10 Impulse Reactions Following WWE Battleground 2017
8. New Face Of Disappointment
...because the match that looked destined for Nakamura now looks completely off the table.
AJ Styles and Kevin Owens battled yet again in another disappointing clash with another disappointing finish. When WWE put the United States Title on 'The Phenomenal One' at a Madison Square Garden house show, much of the thinking seemed to be that it was a necessary evil interjecting into the television feud in order to flog tickets for flagging live events. It now seems like that New York audience got the only decent effort these two were capable of.
A whole falling way short of the sum of its parts, Styles and Owens (literally) leaned on an unnervingly large number of chinlocks and restholds to fill out a desperately dull 18 minute clash. Foreshadowing the lousy finish, it became apparent extremely early on that the feud was set to dawdle on despite the game of hot potato with the title again making 'KO' look ultra-weak in his refined anti-patriot persona.
The finish was equally turgid, with WWE incapable of following their own rules from one week to the next. Owens launched Styles at the referee, but rather than waving for an automatic disqualification (as has been done for much less in the last few years), his bewilderedness led to a screwy finish that is likely to be debated to set up a SummerSlam finale next week.