WWE Clash of Champions 2016 review: Grading every match

Coming into the pay-per-view, this was clearly one of the tougher matches to predict a winner for. Both guys had just entered this feud, and neither had been on any sort of major roll. Both had been part of the Universal Championship chase on Raw but both lost in their attempts at it. That left the fans with a great feud between two of the better guys in the ring.

In their first encounter, Zayn and Jericho were able to also entertain the fans with plenty of great spots. Both competitors know how to tell a story and sell. They did that most of the way throughout this particular match. Fans were certainly entertained and loved the variety of near finishes.

There were back and forth punching sequences as well as moves many fans might not be able to pronounce too easily. At one point, Zayn even landed a diving DDT through the ring corner to take down Jericho on the outside. Earlier, he connected on a flying Tope con Hilo over the top rope onto Jericho on the floor. There were great counters for each competitor’s finishes as well.

Zayn could never quite get that Helluva Kick he wanted. In the end, the veteran Jericho suckered Zayn in and hit the Codebreaker for the win. It was one of those fun surprise finishes that came out of nowhere. It seems like this was just the first of several matches these two will have and that’s good news for fans going forward.

Grade: B+