WWE Clash of Champions 2017: What we learned, takeaways, future projections
By Luke Norris
WWE Championship Match
AJ Styles (c) vs. Jinder Mahal
What we learned: We learned here that the Jinder may have finally been hindered. After a loss to Triple H during the WWE tour in India and then a loss here in his automatic rematch for the WWE Championship, I think it’s safe to say that Jinder Mahal experiment as a main event wrestler has come to an end.
Every time I write one of these pay-per-view reviews and an AJ Styles match is involved, I always want to say that we learned that he’s the best wrestler in the world, but we’re well beyond that. However, he proved it once again on Sunday night. This match obviously wasn’t the best match or even close to one of the best matches of his career, but this may have been the best match we’ve ever seen from Jinder Mahal … and he can thank AJ Styles for that. Mahal actually did look good here, but with Styles’ selling abilities, Mahal looked like a rock star in this match.
The two told a great story in the ring as Styles sold a rib injury early and often and Mahal followed up on it, making sure to attack the midsection whenever possible with holds like body scissors and abdominal stretches. It was just smart wrestling and I was very impressed. The live crowd wasn’t crazy about this one given the slow pace, but I like what they were doing here. Jinder doesn’t have the biggest offensive skill set, and Styles was still able to make him look fantastic.
The pace picked up as the match went on with Styles hitting his aerial maneuvers and some good near-falls, which I have to say could have been better if this particular referee’s normal counting pace wasn’t so slow. But there was still plenty of drama as we had to wait and see if they were going to go with another Jinder title run, which actually did seem like a possibility. However, with ratings being up since Styles regained the WWE Championship, I’m hoping that this means we’re going to stick with him as champ for a while.
What’s next: Jinder Mahal’s run at the top seems to be over and he’ll drop back down the card for a while. How far remains to be seen. I think he could enter the United States Championship picture at some point, and I think that would be good for him. He had his 15 minutes and got more exposure and main event matches than anyone would have ever thought was possible. Just let it be that and move on.
As for AJ Styles, he’ll need a number one contender for the Royal Rumble, and as I mentioned earlier, I think Baron Corbin is the way to go here. There’s a built-in storyline from their US Title program and it could get us through the next six weeks. With Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar all but confirmed as the Monday Night RAW title match at WrestleMania, a SmackDown Live superstar will likely win the Royal Rumble, and it just sets up perfectly for Shinsuke Nakamura. Styles retains next month, Shinsuke win the Rumble and we get AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Come on, creative, don’t screw this up.
Next: 10 WWE storylines in 2017 that made wrestling better
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