secret. Eventually, they reveal that Styles has been having an "affair" with Dixie Carter. This goes on for about a month before it then morphs into Styles & Dixie not having an affair but have been sponsoring a pregnant drug addict named Claire Lynch. For another month or so, this goes on before it morphs into Daniels & Kazarian accusing Styles of fathering Lynch's baby. Lynch eventually reveals that Styles is the father and believes Styles should accept responsibility for it. This drags on for a while before it's ultimately revealed in a promo segment in which Claire Lynch's "attorney" reveals in a statement that none of the accusations were true and that Daniels & Kazarian were behind the whole thing. It was such a long, drawn out, uninteresting convoluted mess. It didn't help the fact that we've seen so many Styles vs. Daniels feuds & matches before. It only added to the unending staleness.

So which of these angles do you think is worse?

 

[hatehabsforever]

At the moment, the Styles/Lynch angle is worse, however if the WWE continues on for too long with this Cena/AJ nonsense, it may give the other storyline a run for its money.

Styles/Lynch involved pairing up the criminally underutilized Styles with an absolute nobody in terms of pro wrestling, an actress and not a particularly good one at that. No one had any investment in her whatsoever, yet she was front and center for months on Impact. Allegations of her being an addict. An illegitimate pregnancy. Suggestions of significant wrongdoings by the otherwise squeaky clean Styles. Then after dragging on forever, it ended with a whimper. All suggestions of: let's not prejudge it, let it develop, then poof it was dropped with a poor resolution.

Make no mistake about it, I equally hate the Cena/AJ crap. But at least both of them are bonafide superstars who have been significant players on RAW well before this. No drug addiction. No false pregnancy. At most, a consensual inappropriate affair, rather than one person taking advantage of another vulnerable one. And as much as I'm tired of the angle, I do think it is at least heading somewhere, even if we don't like where it's headed.

Plus, isn't anything WWE automatically better than TNA by default , just to maintain order in the grand scheme of things?

 

[Rayne]

Well, first things first- they're both god awful.

But this is a choice between which foot I'd rather be shot in, so I'm going to have to say the Claire Lynch storyline was worse. In a search for something for AJ Styles to do that didn't involve the World Championship, they gave him a high-drama storyline which was unlike much of what TNA had done in the past. It was a move from 'wrestling' into pure soap opera, which alienated a good portion of TNA's fanbase.

All that was forgivable- but they didn't kill the angle as soon as they realized people loathed it. I get it- professional wrestling is essentially marketing, and you really can get people to believe something if you really want to. TNA made the mistake of thinking that they could get people to buy into anything, simply because they pushed it. You can get people to believe in just about anything, but only if you sell it right. So instead of changing their sell with AJ Styles and Claire Lynch, they stubbornly plodded down the same path, until the actress playing Claire Lynch realized that this job was probably a career killer and got the hell out of dodge, finally killing the angle a month too late.

One thing the WWE has going for it- it has fans that are used to this kind of bullshit. The WWE has projected far more of a soap opera image than TNA has. Even though the angle doesn't appear to be selling, it's not provoking the visceral reaction that the Claire Lynch storyline did. WWE simply produced something that sucks. TNA produced something that sucks which was a departure from what their fans expected or wanted.

 

[Dagger Dias]

AJ Styles & Claire Lynch was far worse. That angle was an absolute disaster and a colossal waste of the fans' time. It made AJ look terrible, made fans have to endure promos by Claire as well as Dixie, and dragged on to the point of being pure torture. Even when it started out as AJ and Dixie supposedly being involved with each other, even that was cringe-worthy. Nobody who was involved in the angle came out of it better off than before it began. Not even Daniels. The angle should never have happened. If they needed a reason for AJ Styles to feud with Daniels (and Kazarian) then there are SO many other ideas they could have come up with. Any of them being better than Claire Lynch.

