AJ Styles and Kevin Owens had a match at Battleground people were really looking forward to. But in the end, Kevin Owens won a lackluster affair. When it first went down, many people were of the impression the end of the match didn’t feel quite right.
It was reported earlier today the end of the US Title Match at Battleground was changed at the last minute. But on Wrestling Observer Live Bryan Alvarez shed a little more light onto the situation.
“The answer is they changed the finish in the middle of the match,” Alvarez said. “They did not change the finish at the end of the match because Kevin Owens had his music cued up. So it was something that happened earlier but it was during the match.”
“So the only thing I can figure is when the referee went down and the whole match kind of went off the rails that’s when they had to figure out ‘well what are we going to do for a new finish now?’ The music guy had time to cue up the music […] the whole rigamarole happens and low-and-behold Kevin Owens wins the title.”
“So all I can really tell you is that that happened. The finish was changed in the middle of the match. I can’t tell you why, nobody seems to have any idea why. It’s a mystery and all I can say is watch SmackDown tonight because we’ll find out what they’re doing with AJ Styles and Kevin Owens and maybe that will answer the question.”
Bryan went on to theorize how this title switch might just be a way for AJ to try and win the title on TV to boost SmackDown ratings.
Then again, (and this is very unlikely) WWE could have thrown a Hail Mary and plan to have Chris Jericho coming back to challenge KO going into SummerSlam. But in the end, nobody ever knows what’s going on with Vince McMahon.
There are indeed a lot of decisions going into SummerSlam, and nobody ever knows what the 72-year-old owner of WWE is going to do next.
If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Live with a H/T to Still Real To Us for the transcription
