UPDATE: Owens wrestled on Saturday night. Click here for more.
ORIGINAL: There might be more to the story regarding WWE’s decision to have Kevin Owens drop the United States Championship to AJ Styles on Friday night. Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that he does not know what the story is behind them taking the title from him but he is certain that there is a story behind it and he will try to find out. What is known is that it was a late decision so this was not something that was in the plans earlier this week. Owens was hurting at the last pay-per-view but continued to work so it’s possible that an injury forced WWE’s hand on Friday night. I will add that the Owens vs. Styles match at Battleground is no longer listed on WWE.com and Owens has removed the header and his profile pic from his Twitter account and he has posted anything on Twitter since Wednesday.
WWE has posted footage of AJ Styles’ United States title win from Friday night’s house show at Madison Square Garden. A clip of the match can be seen below and scroll down further for post-match comments from Styles. Styles put over his match with Chad Gable at last week’s Smackdown Live but then he questioned whether or not Owens would be getting an immediate rematch. Styles said, “maybe Kevin Owens has to go through a battle royal to be the number 1 contender for the United States Champion. Maybe something like that.” He added, “maybe me chatting it up with Daniel Bryan – we’ll see what we can do.”
So, if you listen to that interview, it sounds like they might be setting up Chad Gable to be the next person to challenge Styles for the title and not Owens. If we get any updates on Owens then we’ll post an update here.
There’s been a ton of news over the last 24 hours. Here are some of the top news items that you might have missed:
- Austin Aries was released. Click here for the backstage news surrounding his exit from WWE.
- Click here for huge spoilers on Sunday’s WWE Great Balls Of Fire pay-per-view.
- Former TNA Wrestling head honcho Dixie Carter (yes, really) will be appearing on WWE TV for the first time. Click here to read that story.
- A WWE star is injured and needs knee surgery. Click here for more on that story.
- You’ll never guess what WWE is considering doing for the Royal Rumble. Click here for that story.
- A sad and troubling video of a former WWE Superstar has people concerned. Thankfully, WWE has stepped in to help him so hopefully, there is a happy ending. Click here to read that story.
