***CLASH of the CHAMPIONS*** - 2017 - Official Thread

[Droford]

Jinder can go back to being a jobber

[Emperor Smeat]

:y: The Face That Runs The Place won.

Shocked WWE didn't pull a dumb swerve with a Jinder win or something possibly worse.

[Sepholio]

Feel like I would be a lot cooler with Jinder over all if the Singh Brothers would piss off tbh.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Talking SMACK!!!

[KIRA]

Full disclosure. That was the best I have ever seen Jinder go.

Right

[Dark One]

Feel like I would be a lot cooler with Jinder over all if the Singh Brothers would piss off tbh.

It's a totally fair complaint.

Jinder's 2017 felt almost identical to most of the Planet Jarrett reign of terror in 2005-2006--every match, no matter who the opponent was or what the story was or what the match was like, ended with the SAME cluterfuckery of run-ins and a cheap finish. That's fine to do sometimes--hell, maybe even often--but when you do it EVERY match, no matter the stakes, it just turns everything to shit.

[KIRA]

I keep thinking of all the people WWE either heald off giving the belt to or just straight up never gave them the belt and think wow Jinder Mahal had a nice run as champ Jinder Mahal went to Summerslam as the champ......

[Evil Vito]

Congrats to Poit on his Talking Smack debut.

[rez]

decent ppv even tho breezango died

[KIRA]

It's a totally fair complaint.

Jinder's 2017 felt almost identical to most of the Planet Jarrett reign of terror in 2005-2006--every match, no matter who the opponent was or what the story was or what the match was like, ended with the SAME cluterfuckery of run-ins and a cheap finish. That's fine to do sometimes--hell, maybe even often--but when you do it EVERY match, no matter the stakes, it just turns everything to shit.

Besides people caring enough to be pissed how is Jarretts reign of Terror different from the hell of Triple Hs reign?

[DAMN iNATOR]

I'll be honest, I don't get the Sam Roberts hate...seems like a really chill dude with a lot of interesting insights and predictions.

[Dark One]

Besides people caring enough to be pissed how is Jarretts reign of Terror different from the hell of Triple Hs reign?

Triple H's reign of terror was brutal, but from what I recall of it, sometimes he'd win via Sledgehammer, sometimes there'd be interference, sometimes he'd cheat. Sure, he won and beat people that arguably should have gotten the rub, but there was variety in the bullshit.

99.999% of Planet Jarrett matches had run-ins, leading to a ref distraction/bump, guitar shot, pin, in that order. It was basically the same ending to every PPV for 18 months straight.

[slik]

Iginfest


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Look at this fucking guy. <a href="https://t.co/3JkrLfo7IE">pic.twitter.com/3JkrLfo7IE</a></p>&mdash; Voices of Wrestling (@voiceswrestling) <a href="https://twitter.com/voiceswrestling/status/942603565574557698?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2017</a></blockquote>
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[Dark One]

Kevin Owens just won the World Series.

[Emperor Smeat]

Everyone outside of Styles this year had terrible runs as WWE champ and I'd go as far as saying Jinder's run was a lot better than Orton's run. Maybe even better than Cena's as well because of how anti-climatic Cena's record tying run was.

Jinder's biggest problem was WWE putting no effort at all in building him as a champ. Rushed him into a title reign and then were creatively bankrupt afterwards with it.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Renee and Sam heaping so much praise on Charlotte I thought she looked like she may have started to blush a bit, LOL.

[Dark One]

AJ on Talking Smack looks like he walked face first into a lawnmower.

[screech]

I enjoyed the show more than I thought I would. Missed the kickoff match. Is it worth going back to watch?

Didn't think Ziggler would go over, also Roode should really be heel.

Women's match was v good, liked the Carmella cash-in tease. Interested to see what's next for the riott club. And I want Natalya to speak less.

Tag title match was awesome as they usually are, lots of fun spots. Think the right team won (would've been fun to see Rusev and English win though).

I want the Bludgeon Brothers to start using the hammers.

Owens/Zayn match went about how I figured it would. I wonder if Bryan will "face the consequences." I've been digging this angle.

And as much as I have soured on Jinder, that may have been the best match he's had in WWE - or at least since he returned.

[slik]

Kickoff match was decent between Mojo/Ryder. I don't think you would dislike it.

[Fignuts]

Is anyone really that surprised that Jinder had a good match with AJ Styles?

[Sepholio]

Yeah kinda to be honest. I know AJ makes pretty much everyone look good but I thought even that would be a tall order in a match with Jinder. But I don't think it was all AJ either; I think Jinder is finally genuinely showing legit growth. He was different last night and it was a good different (not including the Singh Bros usual shenanigans, which is still awful).

I'm wondering if all the rumors about him being injured during a good chunk of his reign were true and maybe the reduced schedule/time off gave him enough of a breather to recover and that played into how much better Jinder looked last night.

[Rammsteinmad]

Jinder's alright in the ring, but he's definitely one of those guys who is only as good as the person he's working with. Put him with Styles and you've got a classic match, put him with Big Show and you've got a stinker.

With that said, he still looks rigid in the ring, and I use that term because I don't really know how else to describe it. Like, the way he bumps and moves around... everything looks really stiff, like he isn't very flexible or have a good range of motion.

All-in-all good event though. Crowd were hot, which really makes so much difference. So glad Ziggler won the triple threat, and Aiden English's song was incredibly entertaining, even more so when he asked for an encore and the crowd ate it right up. All round solid show.

