If you couldn’t figure out what the heck happened at the end of the Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles match at Battleground, you are not alone. Something appeared to go wrong at the end of the match, though nobody is quite sure what.
AJ Styles Heavily Favoured to Win
Fans who follow betting odds were the first to notice something awry had occurred. AJ Styles went into the match a -4950 favourite. Such heavily favoured betting odds normally means that a Superstar has been booked to win. All other favoured wrestlers won their matches at Battleground.
Wrestling historian, Dave Meltzer, has speculated that the finish of the match was changed last minute to have Owens win the title. How this plays into the botched finish however, is anyone’s guess.
The ref was knocked out, then AJ and Owens exchanged submissions but neither tapped out. Then Owens countered into a pinning submission and a groggy ref counted the 3. The referee never missed a submission or a pin attempt, so why was he knocked out?
Some believe AJ was supposed to have his shoulder up during the pin, and just didn’t do that.
I don't know it was shown on TV, but AJ stuck around a bit after his match. He was really selling his loss. Even kocking over the ring step pic.twitter.com/Co0VJrdlCs
— Anthony (@megal0maniak) July 24, 2017
