Cook’s WWE Clash of Champions 2017 Report Card

Hi, hello & welcome to the WWE Clash of Champions Report Card! It’s the last WWE Network Event of 2017, and SmackDown Live gets a chance to go out on a high note in Boston, Massachusetts. All their championships are on the line. Careers are on the line. Everything is on the line!

Here’s how I grade the WWE SuperStars…

A – Outstanding. Great moves, selling, interaction with the fans, everything. Stands out as a top performer.
B – Above Average. Very good offensively or defensively. Plays their role well. Helps the match accomplish what it set out to do.
C – Average. The type of performance that does nothing to stand out. No outstanding moves, no great effort to sell their opponent’s offense or draw the crowd into what they’re doing, just bland, basic wrestling. Sometimes, especially in a multi-man match, a short period of time spent in the ring without a chance to do too much.
D – Below Average. Poor execution, ignoring the crowd, not doing things that make sense.
F – Failure. Not doing anything useful. Actively holding the match back from accomplishing its objective.

Renee Young, Sam Roberts & David Otunga were on the Kickoff Show panel if you’re scoring at home, or even if you’re alone. Tom Phillips, Corey Graves & Byron Saxton are doing the announcing.

Kickoff Show Match: Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley

See, if you break up your tag team and you can’t make it off the Kickoff Show, breaking up the tag team was probably a bad idea. Ryder looks mad & starts out in a frenzy. It gets curtailed with a spinebuster. “You can see Mojo just getting him off”, Phillips says. Mojo sure loves his chinlocks. The talking point of the match is killer instinct, and Mojo wants to see it out of Zack. Zack shows some with some forearms and a couple of Broski Boots. Mojo puts his foot on the ropes, then responds quickly with a chop block & a running punch to the face that gets a three count.

Not too much to write home about here. Ryder did a fine job selling, but this never really got going. It probably wasn’t the best idea to do Mojo’s first heel match in Boston, since he’s known as being Rob Gronkowski’s buddy. Pittsburgh or New York City would have worked better.

Grades
Ryder: B-
Rawley: C

WWE U.S. Championship Match: Baron Corbin vs. Bobby Roode vs. Dolph Ziggler

I don’t know why they keep playing the first part of Dolph’s theme. We know by now he’s all emo & doesn’t want to do it anymore. Other than Roode, everybody on this show has had a serious downgrade in entrances lately. Graves with a nice burn on one of the German announcers. Roode & Ziggler knock Corbin over the barricade before turning on each other. Nice execution by Roode on the atomic drop & Russian leg sweep. He’s just a solid wrestler. WWE heels sure like their running punches these days, Corbin also uses one on Roode here. Ziggler can still bump his ass off. Corbin removes his shirt, which doesn’t quite get the reaction that Jeff Hardy got back in the day. Roode barely kicks out of the Deep Six. “Bobby Roode”, chants the Boston fans. Tower of Doom! Not a bad spinebuster from Roode, maybe he got some pointers from Arn Anderson. Ziggler hits a DDT on Roode for a near-fall. Roode fights back & hits the Glorious DDT on Ziggler! Corbin makes the save eventually, then hits the chokebreaker on Roode on the outside. Not sure if I would say it’s awesome, but some fans are trying. Ziggler turns an attempted End of Days into a Zig Zag on Corbin & wins the US Championship!

I figured that was coming because Ziggler’s a Fox News guy now & all about MERICA. Pretty good match here. Everybody did well, I thought Roode was a step ahead of the others.

Grades
Corbin: B
Roode: B+
Ziggler: B

Shane McMahon wants to know why Daniel Bryan keeps interfering in his feud with Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn. Not much is resolved.

Baron Corbin insists that Dolph Ziggler stole his title. I’ll take his word for it.

WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match: The Usos vs. The New Day (Kofi & Big E version) vs. Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable vs. Rusev & Aiden English

Rusev Day’s getting over. I’m inclined to like the big lug because he’s a Predators fan, but this thing’s getting more over than anything else he’s ever done. Usos are gonna blow themselves up before they get in the ring. We got four legal men in the ring apparently, which is new for this style of match. Well now everybody’s in. The referee has no control and they’re gonna take advantage. Shelton’s suplexing an Uso off the top rope already. Xavier Woods is yelling at somebody over there. Kofi’s delivering basement dropkicks to everybody except Rusev. We got dueling restholds from Gable & English. I feel like this is the type of match that actually needs two referees. We got New Day vs Gable & Benjamin on one side & Usos vs English & Rusev on the other. Eventually things intertwine. The crowd chants for New Day. Big E & the Usos get a hot tag & clean house. Double pins get two counts. Gable locks in a Texas Cloverleaf on Jey Uso & Shelton tries to keep everybody out. But Rusev & English won’t be denied! A powerbomb by English gets two! Rusev locks in the Accolade on Gable! Big E breaks it up, & he & Rusev go back & forth a little bit. Accolade on Big E! E’s powering out! No he’s not! Gable breaks it up & German suplexes Rusev! One for English! Chaos Theory on Big E! Usos with superkicks! The splash leads to a title retention for the Usos!

Bit of a confusing match here with some good spots. Rusev was very over. I feel like they want Benjamin & Gable to be more over, but it’s tough when they don’t get wins in these types of matches. The match was a bit of a chore to get through at times, but there were some good performances here.

Grades
Usos: B
New Day: B
Benjable: B+
Englishev: A-

People are going to be mad when all the title matches go on before the non-title matches,

WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship Lumberjack Match: Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya

I’m not big on all the lumberjacks getting their own entrances. Or not wearing lumberjack shirts. We don’t need to worry about Carmella cashing in tonight since Graves already mentioned it. Natalya is the first to tumble outside, and Naomi delivers a cheapshot. How honorable. Charlotte goes outside on the other side & several women attack. Natalya eventually pushes Charlotte back outside & the Riott Squad attacks. Carmella, Lana & Tamina get to attack on the other side. This seems a bit excessive. Also, I feel like Lana should be mad at Natalya based on Total Divas storylines. Natalya gets tossed outside & Carmella tosses her in. Charlotte fights back with a lot of woo chops. She doesn’t even get a chance to miss the moonsault this time. Charlotte tries the Figure 8 but gets kicked outside on top of Ruby Riott. All the women come over & Naomi does a dive on everybody. Tamina gets Charlotte with a kick & Nattie locks in the Sharpshooter. Charlotte gets out, but she gets pulled outside & takes more of a beating. Carmella thought about joining the match for a second, but then the Riott Squad joins in & everybody clears out. The referee has lost complete control. Charlotte does a moonsault & everybody falls over. Natalya sends Charlotte into the post, and tries a Sharpshooter, but Charlotte fights out & locks in the Figure 8! Natalya taps!

Natalya is rather unhappy after the match. She is turning her back on all of us, whatever that means. She’s also crying, which always makes me uncomfortable.

Dang, that was a John Cenaesque performance out of Charlotte. Not that I’m complaining, but getting beaten up by a bunch of lumberjacks forever & coming out of nowhere to win is definitely some Super Cena stuff. It definitely kills off Natalya’s chances anytime soon. Again, not that I’m complaining.

Grades
Charlotte: C+
Natalya: C

The Singhs explain to Dasha that Jinder Mahal is meditating before his title match with AJ Styles.

The Bludgeon Brothers vs. Breezango

I don’t think the Hindi annoncers mentioned Jinder in their spiel, which is a mild upset as the Japanese announcers mentioned Nakamura & the French announcers mentioned Kevin & Sami. Harper puts Breeze down with one shot. Rowan tags in & they destroy Fandango & Breeze in front of the announce tables. Breeze gets smashed into the ring apron. Big ol’ powerbomb to Fandango. Here’s the T-Gimmick, and that’s it for the Fashion Police.

Not long enough for a proper grade. Breezango didn’t do any better than Colin Delaney. The Bludgeon Brothers have memorized that promo.

Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn talk about how Daniel Bryan is a fair person & Shane McMahon isn’t. The Yep Movement rages on! They have no comment when Dasha asks what happens if they lose & get fired.