Now, John Cena & AJ Lee's current angle.... It is a bit cheesy and some may find it a little difficult to deal with, but it is leaps and bounds better than Claire Lynch & AJ Styles was. This angle is making AJ Lee remain relevant after having stepped down as GM. Cena has something to do in between world title matches. Ziggler having become involved makes it good for him as well, he gets to work with Cena. The only bad thing about it really is Vickie's involvement. I've reached the point lately where I just mute the tv if she speaks, until somebody else speaks. I can tolerate her involvement though. She is very annoying, just not quite to the point where it feels like torture, whereas with Claire Lynch it did during most of the angle.

With that being said.... Claire Lynch wasted everyone's time, the time spent watching that angle can never be given back. Cena & AJ Lee on the other hand is helping the wrestlers involved in it. That makes it the better angle by a large margin. One can argue that one angle has ended while the other has not.... but it will take A LOT for Cena & AJ Lee to reach the horrible quality of Claire Lynch. That angle was awful even by TNA standards, and they have been known to mess up a few too many storylines in the past decade. Cena & AJ Lee is the better angle and anyone who says otherwise might need to take a few moments to think about it before defending the Claire Lynch angle.

 

[DirtyD79]

Both storylines are equally pointless and equally crappy. AJ Styles and John Cena are both stars, they don't need to be saddled with pointless crap like this. Stick a useless storyline like Claire Lynch or the "affair with the GM" on somebody like Santino Marella or Eric Young or better yet Hornswoggle. Horns is the one guy in wrestling you can stick any crappy storyline on him and it won't hurt him since nobody takes him seriously to begin with.

 

[ABMorales787]

People are bound to say the TNA version was worse. It was longer and had lots of turns so it will be the most likely choice. But I'm going with WWE's take on this dramafest. Firstly, not a single match has been made because of this "drama". It's been almost 2 months. Secondly, someone is insinuating 2 single people are having an affair. To be more specific, Vickie Guerrero, whose most known story was being a GM and marrying an employee and granting him favoritism accused the single AJ of dating employee, also single John Cena and eventually getting her job and is still insinuating it. They even mocked the fact this Monday. Did we really need this bad soap opera to get AJ out of the GM role and to set up Cena vs Dolph?

Thirdly and probably more importantly, they actually ripped off this story from TNA literally a month after it ended. Bad recap voice-over at the start of the show and everything.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Eh, it's a tough call, but I'm going with AJ Styles and Claire Lynch, but for one reason, and one reason only: I've already seen the conclusion of that disastrous storyline. As others have mentioned, AJ really, really, didn't need this. He's constantly praised as one of TNA's top talents, so he didn't need any kind of boost.

The Claire Lynch storyline started with an alleged affair between Dixie and AJ, and then it sprawled into this conspiracy of Dixie and AJ protecting this junkie/pregnant woman. Then, they story took another bizzare turn, when photos of AJ and Claire surfaced. When they finally hit the "is AJ the father" stage, the story already pasted the point of dragging on for too long, and each week just became more painful to watch.

The woman, who portrayed Claire Lynch was a terrible and unconvincing actress, the story was mess, and the whole "it's a hoax to torture AJ!" conclusion just made everything worse.

But the AJ/Cena/Vickie drama is just as bad. It's a well known fact Cena is going through a divorce in real life, and he doesn't have a previous on-screen love interest, so why should we really care if he's in a relationship with AJ? The same thing can be said about AJ, and I honestly don't understand Vickie's involvement. It's like WWE creative ran out of ideas for the AJ/Vickie feud, so they decided to merge their feud with a Dolph Ziggler/John Cena rivalry. And why is Dolph involved? He severed ties with Vickie, and he's the typical narcissistic heel, so why should he care about Vickie's problems? And to top it off, they randomly interested Tamina into this mess as a bodyguard for Vickie.

It's too melodramatic and ridiculous, and the tacky Photoshopped pics of Vickie with Jim Ross, Brodus Clay, and Ricardo Rodriguez at Survivor Series just sunk this feud to new lows.

Both storylines are reminiscent of an old Jerry Springer episode. They're both terrible, but I'm giving the slight edge to AJ & Claire, because I've already seen the embarrassing conclusion to that trainwreck.

