I thought that approach always worked, but it looks like it doesn't for this article. What gives? I thought that was a requirement from Google that users see what the googlebot sees?
If you try to hit the link before googling you'll get paywalled. They Probably stick a cookie on you to prevent you from playing this trick (use another browser or private window).
They must be using some other fingerprinting techniques if that's the case, it's not working in either a private window(chrome) or another browser(firefox).
Just tried it with a private window and it still didn't work. Something different is going on here...
I had the same problem - first clear your cookies for WSJ.com, then google the headline. Worked for me.