Owens and Zayn’s Careers on the Line: Sami Zayn & Kevin Owens vs. Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura (Special Referees: Shane McMahon & Daniel Bryan)

This was the most pushed match heading in, but you gotta have the WWE Championship go on last at Clash of Champions, right? I hope Orton keeps growing out his hair, it’s just so weird. Bryan’s trying to keep some order here. I hope he tells Shane that they have until 5. Orton & Zayn start. For what it’s worth, Bryan’s count was a little faster on an Orton pin attempt. The fans are excited for the Zayn/Nakamura rematch. Shane is quick to break up an Owens punching exhibition in the corner. After some failed counts, Shane & Bryan decide to split the ring on counts. Orton gets worked over for a bit. “Shane McMahon just trying to get Kevin Owens off” says Tom Phillips. Nakamura with the hot tag. Shane gets offended when Bryan counts when Nakamura’s shoulders are down on a triangle choke. Orton just throws Sami on a slam attempt. Sami gets crotched up top & Bryan is not impressed. Orton takes a page from his father’s playbook with a superplex. Everybody’s outside now and the referees are allowing it. Bryan inadvertently gets hit by Shane in this mix. Not sure what’s going on there, but Kevin Owens splashes Nakamura through the English announce table. Draping DDT by Orton on Sami, and Randy sets up for the RKO. He hits it! Shane goes for the count, but Bryan stumbles into him! I think Kevin pushed him into Shane! Whoops! Now Shane & Randy are angry. RKO to Owens! Sami small packages Orton, and there’s a series of near-falls! Then Shane screws Sami on a schoolboy on Bryan’s side of the ring! Shane & Bryan argue, then Bryan fast-counts Orton’s shoulders down on another schoolboy!

Hey, Shane McMahon tried to screw over Kevin & Sami. All Bryan was doing was evening the score. He deserves our trust.

Pretty decent match, but nothing blow away. The crowd was into it & the booking worked, though. I felt the confusion with the referees added to the match, unlike in the earlier tag match where the confusion took away.

Grades:
Kevin & Sami: B-
Ortamura: B-

WWE Championship Match: AJ Styles vs. Jinder Mahal

I can see this being the start of Jinder’s second title reign or his last title shot ever. I wouldn’t be surprised either way.Jinder delivers a hard elbow to AJ out of a go-behind & starts posing. He’s learning. AJ targets the knee & doesn’t let up. Jinder goes on the offensive with some hard strikes. He tries to shake some life back into that leg, then tosses Styles over the already damaged barricade. Styles banged his shoulder on it, and Mahal continues the assault on the floor, slamming Styles’ ribs off the table. Back into the ring & Mahal goes on with the domination. He even does a move off the second rope, which is quite the novelty. The second one meets with a Styles dropkick. Jinder continues with the offense, that leg’s still bothering him a little bit. AJ fights back! He eventually hits the fireman’s carry neckbreaker for two. Jinder flapjacks him for a near-fall. Northern Lights suplex by Styles gets two! Jinder blocks a seated forearm with his legs, then hits a running Samoan Drop for two. A tornado DDT by Styles doesn’t work, and Mahal kicks his head off for a two count. Jinder going for a Super cobra clutch slam perhaps, but Styles meets it with a Pele kick & tosses Mahal off the ropes. Springboard 450! Here come the Singhs finally to drag Mahal out of the ring, but Styles takes them out on the floor! A Styles Clash on the floor should render one of them useless the rest of the night. Styles misses the Phenomenal Forearm, Mahal with a knee to the back of the head! He hits the cobra clutch slam & drags Styles to the middle of the ring…it only gets two! Jinder got scratched here at some point and there’s some blood on the face. He’s signaling for the Styles Clash! Nah, Styles turns it into the Calf Crusher! Jinder fights it for awhile, but the pain is too much and he has to tap!

Hey, that was a really good WWE Championship match! I can’t remember the last time we got to say that on a PPV. Elimination Chamber, I suppose. Jinder had his best effort that I can think of, and AJ increased his case for Wrestler of the Year, Wrestler of his Generation, any accolade you want to give him. Good main event level match here.

Grades
AJ: A
Jinder: A

Final Thought

Most of these shows have had me regretting spending so many hours trying to type up a somewhat understandable recap. Often that had a lot to do with a main event that wasn’t very good or insulted my intelligence. We got a good one tonight. Boston was hot for most of the evening. The workers brought the effort. Not everything hit the mark, but one can hope that SmackDown Live is turning the corner heading into 2018.

For more of Steve Cook’s thoughts on pro wrestling, along with his thoughts on Nashville Predators hockey & life after Marvin Lewis (hopefully), follow him on Twitter!