 

[midgensa]

The AJ Styles/Claire Lynch storyline was hands down worse. It was unnecessary. Poorly planned. Terribly acted. Dragged in Dixie Carter. And ended abruptly when the talent bailed. It made no sense what-so-ever. Was not needed to get anybody over. Didn't help Kaz and Daniels look good, made them look incompetent.

Now, the AJ/John Cena angle could get really bad ... but for now it works a ton better because it involves the top dog on the card and the top diva on the card and for those reasons alone draws interest. There is no doubt that AJ has been solid for the E ever since she has come aboard and they have already had her in numerous angles. It will be interesting to see where this goes as they definitely don't need it for Cena in any way.

I don't like either angle, but I at least understand what WWE is doing. Nothing about the Claire Lynch storyline ever drew any interest from the Internet or the audience because it made no damn sense from the get go.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Yeah, I'm going with AJ and Cena. I don't know the specifics but I always believed that the person who is "married" is the one having the affair which technically would be Cena. A majority of the IWC knows that Cena is divorced so it's no big deal to us. I just don't like the execution of it. To my recollection, they have never acknowledged that Cena had a wife and I know they haven't acknowledged that Cena went through a divorce so I would assume most of the fans think that Cena's single so why would it be a big deal to them. If they had this same storyline with Orton instead of Cena, then it would be a little better since we know that Orton is married. Lynch and Styles sort of came and went for me.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

At the present moment, I have to go with Cena/ Lee being the weaker of the two for the most simple of reasons - it actually raised the stock of two TNA wrestlers that have always been labelled as bland. Any interactions between AJ/ Dixie and Claire may well have blew but anytime Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian threw in their tupence worth, we had television worth watching. Nitpick all we want but I strongly believe we wouldn't have given a toss about the TNA World Tag Team Champions of the World had it not been for this storyline and wouldn't have been blessed with the matches between them and AJ/ Kurt.

The WWe version has failed to do this: AJ is still playing the sympathetic heroine, John the (yet again) wronged hero, Vickie the vindictive bitch and Dolph the cocky heel who'll ultimately get his comeuppance. Unfortunately, unlike Chris and Kaz, Dolph hasn't been a revelation in the role and still receives apathy from the crowds. Possibly the biggest problem here is that none of the four players are being asked to do anything different - how long have all four fell within the descriptions I've listed above?

 

[HBsam31]

Right now I think the Claire Lynch/AJ Styles storyline was worse. It was painful watching her, and it was painful to see AJ working with her. He didn't need a storyline like that. Claire Lynch herself was terrible. The one saving grace is that it did elevate Daniels and Kaz. The Cena/AJ story is just as bad, but I am going to be honest here. It annoys me less because I enjoy looking at AJ. Besides that it makes no sense as they are both single, and aside from hopefully getting a good Cena Ziggler match I don't really see the point.

 

[Ricardo Del Rio]

Both storylines are God awful. The Claire Lynch thing was ridiculous and now the Aj/Cena angle is pointless. I am sure there are thousands of ideas out there that would be better stories for a Cena/Ziggler feud. It really pisses me off that Vickie is in charge of Raw again. She isn't entertaining and why would she all of a sudden get chosen by Vince McMahon? Anyway, it is terrible all together! I'll leave it at that.

 

[Dirk]

Even though I think the Styles/ Lynch story was worse (''Claire'' killed it), I think the writing behind Cena/ AJ was worse, because they had the benefit of learning from TNA's mistake and wiped their asses with it.

 

[God Of Floor]

Both were horrible. But the aj / Claire angle was so bad that I stopped watching for a few weeks and I love tna. The faces of the top two companies get thrown to the lions for no reason. And when longtime fans stop watching for weeks at a time because of one storyline, its time to re evaluate your writers.
Also what should be thought of is that kids watch during the 8-10 hour slot that the story was in. You are risking the parents of these potential fans turning off the TV and declaring" this is crap".