It’s all about Hashtags: Clash of Champions Recap

Live from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the Indiana Pacers and the birthplace of The Shield, WWE presents the first RAW branded PPV of the new era, and the card is pretty good.  We get the usual preshow chatter, but I don’t feel the need to recap things we’ve already recapped, so let’s get straight to this.

#Preshow #NiaJaxUsedtobeaModel #MountainDewKickstart

I don’t necessarily know that this information makes a difference at all.  There’s no doubting that she’s a really pretty woman, even if she’s supposed to look evil.  What is important information is that 1) Contrary to Michael Cole and Byron’s proclamations, Nia has been shown to be vulnerable, as she was choked out by Bayley in NXT so taking a few drop kicks is rather light and 2) Nia Jax is a f***ing monster.  She threw Alicia Fox around like a ragdoll.  We didn’t get any sort of story progression that would have made use of Nia’s appearance on a PPV event, but she didn’t beat the hell out of Alicia and get another win on her record.  Not counting NXT, there’s nothing in the loss column for those keeping track at home.

#NewDayRocks….Again

I had hopes that this would be the end of the reign of The New Day.  I didn’t need it to be permanent, but I needed them to actually have something to fight for other than Big E’s testicles.  They’re getting stale and they could have been completely revitalized just by pulling the belts away from them and giving them something to fight for.  But again, Francesca would come in to play so even though they’re presented as the faces they are still using heel tactics to keep the belts.  New Day retains, but it’s got to be coming to an end at some point soon.

#CruiserweightsonRaw

That is TJ Perkins, for those of you who weren’t actually aware prior to tonight.  He won the Cruiserweight Classic which came with the Cruiserweight Championship.  Tonight he would defend against Brian Kendrick in a rather spotty match, but these guys really have not been given any time to work together and get their timing down.  TJ Perkins, in addition to dabing, also defended.  He is still your Cruiserweight Champion.  Now stay excited, these guys are only going to get better.

#DrinkItInMan #TheGift #TheGiftofJericho #Y2J

I’m the crazy Chris Jericho mark and yet I am the only stupid idiot that went with Sami in our predictions.  This match was pretty great, so I’m glad we got it, but Jericho is at that point where he should be developmental talent, helping get guys over, but he tends to get the wins at PPVs when the matches actually mean something.  Sami doesn’t need any help getting over, so its going to be fine for him to take the loss here, plus it should help build to some further storyline progression involving Sami, his ex-best friend Kevin Owens, and Kevin’s new best friend Chris Jericho, and I’m excited about it.  Jericho wins.

#BestofSeven #SickCycleCarousel

Don’t let that image deceive you.  And yes, I did make a Lifehouse reference in my wrestling recap.  Cesaro and Sheamus put on one of the best, most physical matches I’ve seen in quite a while.  Cesaro took a bad spot landing on his head on the outside, then the two would battle over the barricade into the crowd, where you could hear Cesaro telling the ring doctor that he couldn’t feel his hand, which is terrifying, but the match ended in a no contest as the ringside medical staff called it, helping Sheamus to the back while Cesaro stood in the ring yelling that he was ready to go and he’d fight with one arm.  It was a great match, even if it didn’t have an actual finish.

#WomensRevolution #GiveDivasAChanceandTheyllDoThis

When you watch it, prepare for the usual reminders that they are 3 of the 4 Horsewomen of NXT, that Charlotte is the daughter of the greatest professional wrestler of all time, that they all love Eddie Guerrero, you know, the usual.  Then watch as they put on just as good a match as any three men would have.  The women’s wrestling has come so far in such a short time.  Even Nikki Bella has stepped up to the plate and, while she is still very much stuck in the Diva era visually, is just constantly improving in the ring.  At some point, one of these brand specific PPVs are going to nut up and put the women as the main event, and I would put money on it being Smackdown, but Raw has the talent and Raw has the women who are willing to do just about anything to make the match incredible, and if they were given the head spot on the bill, they would not disappoint.

I’m not going to tell you anything much beyond that.  You know Dana has some part in it, but it doesn’t really change the fact that Charlotte retained and Charlotte is a truly incredible performer.  Spot of the match: Charlotte hits a moonsault splash on not one, but both of her opponents.

#RedemptionRoad #RuRuTears #NoHomo

That really is a pretty man, hence the hashtag.  Roman Reigns has been one of the most consistent performers, particularly on Raw, and you know if you’ve been reading this site for any length of time that I truly appreciate that.  Was he this consistent when they had him in the main event scene?  No.  Has the relentless booing and getting to work with really talented guys been great for his in ring performance?  Absolutely.  This guy put on multiple fantastic matches with AJ Styles, who is so good he made Dean Ambrose look completely lazy at Backlash.  Roman Reigns has had multiple absolutely great matches of late with Rusev.  Roman Reigns went one on one with Finn Balor and took the loss in a good match, and he’d never worked with Finn before.  I guess the long and the short of it is that you can stop booing Roman Reigns now.  They’ve eased him back down the card, and while they’ve given him a championship, they didn’t just take every opportunity to put the red belt back on him.  He’s down the card where he can continue to work with great talent and continue to get better and better.  The crowd in Indianapolis was about 50-50 on him, and you could tell the majority of the cheers were from women and children, but that’s the money market, so just get over yourself you whiny smarks and accept the fact that he’s here to stay, and if you’ll give him a chance, you’ll start to realize he’s not that damn bad, they just went overboard trying to push him as Cena 2.0.  Roman Reigns is your new United States Champion and the seven year reign of Rusev is cut a little bit short, at about 120 days.

#WWEUniversalTitle #KevinOwensShow #ThatsMyBestFriend

I don’t know who the artist is here, I found it on Google Image search, but that’s pretty awesome, even if Kevin Owens has a slightly more simian look than usual.  For a big guy, Kevin Owens is surprisingly fast paced in ring, so he pairs up well with Rollins, who hit probably 8 enziguris in this one.  I think Owens and Rusev would probably pair well in a match, just big guys that move quicker than you’d expect and hit really brutal looking moves.

I digress again.  This match was a pretty good one.  Not the match of the night by any means, as it would have had to top the Cesaro-Sheamus or the Women’s Triple Threat, but Jericho did come out to work some distraction, so just more of the Gift man.  Both competitors used the traditional DX “Suck It” taunt, as if they were foreshadowing a Triple H appearance.  The Ref gets knocked down and Rollins ends up in a handicapped match against Owens and Jericho, but after holding his own pretty well, Stephanie McMahon came out to send another referee to the ring as Rollins couldn’t get the original one back on his feet, and as he slid in the ring he took a Pop Up Powerbomb and Owens retained.  There was just a little too much of the drama in this one for me.  It wasn’t bad, just could have been better.  Felt sort of lazy on the writing end.

But, tomorrow night we will get yet another episode of the Kevin Owens Show, which is already geared up to be mostly talking.

Final Thoughts

Whoever was responsible for these matches clearly missed the false finishes of the PPVs of old, because every match had numerous ones.  It was a good show with some truly good matches.  See, Raw has the capability to present great wrestling too, they just choose to give us 75% soap opera and 20% wrestling on their three hour broadcast, with the other 5% made up of Corey Graves being dressed like straight fire and giving Michael Cole and Byron Saxton absolute hell on commentary.  I think the only thing missing during Raw PPVs are Todd Chrisley commercials, but not to worry Dark Match Faithful, I’ve always got your back.