WWE News: Update on the finish to AJ Styles vs Kevin Owens match at Battleground

What's the story?

Regardless of your feelings about the event itself as a whole, it's not unreasonable to think the finish of the AJ Styles/Kevin Owens match at Battleground was a little unusual.

Well, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, Owens regaining the belt wasn't exactly part of the original plan. In fact, it was a last minute change.

In case you didn't know...

Originally, AJ Styles was supposed to go into the match at Battleground as the challenger, having won a #1 Contender battle royal on the July 4th edition of Smackdown.

However, days later, Styles would win the title from Owens during an untelevised live event at Madison Square Garden, meaning Styles would be defending the title at said event.

During the match, Owens countered a submission hold from Styles into an awkward roll-up and regain the title by pinfall.

The heart of the matter

According to Dave Meltzer, the ending to the match was decided shortly after the ref bump, and relayed to the ring crew shortly thereafter.

This could explain the confusion in the ring, as the ref's count seemed awfully slow and deliberate.

Of course, Owens would have very little time to celebrate, as he would once again lose the belt to Styles in a Triple Threat match at the next Smackdown between the two of them and a returning Chris Jericho.

What's next?

After Styles regained the belt (by pinning Jericho instead of Owens, interestingly enough), Owens immediately demanded his "contractually obligated rematch" for next week's show. As for plans regarding Jericho, we'll have an update on that later.

Author's take

A pretty interesting perspective on online forums is that the finish of match could have been changed to accommodate Jericho's appearance. That's just a fan theory and not news, but it sounds pretty plausible to me.