From the WWE Rumour Mill: Full Clash of Champions pay-per-view match card leaked?
What's the story?
Only one match has been officially announced for the SmackDown LIVE branded pay-per-view Clash of Champions, which is the WWE Title match between AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal, however eWrestlingNews.com has reported on the full rumoured match card for the event.
In case you didn't know...
AJ Styles shocked the WWE Universe when he ended Jinder Mahal's dominant run with the WWE Title just before Survivor Series. 'The Modern Day Maharaja' will have an opportunity to regain the title he formerly held as he has invoked his rematch clause for the Clash of Champions pay-per-view.
The heart of the matter
But how will the rest of Clash of Champions look? eWrestlingNews have reported on a rumoured full line-up of matches that will take place alongside the WWE Title match at the event.
WWE Title Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Jinder Mahal
Smackdown Tag Team Title Match: Usos (c) vs. Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin
United States Title Match: Baron Corbin (c) vs. Bobby Roode
Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn
New Day vs. Rusev and Aiden English
Charlotte, Natalya & Naomi vs. Ruby Riot, Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan
I would take this with a pinch of salt, because the site hasn't listed any sources and most of these matches can be surmised just by watching the last episode of SmackDown LIVE and seeing what the most likely outcome is.
That being said, I imagine this will be a fairly accurate representation of the matches that actually happen at the pay-per-view. Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode did indeed cross paths during the main event Lumberjack Match, as did Rusev Day and The New Day. The team of Charlotte , Natalya and Naomi against the insurgent NXT Superstars is also likely, especially as Becky Lynch has been written off of television for a while.
What's next?
If this card is to be believed it would seem that there's no room for the newly repackaged Bludgeon Brothers, the Fashion Police, The Ascension, The Hype Bros, Dolph Ziggler, Sin Cara which would sort of make sense given that none of them have featured in quite a while. But, we'll have to wait and see if this rumoured match card has any legitimacy in the coming weeks.
Author's take
If I'm honest, and you'd have asked me to predict the Clash of Champions matches, I think I would have come close to suggesting something like this. However there have been rumblings that the Author's of Pain are about debut on SmackDown, and I think there'd be room for the Bludgeon Brothers somewhere on the card so mine would be slightly different.