WWE Clash of Champions 2016 PPV Review
By: Larry Causion Jr. CausionCreations.com
Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Credit: Dave Meltzer
Posted: Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Credit: Dave Meltzer
WWE Universal Championship
Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins
DM: Good match, never reached the heat level of some of the other matches. Owens retained due to inteference of Chris Jericho and hitting a power bomb after a ref bump when Stephanie McMahon sent out a second ref. So the idea is the second ref was sent by Stephanie but it wasn't overt in the sense it wasn't as if she was blatantly favoring Owens. But she didn't send the second ref out when Rollins had hit a pedigree and Owens was down for 20 seconds. Among the match highlights were Owens missing a senton and going through the Spanish table. Rollins kicked out of a package power bomb. Rollins hit his first pedigree and Jericho put Owens foot on the ropes to stop the count. Then we had the ref bump, leading to the Rollins second pedigree but no ref to count. Jericho then blatantly attacked, but Rollins backdropped Jericho over the top and hit a tope on Jericho and another on Owens on the other side of he ring. Remember that Jericho was originally to be in a three-way main event at Hell in a Cell with Owens and Finn Balor, and Rollins has been subbing for Balor.
LC: Seth Rollins is not a strong baby face and the crowd doesn't want to really cheer him. The switch to Seth from a whiny heel to baby face was too abrupt and it has hurt their heat. Match could have been a lot better.
WWE United States Championship
Rusev vs. Roman Reigns
DM: Good match ending with Reigns winning the title clean with a spear out of nowhere. Reigns had powerd out of the Accolade. Earlier Reigns hit the spear but Lana pulled the ref out of the ring and he threw Lana out. Rusev did a great job here, a solid physical match but not the level of the Jericho or the Cesaro match. So the idea looks to be to use the U.S. title to keep Reigns out of the Universal title situation for a while. The crowd booed Reigns at times, like when he made comebacks, but there were an early loud dueling chant like with John Cena.
LC: I really liked the performance by both here and I thought the crowd was hot for it. Reigns even got over in the end. Great job by both here.
WWE Women's Championship
Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley
DM: Another good match. It was the typical three-way with everyone using their finishing move with the third person making the save. The show was built around Charlotte, who retained her title using a high kick to Bayley, knocking her into Sasha Banks which knocked Banks off the apron. Charlotte used another high kick on Bayley for the pin. Dana Brooke saved Banks once when she was the in bank statement. Banks used the back stabber and bank statement several times. Once Charlotte did a moonsault on both and went to pin Banks but Bayley saved.
LC: I thought the match was well wrestled but nothing spectacular. Something was missing, and it hurt the crowd heat. I don't like the finish as I thought it was really a weak way for Bayley to get pinned with a regular kick.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
T.J. Perkins vs. Brian Kendrick
DM: They did a lot of cool things and missed a few spots. Perkins retained via submission. Kendrick went for the bully choke but Perkins escaped, used a kick to the head and a kneebar for the submission. After the match, the two hugged but Kendrick then head-butted Perkins to turn himself heel and keep the program going. The crowd was decently into it, not really the match but they did the dueling chants. It was far from the spectacular cruiserweight you'd want to make a statement, but it was a good match.
LC: I thought it was a good ground based match that told a story and continued the feud afterwards. Good stuff that showed that the division does not just have to be about high-flying spots.
Match Seven of the Best of Seven Series
Cesaro vs. Sheamus
DM: The two had an excellent match which ended when they were on the floor and Cesaro threw Sheamus into the post and then clotheslined him over the barricade into the ringside area. then both were selling injuries and the match ended with the referee ruling neither man couild continue. Sheamus had kicked out of the neutrlizer and Cesaro had kicked out of the Brogue kick. There were a lot of big spots and they did far more high flying than the cruiswerweights. At one point Cesaro did a tope but had a bad trajectory and landed on the side of his head. He seemed to come close to an injury. Everyone acted concerned but they worked several more minutes of big moves before their finish.
LC: I loved this match until the dumb finish. These two beat the hell out of each other and made you feel like this was the culmination of a series where this meant a lot for each man to win. Which is why the finish was sooo stupid.
WWE World Tag Team Championship
New Day vs. Gallows & Anderson
DM: Short match, fast paced though. Kingston did a dive on Gallows. Xavier Woods hit Anderson with the trombone and then E & Kingston did the double-team big ending on Anderson for the pin. They pushed this as 400 days as tg team champions. E had had used the big ending on Anderson after Kingston did trouble in paradise on him, but Gallows pulled E out of the ring for the save earlier.
LC: Good match. New Day should break the record so fine by me.
Sami Zayn vs. Chris Jericho
DM: Excellent match. Zayn kept going for the Helluva kick but never got it. After Zayn got a near fall with the blue thunder bomb, Jericho used the codebreaker for the clean pin. Just a great well-built match and the one spot that wasn't smooth, when Zayn did the dive from the floor through the ropes into and out of the ring into a DDT on the floor, which looked clumsy, Corey Graves did a great job of covering for by saying Jericho went to block the move.
LC: I really enjoyed this match and think they had great chemistry. A few botches, but overall good stuff. I don't think Jericho needed to win, but if he's going to feud with Owens and that is what they are building to, I get it.
