As seen at the Backlash event last week, AJ Styles’s match against Kevin Owens for the United States Championship ended in a count-out. The reason WWE decided on that finish is because they plan to have the two feud in a series of matches.
The belief is that if Owens got the pinfall victory over Styles, it would have left very little ground for a rematch. Styles winning the match would have meant Owens losing the Championship on back-to-back pay-per-views and that would make him look very weak. WWE has also put money into Owen’s “Face of America” gimmick with merchandise, so him dropping the title this soon wouldn’t make much sense.
WWE was left with two options, ending the match by disqualification or count-out. Creative ultimately decided on the count-out decision.
