WWE Clash of Champions 2017: What we learned, takeaways, future projections
By Luke Norris
Triple Threat Match for the WWE United States Championship
Baron Corbin (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Bobby Roode
What we learned: We learned here that Dolph Ziggler may not be done with WWE just yet, even if this may the prime example of the term “transitional champion.”
The build for this match wasn’t the greatest, as it just seemed a little thrown together and the thought was that Ziggler was thrown into this United States Championship bout so neither Corbin nor Roode would have to take the loss. But that obviously wasn’t the case as Ziggler won his first title in more than a year.
The Boston crowd was really into this one from the start, and the pace for this match was fantastic throughout. A lot of three-way bouts have a tendency to follow a formula of one guy not being involved for a long period of time while the other two go at it, and while there was a little bit of that here, I thought all three did a great job of keeping themselves in the match. I liked Ziggler and Roode teaming up in an attempt to take out Corbin at the start and everything flowed from there.
Each competitor hit their high spots, and there were some great near-falls here, especially in the last few minutes, which were excellent. The powerbomb/superplex spot was fun as always, and I loved the tease of Corbin trying to steal a win as that absolutely fits his persona. However, he was unsuccessful in that attempt and Ziggler was able to pin the champion after about 13 minutes of fun action. Nice start to the main show.
What’s next: As I said, I don’t think this will be a long reign for Ziggler at all, as I think Bobby Roode is being built to take it from him at some point in the very near future. Corbin obviously has his rematch clause, but I really think that he’ll lose that and then get fed to AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble. He can go with the fact that he has beaten Styles cleanly and deserves a chance at the WWE Championship on a big stage while Roode and Ziggler battle it out for the United States title.