5 surprising moments from Clash of Champions 2017
On December 17th, we say a fond farewell to Jinder Mahal’s main event push. I doubt it will truly be missed by a vast majority of the WWE fans.
Clash of Champions was a decent little show on Sunday night in Boston that likely exceeded the low expectations for the Smackdown brand pay-per-view event. The matches that actually had some real time ranged from average to good throughout the night.
It was a nice way to end the pay-per-view year for the WWE. It certainly helps they have such a talented roster. The four title divisions on Smackdown are in really good shape heading into 2018.
With all of this night in my thoughts, I present my list of the top five most surprising moments of WWE Clash of Champions 2017:
#5 Dolph Ziggler wins the US title
I’ll admit it. I have felt really sorry for Dolph Ziggler this calendar year. It seemed his job on the Smackdown Brand was to lose to the up and coming superstars. He lost a major feud to Shinsuke Nakamura. He lost the Money in the Bank ladder match. He lost a major feud to Bobby Roode. It seemed pretty obvious his reason for being added to the US title match on Sunday was to take the pin and protect the other two wrestlers.
So it was really quite stunning to see him pin Corbin clean on an excellent finish. The match was really good, thanks to Ziggler and Roode, but it seemed well set-up to have the predictable finish.
To see Dolph actually win the title was a pleasant surprise. Dolph, on a recent podcast, called himself a “Gatekeeper” of the WWE. But to be a successful “Gatekeeper”, you need to win occasionally. It is nice to see Dolph back to winning titles again.