Clash of Champions 2020: A Clash of Messes

 By ZD

      Image: WWE Network

    Right off the bat, I never usually have much faith in what WWE has done post 2006, but I still try to keep up with their content as abysmal as it usually is in hope that my favorite talent employed there gets some sort of minor time to shine. Clash of Champions 2020 was certainly no different than their usual weekly, unimpressive RAW episodes. The biggest issue with this offering is though they hardly know how to write a single title defense, they had to write a title defensive match for each card of this event as all titles must be defended this night.

    Like always, I skipped the pre-show which is never worth watching for any of their brands; they opened up the "pay-per-view", (really with WWE Network it, they really should coin some sort of new terminology as they like to waste a majority of creative resources to come up with terms like WWE Universe), with the triple threat ladder match for the intercontinental title featuring AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, and Jeff Hardy (champ). The match was fairly boring overall, even loving two of the talents to a great degree (Styles, Hardy), I could still hardly keep my attention on the match. The only real notable thing that happened was the ending in which Sami Zayn (who otherwise is not a good heel character) took out handcuffs from his coat he was wearing pre-match and handcuffed Hardy's earlobe (increased in size by his gauges) to a ladder to impede his movement and a less dramatic version of this with AJ Styles to the ladder that Zayn would use to climb his victory. Obviously, I am not crazy about this result as Zayn is not necessarily the most interesting wrestler, though he is unique for having a ska entrance theme and not much else. He proceeds to tell the interviewer lady, who awkwardly bothers everyone post match immediately to ruin any type of hype the show is trying to gain, that he should be referred to as having defended his title not gaining it (from Hardy) as he never technically lost it, although it was stripped from him when he took 6 months off to nurse an injury and could not defend.

    Next up was Zelina Vega and Asuka (champ) for the RAW women's title. Vega is not the most offensively forced female wrestlers to work for the company (Sable is in contendership for that), but the way her title opportunity came about was done so rushed and sloppy. Within in a few episodes of RAW she went from leaving her management position for Andrade and Garcia, to demanding a title shot from Asuka, to only needing to have one qualification match against Mickie James, to facing the women's champ at a pay-per-view. It's absolutely ridiculous and the pacing is all out of whack, not to mention its completely unfair to all the female wrestlers who went through the proper channels and timeline to get their opportunity. Aside that the match itself was pretty unremarkable, Vega had a few spots and false finishes to make herself look good, but in the end of course Asuka retained her title in a very familiar way by causing Vega to tap out to the Asuka-Lock.

    After that was Bobby Lashley (champ) vs. Apollo Crews for the US title for god knows how many times and I honestly do not remember anything about this match worth mentioning. Lashley retains and the Hurt Business continues to give opportunities to wrestlers who were never really amazing on their own and that in its own right is mildly interesting.

    The RAW tag team titles were the next to be defended and I honestly wish for anyone other than the Street Profits to take the titles at this point. Angelo Dawkins is about as worthless all around as he is on the mic and Montez Ford is chained to a tag team that is not doing any of his abilities any favors. Andrade and Garza, both plot wise and actually in my opinion, have upped their game since Vega abandoned them and I was enjoying their half of the match. It ended with an odd controversial ref call where he ends the match despite Garza kicking out. Afterwards when I found out Garza was injured and this was why the ref ended the match the way he did (for the 3rd time in about the last month due to an injury or assumed injury), even though I'm sure Garza just kicked out out of instinct I wish he didn't so the finish had been less awkward and the ref didn't seem as incompetent.

    The next segment was Bayley offering an open challenge for her Smackdown women's championship to anyone willing to accept her challenge. Asuka stepped up looking to hold both brands titles, which I would honestly be up for. I question several things Creative is doing with Asuka like making her dance awkwardly or speaking gibberish Japanese for no reason as if she never just spoke English or actual Japanese before, but aside this I still find her to be a very talented wrestler who deserves a lot and thankfully has been given quite a bit to this point. This was probably one of the better matches of the night up to this point, if not overall because Bayley and Asuka can both work and are great athletes. Unfortunately, they couldn't give Asuka the Smackdown belt because they still have to bring back Sasha Banks (whom I don't dislike) to finish their awkward crybaby drama that I'm sure everyone is either way over or has completely forgotten about by now. Sasha attacks Bayley with a chair and I'm sure this is all very transparent setup for a future PPV match.

    Then was the ambulance match between Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre (champ), we've seen them face off 12 too many times by now so this match was very forgettable. They also did one of my least favorite things where a face deliberately or accidentally (as in this case) does something that clearly breaks the rules and would be something a writer would use to get heat on the heel, but it is hypocritically seen as acceptable when the face received this aid. In this case Big Show, Christian, Ric Flair, and Shawn Michaels all interfered in this match without McIntyre seeing, but all this really does in my opinion is downplay McIntyre's ability to actually beat Orton despite me having witnessed this victory before. That is how boring and overplayed this rivalry is.

    And finally we are presented with the main event, one that I ended up predicting not, not just its result, but how it would happen because Creative is just that predictable. Roman Reigns defended against his cousin Jey Uso whom lives with the cloud hanging over him that he isn't a legitimate solo competitor. In short Reigns beats down Jey with very few spots of resistance from Jey and eventually his brother Jimmy Uso comes out and pleads with Jey and Roman to stop fighting as things are going too far, after much refusal from Jey eventually Reigns starts pounding in Jey's face to which Jimmy finally throws in (not a metaphorical), but an actual white towel in. He actually threw in the towel. This type of ham fisted symbolism is just unenjoyably ridiculous. Reigns finally ceases the beat down, now that he's made the point that he will do anything to defend his title even against family and as he stands proud with his championship belt he is awkwardly given a lei and posed there looking more like he came back from a vacation than having just beat his cousin to a pulp to defend his title. All this outweighs how good Reigns looked with his new topless look and theme music in a lower key. I really hope this rivalry does not drag on and he starts feuding with someone more convincing next.

    Overall, the pay-per-view as you will have gathered by now was not that interesting unfortunately, from the lack of title changes to the lack of good writing or match booking and only having one mildly interesting match that had too predictable of an ending (Asuka vs. Bayley) it is very hard to recommend anyone take the time to watch this particular offering from the WWE Network.