Chris Jericho Says Styles/Owens Battleground Finish Was Botched

The awkward finish of the AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens match at Battleground in July was botched, Chris Jericho said on a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio.

Owens rolled over and pinned Styles, the referee slowly counted the three, and Kevin Owens won the US Championship.

Dave and Bryan didn't have the scoop on the AJ/Owen finish – I really wonder what sources they have now nowadays? pic.twitter.com/XRsY7p0oFa

— rovert (@SoDuTw) July 24, 2017

On Busted Open Radio, Chris Jericho said that he made a special return appearance on the July 25 SmackDown in order to shoot scenes for season 2 of Southpaw Regional Wrestling, and WWE decided to put him in a match with Styles and Owens. Styles won the match, winning back his US title and “fixing” the supposed botched finish at the PPV.

“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.

I was just gonna be there to play Clint Bobski 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.”