Tonight, the WWE will host Clash of Champions, the first RAW-exclusive PPV of the “New Era”. Clash of Champions will put every single RAW Championship on the line, including the brand new WWE Universal Championship and Cruiserweight Championship.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Clash of Champions comes at an interesting time for the WWE. We’re now two months into the “brand split” and the WWE is trying to keep viewers in what’s traditionally their least watched season of the year. Both RAW and Smackdown are starting to develop their own identities and the WWE is trying hard to put on some big main events to keep fans tuning in every week.
Like every WWE pay per view, there’s a ton of storylines to catch up with, so here are the five to catch up on going into WWE’s Clash of Champions.
The First Universal Championship Title Defense
After Finn Balor reliquished his new Universal Championship due to injury, RAW Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and General Manager Mick Foley quickly set up a tournament to determine who would become RAW’s next champion.
The final match in the tournament was a Fatal 4 Way featuring Big Cass, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens. However, in one of the most shocking moments in recent memory, Triple H returned from a lengthy hiatus and gave Owens the Universal Championship by giving Reigns and Rollins a Pedigree, his patented finishing movie.
Triple H’s actions were particularly a shock to Rollins, who was Stephanie McMahon and Triple H’s handpicked wrestler over the last two years. Stephanie McMahon claims she doesn’t know why Triple H picked Owens over Rollins, but it’s led to Rollins turning on “the Authority” (the Triple H’s unofficial corporate backed staple) and targeting Owens for retribution.
Owens will face Rollins at Clash of Champions for the WWE Universal Championship. It’s unlikely that Owens will lose the belt in his first title defense, but the big question is whether Triple H will make an appearance and explain why he picked Owens over what was his right hand man. It’ll also be interesting to see how the WWE keeps Rollins as a “face” (wrestling speak for good guy) as he’s spent most of the last two years as a bad guy.
Our Prediction: Kevin Owens wins, but not cleanly. Rollins completes his turn and becomes the top face of RAW.
Triple Threat Match for the Raw Women’s Championship
Last month’s Summerslam started off with a bit of a shocker when Charlotte retook the Raw Women’s Championship from Sasha Banks in a clean match. The rumor was that Banks had a serious back injury and needed surgery, which necessitated the change.
In the meantime, RAW needed a top women’s wrestler to replace Banks, so the WWE called up Bayley, the bright and happy star of the NXT women’s division. Bayley quickly earned herself a championship opportunity at Clash of Champions.
However, the WWE’s plans were thrown for a loop when Banks’ received a positive diagnosis on her back issue and avoided missing any significant time. After Banks returned to RAW, Mick Foley declared an impromptu Triple Threat match to decide who Charlotte would face at Clash at Champions.
That match ended in a double pin with Bayley and Banks, so Foley put them both in the Raw Women’s Championship Triple Threat match against Charlotte. This effectively erases Charlotte’s “champion’s advantage” as there are no disqualifications and Charlotte doesn’t even need to get pinned to lose the championship.
Triple threat matches are tricky to predict, but it seems likely that either Charlotte or Sasha will walk away with the championship. There’s also the possibility that Dana Brooke, Charlotte’s “protege” who is inching closing to feuding with her mentor, will somehow interfere to help decide the match.
Our Prediction: Sasha Banks wins and starts her second reign as Raw Women’s Champion.
Cruiserweight Classic Fallout
The WWE’s hottest program over the summer was the Cruiserweight Classic, a 32 wrestler tournament featuring some of the best indie wrestlers from all over the world. Cruiserweights are typically known for their high flying acrobatics since they weigh less than heavyweights, but the Cruiserweight Classic featured a plethora of different wrestling styles and techniques. TJ Perkins won the tournament with his devastating knee bar submission manuever and won the brand new WWE Cruiserweight Championship belt, which will be defended as part of Raw’s new Cruiserweight Division.
Since every title needs to be defended at Clash of Champions, Mick Foley quickly set up a Fatal Four Way match to decide Perkins’ opponent this weekend. “The” Brian Kendrick, a 38 year old veteran on his third stint with the WWE won the match and the opportunity to face Perkins this Sunday.
Perkins v. Kendrick is an interesting match, mainly because the Cruiserweight division is so new to the WWE. Kendrick’s main storyline during the Cruiserweight Classic is that he’s 38 years old and doesn’t have too many more opportunities to make a mark in wrestling. He’s portrayed himself as wily and cunning, an almost sympathetic heel, and knows how to wrestle the WWE style.
Still, Perkins looks to be one of the big stars the WWE wants to build the cruiserweight division around, so sadly Perkins probably doesn’t have much of chance in this match.
Our Prediction: Perkins retains after tearing the house down with Kendricks.
Monsters Collide for the US Championship
Poor Roman Reigns. Since his suspension over the summer, Reigns has fallen down the WWE card and has gone from the new face of the WWE to the perpetual loser of big matches. After suffering clean defeats to Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, and Finn Balor, Reigns’ redemption arc began when he targeted Rusev and his United States Championship.
Rusev is the definition of a monster heel, a big burly beast with a backbreaking submission manuever known as the Accolade. He’s held the United States Championship since May and has built himself up with victories over second and third tier wrestlers like Kalisto, Zack Ryder, and Titus O’Neil.
Reigns and Rusev first butted heads when Reigns interrupted Rusev’s wedding celebration with Lana (Rusev’s real life wife), which ended with Lana taking a wedding cake to the face. Reigns then wrecked Rusev before their match at Summerslam, forcing the WWE to call off the match. Basically, Reigns has been the “bully” in this feud, even though he’s supposed to be the good guy.
Honestly, this match is a toss up. Conventional wisdom says that Reigns will win, because Reigns is still one of the WWE’s top guys and doesn’t have much to do at the moment. A US Championship keeps Reigns away from the main event picture for a bit and gives the WWE another chance to salvage Reigns’ reputation with the fans. But, Reigns might still be in the dog house and a loss to Rusev could put Reigns on the path to becoming the monster everyone wants to see him become.
Our Prediction: Reigns wins, but gets booed anyways.
The Best of the Rest
The other WWE title on the line is the Raw Tag Team Championship, which are currently held by the New Day. Everyone loves the New Day, which is why they’ve had the Tag Team titles for over 400 days, but Raw’s tag team division is in desperate need of some change. Their opponents are Gallows and Anderson, the ex-NJPW tag team champions, who probably should have won the titles last month at Summerslam. Gallows and Anderson have kind of stagnated since their arrival at the WWE last spring, so a championship run could do their reputations a whole lot of good.
Clash of Champions will also have two non-title matches. The first is the finale of a best of seven series between Cesaro and Sheamus. Sheamus, a former WWE Champion, jumped out to a 3-0 lead but Cesaro has come back to tie the series up at 3-3. The winner of the match will get a future championship opportunity, so Cesaro and Shamus have both ramped up their intensity as the matches have gone on. Cesaro deserves the win here (and a WWE Universal Championship shot) as he’s one of the most underappreciated wrestlers on RAW’s roster right now.
The other match will pit Chris Jericho against Sami Zayn in a “battle of Kevin Owens’ best friends”. Zayn was Owens’ best friend before Owens betrayed him in NXT and the two just finished up a months long feud. Jericho replaced Zayn as Owens’ “best friend” and recently started insulting Zayn to show his loyalty to Owens. This led to the inevitable confrontation and a match at Clash of Champions. There’s not a lot of stakes to the Zayn/Jericho match, but given the caliber of the opponents, this might be the match of the night.
