Karl Anderson, before being offered a "blow-away deal" by WWE. After not being on WWE television since his Metal match in 2002, Styles made his re-debut in WWE on January 24 at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view during the Royal Rumble match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, entering at number three. Styles went on to eliminate Curtis Axel and Tyler Breeze, before being eliminated by Kevin Owens, lasting just under 29 minutes in the match. Styles then entered a storyline with Chris Jericho, with the two exchanging victories on both Raw and SmackDown, which ultimately led to an encounter between the two on February 21 at Fastlane, where Styles emerged victorious via submission. After Fastlane, Jericho and Styles formed a tag team, dubbed "Y2AJ", and went on to defeat The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) in two non-title matches. This led to a match for the WWE Tag Team Championship on the March 7 episode of Raw, which Y2AJ failed to win, after which Jericho turned on Styles and attacked him, officially ending their team. The two subsequently interfered in each other's matches, leading to Styles challenging Jericho to a match at WrestleMania 32, which Jericho ultimately accepted on the March 28 episode of Raw. At WrestleMania 32 on April 3, Styles lost to Jericho. On the following episode of Raw, Styles won a fatal four-way match to become the number one contender for Roman Reigns' WWE World Heavyweight Championship. In the weeks that followed, Styles reunited with former Bullet Club stablemates Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson (now known as The Club) and an alliance, which Styles initially denied, was teased. At Payback on May 1, Reigns eventually defeated Styles by pinfall after the match was restarted twice (with Styles first winning by countout and then by disqualification), despite Gallows and Anderson's interference. Styles received a rematch against Reigns for the championship at Extreme Rules on May 22 in an Extreme Rules match, but was unsuccessful due to interference from both Gallows and Anderson and The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso). The following night on Raw, Styles failed to qualify for the Money in the Bank ladder match at Money in the Bank against Kevin Owens. On the May 30 episode of Raw, he welcomed back a returning John Cena, only to attack Cena with help from Gallows and Anderson, turning heel in the process. This set up