Previously at Clash Of Champions…
Erick Rowan defeated Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman lost their RAW Tag Team Titles to Roode & Ziggler, Miz was a babyface for some reason, & The Revival won The Smackdown Tag Team Titles by submission.
Note: I didn’t make any of that up.
Tonight’s Clash featured three fantastic matches, while the rest just kind of… were. Unfortunately, some bad things happened both outside of the show & during, which we’ll get to, that took away from a couple portions of the program. Overall, I’d still say the show was pretty good even with those few missteps. Let’s go ahead & take a look.
Hail To The Chief
Well then… For any of you thinking Roman wasn’t actually heel yet & just possibly a chaotic neutral or something, allow this match to put that argument in the ground. Right next to Jey Uso. If you had told me this match was going to go over twenty minutes, I would’ve assumed Jey brought a shotgun down to the ring to even the odds. Granted, it gets super dragged out mainly for Reigns being an uber asshole towards his cousin, not pinning him when he could’ve & taunting him so much during the match that even Kevin Owens would be proud. But Jey also got in a surprising amount of offense that made him look like a legit singles star in just one match.
Despite those efforts, Reigns just bludgeons him to death & we get maybe my favorite match ending possible in the TKO. Forfeit. Whatever you want to call it. WWE rarely does them, but when they do, it is fantastic. And I’m not talking about the lame version when somebody is kicking too much ass in the corner & the referee throws it out so the person getting beat up wins by disqualification. I’m talking about when a person is getting their ass kicked so bad that they lose because of it. Owens vs Zayn from Takeover Rival is probably the best example of this, but this match is pretty close. Jey dies a warrior’s death at least, having Jimmy smartly throw in the towel on his behalf & conceding that Reigns is the head of the family just so he’ll stop laying into his brother. Great stuff.
Perhaps the best part of the entire thing, besides everything else, is this shot with Paul Heyman’s reaction to all of it:
That’s the face of a guy who might be realizing he maybe created a monster. Say what you will about Brock Lesnar, but shit was never personal with him. Yeah he’d beat the bag out of guys, but that was all about staying on top to get a pay day. He wasn’t making anybody command respect of him & beating their brains into the mat if they refused. It’s even better when after Jey refuses to say Reigns is Tribal Chief to the camera at Reigns’ demand, Heyman chimes in & affirms it to Reigns, but it has zero impact. He needs to hear it from Jey himself before he allows it to end. Heyman can’t placate Reigns like he could Lesnar. Reigns needs everybody to know he’s the best & to not acknowledge it means it’s your ass. What a fantastically layered character. Why couldn’t we get this years ago?
I doubt we’re getting any follow up after Jey got pounded into dust & Jimmy is very clearly still wearing a knee brace, so I’m curious where Reigns goes next. It feels a little bit early to pull the trigger on The Fiend just yet, but I wouldn’t be mad about it if they did. I’d like to see Roman destroy a few more guys first until we get there. Either way, Tribal Chief forever.
Fists To Cuffs
Remember how I said in the review for last week’s Smackdown how I was worried that since they did a triple threat match on the go home show that some of the shine might be taken away from this match? Safe to say I was VERY wrong with that take. The Intercontinental Ladder Match was bonkers in every sense of the word. From the actual wrestling, dangerous ladder spots & the absurdly ridiculous finish, this match took my expectations & left them in their rearview. Kudos to all three of these guys for laying it all out there for our enjoyment. This match clocks in at over twenty-six minutes, but not for a second did it feel like it ever dragged. There were definitely points when you were breathing through your teeth though as the match went on. Some spots were hard to watch like Styles going for a Phenomenal Forearm only for Hardy to toss a ladder in his face, Hardy landing on an upside-down ladder, & Zayn looking to possibly kill Jeff Hardy for real:
Pretty sound strategy. Easy to climb & grab the belts if your opponents are dead.
