WWE Clash of Champions Review - December 17, 2017

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Mojo Rawley def. Zack Ryder (Kickoff Match)

For a match I couldn't have cared less about coming into the event, this ended up being pretty decent. The pre-mach video package was very well done (where was that before tonight?) and I appreciated Rawley showing more aggression as a heel. I don't know how high of a ceiling he'll have on his own, but this was a solid start to his singles run. Kudos to the crowd for not being as dead for this as I thought they would be.

Dolph Ziggler def. Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode in a Triple Threat Match to Win the United States Championship

Considering how bad the build was for this bout, this was a surprisingly pleasant opener with a hot crowd to boot. All three wrestlers held their own and I liked that there never seemed to be a dull moment. Ziggler pinning Corbin to capture the U.S. title shocked the hell out of me, but we'll see where they go with it. Personally, I wouldn't have done that because Ziggler hasn't been interesting in ages, but perhaps it was the company's way of attempting to lure Ziggler into extending his current contract.

SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos def. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin, The New Day and Rusev & Aiden English in a Fatal 4-Way MAtch

Each of the four tandems involved in this outing are terrific, so the fact this was a really fun matchup was to be expected. Similar to the previous matchup, it was all action and several stars shined, especially Gable. Those consecutive suplexes at the end should prove to people that he is the real deal. That said, I was glad he looked credible in defeat. The Usos continue to kill it as champs, so I had no problem with them retaining their titles.

SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair def. Natalya in a Lumberjack Match

There haven't been too many Lumberjack matches that I've liked over the years, simply because they're typically train wrecks, and this was no exception. The women interfering down the stretch was whatever, and besides, we've seen plenty of Charlotte against Natalya in the last few months. It wasn't bad by any means, but I wasn't too excited by much of what they did. Natalya's post-match promo was confusing. It sounded like she was turning heel, but she already is a heel. Could she be "quitting" in storyline soon?

The Bludgeon Brothers def. Breezango

Given that The Bludgeon Brothers have been extremely dominant in their run on SmackDown Live thus far, this was exactly what it needed to be: a glorified squash match. Harper and Rowan wasted no time in decimating Breezango, but the crowd didn't seem to pop for any of their impressive offense. Unfortunately, their post-match promo wasn't too good, so fingers crossed they are kept silent in the future and rather they let their intensity in the ring speak for them.

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens def. Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura (SmackDown Comissioner Shane McMahon and SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan Served as Special Guest Referees; If Owens and Zayn Lost, They Would Have Been Fired From WWE)

As if having two referees wasn't ridiculous enough, Bryan and Shane officiated the match at the same time! I was not a fan of that whatsoever, and the match itself was pretty basic until the final few minutes. This was a disappointing effort from the four stars that competed and the focus being on Bryan and Shane throughout the bout didn't help matters. I didn't mind what they did with Bryan counting fast for Zayn because Shane tried to screw over Owens earlier on, but I still have no idea where they're going with this angle and I'm not positive WWE does, either.

WWE Champion AJ Styles def. Jinder Mahal

Mahal hasn't had a single above-average pay-per-view match all year, but if anyone was going to get a strong performance out of him, it was Styles. This was miles ahead of any encounter Mahal had with Orton or Nakamura in 2017, but yet it was still inferior to their championship clash on SmackDown Live last month. The Singh Brothers making their presence felt at ringside was inevitable, but at least Mahal hitting his finisher on Styles made for a believable nearfall. Needless to say, Styles holding onto the hold was absolutely the correct call. Mahal's main event run appears to be over (for now), and now we can finally move forward with Styles as champion heading into 2018.

Overall Show

I did not set the bar high for Clash of Champions, so all in all, it exceeded my low expectations. In fact, I would go far as to say it was an enjoyable edition of SmackDown Live and not much more. It was a middle-of-the-road show to close out the year, which I suppose is fitting. WWE didn't have many standout shows this year (most of them were average at best), so hopefully 2018 will be a better year for pay-per-views in WWE.