WWE Clash of Champions 2017: What we learned, takeaways, future projections

What we learned, what we took away and what the future holds for the superstars of SmackDown Live following Sunday night’s WWE Clash of Champions pay-per-view event.

WWE held its final pay-per-view event of 2017 on Sunday night as the superstars of SmackDown Live took over the TD Garden in Boston for Clash of Champions.

There was one match on the kickoff show between Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder which actually turned out to be better than I thought it would be, with Mojo picking up the victory against his former Hype Bros teammate in a bout that was actually more entertaining than a couple of the matches on the main show. There were six matches on the main card as all four blue-brand titles were on the line with a squash match thrown in there and of course, the tag match that saw Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn take on Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura with Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan as the special guest referees.

I was actually thinking that might be the final match of the night given the stipulation and circumstances, but I was pleased that they decided to book the WWE Championship Match last given the fact that the pay-per-view is called Clash of Champions, which actually leads me to a point I want to make before getting to the action from Sunday night.

I understand that the point of Clash of Champions is every title being on the line. But shouldn’t every title be defended on a pay-per-view anyway? Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I’m thinking that Clash of Champions should be its own WWE Network special that features the types of matches that we got at Survivor Series where the champions of each brand clash with one another to see who’s the best. That would make the name of the event a little more correct in my eyes but perhaps I’m reading too much into it.

In any event, let’s take a look at the six matches we did get on Sunday night, starting with arguably the biggest surprise of the night.