Then there’s the finish, which I still can’t tell if it’s so outrageous that it’s bad or great. I have to type it out because of how over the top it is. Zayn reveals to have two sets of handcuffs in his jacket (as one does) & uses one pair to attach to Styles’ wrist & another to cuff Hardy’s ear to a ladder like The Stone Of Triumph. Because Zayn is Zayn, Styles torpedoes his plan almost immediately & grabs him with the other end of the cuffs & puts it on Zayn’s wrist, tethering the two. Styles knocks Zayn out & since he can’t get rid of him, throws him up on his shoulders & starts to climb the ladder to retrieve the titles. Jeff Hardy hilariously tries to get involved despite having a six-foot ladder attached to his head, but of course it is to no avail. Zayn stirs as Styles gets halfway up & we find out he’s had a key IN HIS MOUTH this whole time. He uses it to free his wrist, attaches his end to the ladder trapping Styles, climbs up & wins.
Zayn having a key in his mouth is sneaky the best part of the entire outing since it implies that he knew his plan was going to backfire & came up with a contingency plan for his own futility. So damn funny. I do love him winning too as I thought he had the worst chance of pulling it out going in. Nothing against Zayn, that’s just his main roster run beating me into thinking the worst for him. There’s still enough there that you could probably get a little more out of it with these three, but I don’t know how you’d top this match, so maybe Zayn can move onto some new challengers going forward. Regardless, one of the better ladder matches in a long time & you should definitely check it out if you missed it.
Deadly Viper Assassination Squad
The Randy Orton Main Event Redemption Tour rolls on, somehow making an Ambulance Match worth watching. I posed this question last night on the Discord, but is there any gimmick match WWE does with some sort of regularity that never delivers like an Ambulance Match? This was definitely the first one I think I’ve ever enjoyed. Good job by WWE making this match feel like it never revolved around the ambulance & making it more about Drew & Orton. Most of that has to do with The Ghosts Of Killed Legends Past showing up sporadically throughout the match to get their revenge on Orton in the forms of Big Show, Christian, Ric Flair & HBK. I guess they couldn’t get everybody Orton’s done dirty in the past to show up as a line would probably wrap around The Amway Center.
I was a little let down that Edge was nowhere to be found at the end, though. Big Show & Christian’s involvement were directly because of Edge, so him not making an appearance took a little away from it. When Drew hesitated to close the doors on Orton right before the ending, I assumed that would’ve been the perfect time for Edge to show up & Spear him into the back of the ambulance. I can’t complain too hard since instead they went with Drew hitting Orton with a Punt then shutting him inside for the victory. Pretty great story telling that Orton gets done in by all the people he’s wronged recently & loses to his own move to add a cherry on top.
This was also the one match on the board that I felt had the greatest odds of having a title change hands. Orton’s been probably the best part of RAW all year & giving him the title heading into Rumble Season felt like a very WWE thing to do. I’m not mad the outcome, however, but I am curious where both guys go from here. I don’t think they’ll do another round for Hell In A Cell after this as McIntyre is now up 2-0 on Orton, but we’ll see. Keith Lee can be put up against either guy, but other than him, nobody else is really out there on RAW that I think is currently main event level that isn’t already busy with somebody else right now. Maybe SLAPJACK is line for a run at The WWE Title. Who are you to doubt El Slappy??
Crewsin’ For A Bruisin’
Everything from here on out was admittedly nothing special. The wrestling was all passable, but between Covid, injuries & weird story decisions, the matches the rest of the way had one or two things that just didn’t work.
The United States Championship bout was good in that it gave Lashley a solid, clean victory that a heel champion like him should be getting on a regular basis & wasn’t marred by any Retribution interference. Other than that, I kind of completely forgot about it until I started doing this review. I don’t know what it is about Crews, but even though he was just the champion, I thought he had no shot at beating Lashley here. Even when he was getting good offense in on Lashley, I was thinking to myself how he’s just going to get caught in The Hurt Lock & tap out quickly, which is exactly what happened.
