AJ Styles Confirms Rumor He Wasn’t Supposed To Lose US Title to Kevin Owens At WWE Battleground 2017

AJ Styles has confirmed a longstanding rumor that he was not supposed to lose the WWE United States Title to Kevin Owens at WWE Battleground 2017. Owens defeated Styles for the title at the July 23rd, 2017 show, cradling Styles for the pinfall. Owens only held the title for two days before he dropped it back to Styles in a triple threat match on WWE Smackdown that also featured Chris Jericho.

Styles brought up the title change on his Phenomenally Retro podcast while discussing Sami Zayn losing the Undisputed WWE Championship on WWE Raw to CM Punk after only seven days. He noted it as a rare example of WWE “flip flopping” a title and explained that it did indeed happen because he failed to get his shoulder up. Thinking he had kicked out, he confronted Vince McMahon about it and was shown how he did indeed fail to get the shoulder up. You can see highlights below:

On Losing the Title to Owens:

“I will say this. When me and Kevin Owens were wrestling for the United States title, there was some flip-flopping. Here’s something that people don’t know. When I lost that one to him, I wasn’t supposed to lose; my shoulder was supposed to be up. And I thought it was, and I was pissed.

On Talking to McMahon About It:

“I came back going, ‘What the freak is going on?’ And Vince was like, ‘Your shoulder wasn’t up.’ I was, ‘1000% it was up! It was up!’ And I’m mad, because this is — not because I lost, because why the freak did he count something that wasn’t a pin?

And so he goes, ‘Show him. Take him to the freakin’ truck and show him.’ I go, ‘Let’s go.’ I go back and watch it — sure enough, my shoulder is down. So, I go to Vince, ‘You’re right; I was wrong. Sorry about that; you did the right thing.’”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Phenomenally Retro with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.