WWE Battleground 2017 Live Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades

WWE.com

WWE United States Championship Match
AJ Styles (c) vs. Kevin Owens

Result: Kevin Owens defeats AJ Styles via pinfall to win the WWE United States Championship.

Rating: 3.25 out of 5 stars

An unexpected title change preceded this match, as AJ Styles won the United States Championship from Kevin Owens at the Madison Square Garden house show. It lengthened the feud and brought it to Battleground.

Owens grounded Styles for most of the first half of the match, including sending the latter’s “phenomenal ones” into the ring post. Not good, AJ. Not good.

It’s amazing watching Styles in the ring, with all the different forms of offense he has. Enjoy it as long as it lasts, folks.

What’s also notable is either Tom Phillips is getting told to not call Styles’ moves or he has no idea what they are. Phillips called the Oshigoroshi a “fireman’s carry into a neckbreaker,” which is what the move is, but the name was called on WWE TV before.

Ring psychology was on display from Owens, who took out Styles at the legs and hurt his shoulder. That will affect his finishing moves and potentially cause a different match ending.

The match ended up seeing Owens win the United States Championship for the third time in as many months. It was via a double pin, which awarded KO the win.

Another matchup is certainly on the way, but after two short reigns for Owens, he’s getting a third opportunity? It’s a strange use of the title, and both Superstars, having things bounce all over the place. Maybe SummerSlam is where this will end, once and for all, unless something happens on SmackDown Live.

Maybe this was a situation where WWE got cold feet and switched the finish at the last second, to “fool” fans who thought the finish was guaranteed to go the other way. Odds for this match notably changed on Sunday evening.