There has been a ton of talk over the past few days about the finish of the Kevin Owens vs AJ Styles match at Battleground. The match saw AJ get pinned by Owens for what felt like 5 seconds. As a result, Owens is the new WWE United States Champion.
This was very confusing to fans watching at home. Why did AJ lose the title so soon after winning it? The broadcast did not show a replay of the finish and the announcers seemed confused. So what the heck happened?
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio (subscribe here), that finish was not the original plan when Battleground started.
Meltzer says he doesn’t know if Vince McMahon changed his mind during the show or there was simply a mistake between Styles and Owens but the original plan was Styles to retain his title.
This is collaborated by the ‘smart money’ that came in about half hour before the show. Styles retaining his title was the heavy favorite. This was the only match that the ‘smart money’ got wrong at Battleground.
Certainly a strange finish to the match considering AJ had time to kick-out.
A fan also caught some footage of AJ after the match talking to the ref. Maybe this wasn’t the planned finish? Or maybe AJ was just committed to selling his loss:
AJ just spent the entire break telling the ref what happened, then he broke the steps and stormed out #Battleground pic.twitter.com/mFKYKwDiNs
— MeepMoop™Guy (@VincentMichaels) July 24, 2017
Regardless, it appears as if this will continue the feud between AJ and Owens moving forward. Maybe leading into another match at Summerslam.
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Let us know what you think in the comment section below.