Not to sound like broken record, but here’s another ongoing feud on RAW that I wish would just die finally. Crews has been up against The Hurt Business since before Extreme Rules & I think it’s safe to say he’s lost the war. RAW would do well to just shuffle the deck on its own show & start feuding guys in other divisions with different champs. Move Andrade up against Lashley & pivot Crews & Ricochet against the Profits. I don’t care about alignments, just anything different. Please.
Vega Can’t Beat Balrog
And by Balrog, I mean the gigantic fire monster from Lord Of The Rings, not the boxer from Street Fighter.
I fully recognize that Zelina Vega is talented & probably the most underutilized person on the women’s roster non-Bianca Belair division. Having said that, I also have to go by what WWE presents to the audience. Vega has won exactly one (1) match since being on RAW against Mickie James two weeks ago. Beyond that, she either was randomly showing up in Royal Rumbles or getting thrown into the upper deck by Bianca. Again, that’s not a dismissal of her ability or anything, but you got to give us something to make us think she’s a viable contender. And against Asuka no less. I feel bad about complaining when they’re injecting new blood into the women’s division, but you can’t just fast forward to a title match for somebody who’s been essentially a non-wrestler this whole time.
The match itself is fine for a RAW match, but certainly not pay per view worthy. Zelina does a bunch of limb work to Asuka’s arm, that she sells with mild annoyance & just snatches her in The Asuka Lock no problem anyway. It honestly felt like she could’ve done that at any time too. One of the problems with the show is they had to completely scrap two matches for Covid related reasons, so basically every match was given more time. That worked well for the main events & ladder match, but other matches felt like they overstayed their welcome.
Zelina unwisely attacks Asuka in the post match & then very wisely runs away before she can become a stain on mat. So I guess that’ll continue for a while. I don’t want to entirely dump all over RAW’s women’s division, so I will say that I do like them positioning some women not usually in the spotlight at the forefront of the division. Peyton Royce, Zelina & if she ever finds her way out of the Phantom Zone, Bianca Belair all have huge upside, so it should be fun seeing Asuka against some new challengers.
Lounge Party > House Party
WWE does this weird thing sometimes where they tease a team’s break up for a while only for them to forget about it some weeks until they eventually remember it & bring it back. That’s exactly what happens here. Kalisto & Lince Dorado have been infighting for several weeks now, even though Kalisto is the only one who’s gotten a win in the group since returning. Dorado, for some reason doesn’t like this as I assume he thinks he’s been the group’s leader during Kalisto’s injury time off? I don’t know. They make it a point to address all of this on their preshow match against Cesaro & Nakamura by… not addressing it at all & just have LHP lose clean. Cool.
Huh? This is what I’m saying. Why not have a miscommunication or something that furthers the story you’ve been telling for weeks? Dorado & Kalisto were the participants in the match, so it’s all in place to pull the trigger. Have one or the other cost them the match & we can get to the fireworks factory already. Unless they’re going to continue feuding with Nak & Cesaro, you’ve lost the best opportunity to do the split in any meaningful way.
To say at least something positive, it’s another good win for the champs. The Cesaro Swing into The Kinshasa is a pretty great finishing move as well. Here’s wishing these guys can get some new challengers in the next few weeks. As much as I love Smackdown right now, the tag divisions desperately need a shake up across all brands & I’m hoping the draft provides us with that.
Openly Challenged
For all the praise I’ve heaped over Bayley, Asuka, & Sasha these past months, this segment just plain wasn’t good. I understand they had to do something on the fly with Nikki Cross not available last minute due to possible exposure to Covid & I love me some Asuka, but you couldn’t put anybody else from Smackdown out there? Why does somebody from RAW get to answer a Smackdown open challenge? We all know whomever takes Bayley on in this spot isn’t winning, so just throw Lacey Evans, Tamina or Dana Brooke out there to get taken down in a few minutes & then we can get to the post match stuff. Ideally, I would’ve had Alexa Bliss come down as Regular Bliss, start getting her ass kicked & show signs of the Fiend sneaking in & then have Bayley either take a count out or get herself DQed since she’s not trying to make out with the floor by the announce desk any time soon.