[slik]

hitting her own team member, eva marie's true successor has arrived

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b186c8ed055718693e310a1db87a7f0b5d6f2d364a0f2cae0934faa6d5510c1.gif?w=600&h=302

[#1-norm-fan]

That is referred to as "Alex Riley-ing"

[Big Vic]

That match was booked poorly... and Byron made it unwatchable.

[Anybody Thrilla]

I enjoyed the show as a whole. Nothing made me upset, and some good matches.

I think that Mojo is going to be a really good heel, btw.

[Cool King]

• The US Championship match was pretty good and I'm happy Ziggler won for more than one reason.

1) Hopefully this can "rejuvenate" a somewhat stagnant Ziggler in some way.
2) The US Championship will actually be interesting now.
3) Corbin is no longer a champion.

• Match Of The Night goes to the Tag Team Championship match. Everyone involved was just top-notch and it shows that SmackDown quite clearly has the best Tag Team Division.

To me, the stand-out guys were English and Gable. We all know how good The Usos are and also Rusev, but English and Gable really had a good showing last night.

However, it did make me think a bit that it sucks that Gable is stuck in the Tag Team Division whilst Jason Jordan is slightly floundering in singles competition on Raw. It's a shame that Gable didn't get the gig as Angle's son just because Vince wanted to rib Angle, because I think Gable would have been shit hot in singles competition on Raw and he wouldn't be getting all those boos that Jordan has been getting.

I don't think Jordan is quite ready for singles action but Gable clearly is.

As for English, Simon Gotch's release has got to be the best thing to ever happen to him.

The guy can now really show what he's got and by doing so, he's found Rusev and the two make a fantastic team. I did want them to win, but I'm sure based on last night and the weeks previous, that it won't be long before we see the two as Tag Team Champions.

• What on earth was the Women's Championship match?

That has to be the worst match of the night by a country mile. It was just one big clusterfuck. It was that bad that we had Liv Morgan attacking her own team-mate.

Hopefully, the promo at the end by Natalya isn't her leaving, because that would be an absolutely terrible match to end a career one. Especially for someone like Natalya.

• So with The Bludgeon Brothers killing Breezango, I think that maybe The Fashion Files is finished now.

• I really didn't watch Orton/Nakamura vs Owens/Zayn because I really have no interest in any of them or the storyline itself.

However, I will say that I get the feeling that this will lead to Bryan/Shane at WrestleMania.

• The WWE Championship match was good, but at the same time, not really. I know it's professional wrestling and we're supposed to suspend our disbelief and all that but I don't get why Mahal tapped.

The match was around twenty minutes, but for about the first five minutes (or less) of the match Styles targeted the leg of Mahal, but then for the rest of the match, he didn't as Mahal dominated him and showed no sign that the leg was bothering him throughout the match. For the rest of the fifteen minutes, Mahal destroyed AJ's ribs in multiple ways but then out of nowhere, Styles applies the Calf Crusher and Mahal taps pretty quickly.

Mahal did however have a good showing and he did look like he belonged in the main event. I think having him dominate in the may he did and not have The Singh Brothers get involved too much (once was the right amount), it really helped in cementing him as a main event guy and showed he can hang with guys like Styles and I can see him hanging around the WWE Championship for a good while and eventually regaining it, so although I wanted Mahal to win, I think him losing actually did more for him (and more for him in the longrun) than him winning.

• Overall, I'd say it was a good show.

[#BROKEN Hasney]

[It's worth noting that WWE did not announce attendance for last night's Clash of Champions pay-per-view. This may have been just the second time in the past year that WWE has not announced attendance during the pay-per-view broadcast. Fans in attendance sent word that other fans were moved from the balcony areas to ringside seats to fill rows up for the camera.

Oof

[Anybody Thrilla]

I'm gonna start buying shitty seats to events and hope for that.

[Anybody Thrilla]

Really can't believe how hype I am about this Mojo Rawley turn.

[Evil Vito]

That's good that you've gotten hyped. But will you STAY hyped?

[Anybody Thrilla]

That must have been a psychosomatic thing.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'll be honest, I don't get the Sam Roberts hate...seems like a really chill dude with a lot of interesting insights and predictions.

I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I listened to him and Cornette on his show once. He asked Cornette about what he thinks about Owens & Zayn making it, and how he said they wouldn't. Cornette very thoroughly explained his position on them. Then it cuts back to Sam Roberts who says something like "Cornette not only reversed his position, but he made it sound like an accurate prediction," which I find of consider to be really shitty to a guest. To just disregard everything they say and just stick to your first point even though it was disproven.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I watched the SmackDown Tag Title match after hearing it was such a gross mess. I actually really liked it. They should have done something else (why not just do two tag team matches?), but they all did a really clever job of making the best of that messy situation. Gable is a fucking beast and Aiden English and Rusev are phenomenal.

[Evil Vito]

I'd be all for Rusev Day dethroning The Usos and striking while the iron is hot on Rusev. Something WWE have consistently failed to do.

Could lead to a fun Mania program with the Usos chasing to get the belts back.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd be fine with that, but I'd be even happier if they pushed Rusev higher and further than that. I did my most logical WrestleMania card last night, and Rusev ended up in a match with John Cena, where I would have him be the force guy to tap out in the first time in however long.