WWE: AJ Styles-Kevin Owens Finish at Battleground Was Botched, According to Chris Jericho

The finish of the AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens match at WWE Battleground didn’t look perfect. Apparently, what happened wasn’t the plan at all.

At WWE Battleground, the Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles match for the United States Championship had an awkward ending. Styles put a submission on Owens, while the referee counted to three with the former’s shoulders down. KO won the title and lost it back to Styles just days later.

When Owens put the title on the line, it came with Chris Jericho involved. He made a one-night-only return to SmackDown Live, receiving the opportunity he had waiting when Owens won the championship in May.

On a recent episode of Busted Open Radio (h/t Cageside Seats), Jericho revealed the finish at Battleground was indeed botched. However, he said the plan was to wrestle Styles, either way, on the Tuesday after Battleground:

"“The idea was for me to work with AJ on Tuesday, and do nothing with Kevin. And then the match happened on the Sunday and they legitimately screwed it up, it happens sometimes – the finish didn’t work… whatever happened.And then there’s all these stories… no, there was never [an emergency phone call from WWE] – I was just gonna be there to play Clint Bobski [during filming of the ‘second tape’ of Southpaw Regional Wrestling] and they’re like, well, put me on the show. That’s why they did the Triple Threat, because they had to get the belt back on AJ because of the screw-up on the weekend.”"

Well, that seemingly closes the book on this situation. Botched finishes happen on WWE programming, but this occurrence at a pay-per-view made it draw more headlines and speculation, especially as one of the evening’s high-profile matches.

For Styles, he’s back as the United States Champion and may be headed toward a feud with Baron Corbin. Owens seems to be on a fast track to rivaling Shane McMahon, who played a role near the end of the former NXT Champion’s program with the Phenomenal One.

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Styles vs. Owens was one of WWE’s top programs of the summer that’s no longer. Did the botched finish hurt it or was there no impact?