Instead, Asuka comes out, they fight for literally three minutes & Bayley just hits her with a chair once to take the loss & she disappears. This is the same Asuka who after getting sucker kicked by Zelina once their match ended earlier went into a blind rage & I’m assuming threatened to end her entire bloodline. Clearly this is all filler just to get to Sasha Banks to come back & get chair retribution for Bayley’s past two attacks. Can we get a status on her neck injury? Because I’m fairly certain you shouldn’t be giving chair shots in a neck brace, let alone be taking them. Sasha makes wincey faces about it, but pretty much no sells getting her neck Pillmanized a couple weeks ago.
I’m not loving where this is heading though either with Hell In A Cell right around the corner. I don’t think any feud in WWE currently is deserving of a HiaC match. Maybe Orton & McIntyre, but that just had the gimmick match. Sasha & Bayley could get there, but you just know they’re going to do more than one match between the two & starting at HiaC just to work backwards to normal matches is terrible decision making. I really wish WWE would stop with the HiaC & TLC ppvs. Just let feuds naturally build to them instead of being like “Welp, it’s October, time to shoe horn in some cell matches”. Maybe we’ll come to find out Sasha isn’t cleared & we can push it out more, but that’s wishful thinking. I’m sure whatever they do will be great, but I really didn’t dig this segment to get us there.
Somber La Sombra
I am so over this feud it’s not even funny anymore. Just in this calendar year alone, The Street Profits have faced Andrade and/or Angel Garza in some form for one third of their matches. We’re nine months down in this year. Add in the fact that The Street Profits’ promos are long past insufferable & that Andrade & Garza all of a sudden are a cohesive tag team after months of teasing a breakup (Good job making the woman the scapegoat again, WWE) & there’s precisely negative hype going into this title match.
To compound the issue, Garza goes for a jumping knee strike on Ford about seven minutes in & the leg he plants with completely buckles. The referee throws up the X, making him out for the rest of the match. Non-contact injuries are never a good sign, so let’s all hope it’s relatively minor, but things didn’t look good when I went back & watched it again. After that, the agents and/or referee go into a panic & Dawkins pins Andrade almost immediately with him very clearly kicking out long before a three count. Look, the injury stuff sucks & so does having to book an ending on the fly because of it, but the referee is in constant communication with these guys in the ring. Have him explain to Andrade what’s happening on the sly & just get a real ending out of it. As it stands, Andrade has beef that he didn’t lose, but also doesn’t have a partner to follow up on it, so everything just looks bad from all angles.
This might sound callous, but part of me is happy Ivar & Garza have injuries. I don’t wish anybody being for real hurt, but the silver lining is The Street Profits will now have to face literally ANYONE else going forward. Please join us Monday when Andrade & Erik team up to form War Ma-Cien & I seriously consider skipping RAW until the draft.
Overall
***Here’s a new feature I’m throwing into reviews. Top-Down tells you what’s better than something else, but doesn’t really gauge by how much. If you didn’t see the show, you can do a quick dip down here going forward & see what you should check out. Let me know what you guys think.***
Worth Your Time: Universal, WWE, & Intercontinental Championship Matches
If You Have Time: RAW Women’s & United States Championship Matches
Don’t Waste Time: RAW & Smackdown Tag Team & Smackdown Women’s Championship Matches
And that’s Clash Of Champions. The Champions swept, which was kind of an odd choice (Zayn was the rightful champion, don’t @ me). Definitely highlighted by the Reigns, ladder & ambulance matches. Everything else… not so much. Even with that, there’s some positives to be taken away. Hopefully we can get some new feuds on the RAW side of things & some new challengers for the champs over on Smackdown. How did you guys feel about Clash? Hit us up below or over on The Discord & share your thoughts. We’re officially on the road to Hell in a Cell, which can’t possibly be as bad as the last couple, right? RIGHT??
