As our Cain A. Knight pointed out recently, WWE has developed an odd habit of building new babyfaces up so they can lose to AJ Styles - often repeatedly.
That was already the case with Humberto Carrillo, and it seemed the former Ultimo Ninja’s turn in the role previously held by Ricochet & Cedric Alexander might have been up after Styles beat him at Crown Jewel.
But over the past couple weeks they’ve been building Carrillo up again, first by having him pin AJ in a trios match on Nov. 11 and then by booking him to beat the United States champ’s O.C. teammate Karl Anderson last night.
So...
.@humberto_wwe has a HUGE opportunity as the red brand's new sensation will challenge @AJStylesOrg for the #UnitedStatesChampionship next Monday on #Raw.https://t.co/u21dEzblQ4 pic.twitter.com/pr8XNSBpFE
— WWE (@WWE) November 19, 2019
The Phenomenal One has a non-title match against SmackDown’s Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura and NXT’s North American titleholder Roderick Strong on Sunday at Survivor Series. He’ll follow that up by defending his belt against Carrillo again in Chicago next Monday (Nov. 25).
Will it lead to a different result for young Humberto? And what are his future prospects like if it doesn’t?