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The year 2017 wasn't the best year to be a WWE fan. Although the WWE provided ample entertainment to the WWE Universe, it failed to capture their imagination. Ring of Honor, Lucha Underground, and NJPW grabbed this opportunity and are now household names all over the world.
But the WWE managed to learn from their mistakes and regained a tad bit of their lost momentum with the Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series PPVs, but the damage was already done.
And the nightmare is still not over for the WWE. The Smackdown-exclusive PPV, Clash of Champions is just around the corner, and the stakes couldn't be higher for the WWE. If the WWE wants to regain its lost glory and start the year 2018 on a positive note, it is imperative that the Clash of Champions PPV delivers big time.
Also read: 5 things WWE needs to avoid in 2018
The match card of the last WWE PPV of the year is shaping pretty well. And if the WWE doesn't mess up the booking then Clash of Champions might turn out to be a decent affair.
So, here are five booking decisions that can make WWE Clash of Champions a roaring success.
#1 Carmella cashes in her Money in the Bank contract
Carmella won the inaugural women's Money in the Bank ladder match. Carmella created history in the process but has sadly lost all the momentum since then. The most exciting aspect of a Money in the Bank contract is the unexpected cash in by the holder of the all-important briefcase, but Carmella is yet to do so.
The women's title match between Charlotte Flair and Natalya at Clash of Champions is a Lumberjack match, and Carmella is expected to be ringside as well.
Thus, if there ever was an opportune time for Carmella to become the women's champion, it is at the Clash of Champions PPV. Carmella cashing in her briefcase after a hard-fought match between Natalya and Charlotte will be exciting, to say the least.
#2 Daniel Bryan helps Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn win
WWE dropped the ball big time by making Smackdown play second fiddle to RAW in the past year or so. With the majority of the WWE's larger than life Superstars drafted to RAW, the blue brand was always a Superstar or two short. The result was catastrophic as Smackdown failed to deliver even half decent events throughout the year. But a couple of Superstars proved to be the saving grace that Smackdown so desperately needed.
Nobody saw the Sami Zayn heel turn coming even from a mile away. Ever since Zayn assisted Kevin Owens to defeat Shane Mcmahon at Hell in a Cell, both of them have taken the blue brand by storm. The team of Zayn and Owens is the best thing about Smackdown at the moment, and it makes it even better that the two are excellent in-ring performers and deserve to get their hands raised in victory at Clash of Champions.
If the tag team of Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura manages to defeat them at Clash of Champions, then both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens will be fired from Smackdown, and losing the duo to RAW is something that the blue brand can't afford. Therefore, the best booking decision for this match will be to book a Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn win.
Both Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura have had a disastrous 2017. So, a clean victory for KO and Sami seems impossible at the moment as it will make 'The Viper' and 'The King of Strong Style' look weak.
The WWE has been teasing a Daniel Bryan heel turn for weeks now, and the Clash of Champions PPV is the perfect opportunity to do so. Bryan turning heel and backstabbing Shane Mcmahon will certainly make Clash of Champions very interesting.
#3 The tag team title match steals the show
The heated rivalry between The Usos and The New Day might very well be the best rivalry of the year 2017 in all of WWE. The two teams delivered a plethora of epic matches that will surely be hard to forget. To say that they managed to steal the show each and every single time will not be an understatement. But their storied rivalry is far from over.
The Usos and The New Day will once again face each other at the Clash of Champions PPV. But this time around two more talented tag teams are also vying for the gold. Considering the talented wrestlers involved, this fatal four-way tag team title match is rightly expected to be full of mayhem and a hard-hitting affair. Thus, it won't be surprising at all if these four tag teams manage to deliver a five-star instant classic at Clash of Champions.
Even though The Usos and The New Day deserve to win at the year-end PPV, a victory for the teams of Rusev/Aiden English or Chad Gable/Shelton Benjamin will also further strengthen Smackdown's tag team division.
With the tag teams of The Ascension, The Bludgeon Brothers and Breezango also on the Smackdown roster, the year 2018 seems to be promising for the blue brand's tag team division.
#4 Bobby Roode wins the United States Championship
Everybody was expecting Bobby Roode to challenge Baron Corbin for the US title at the Clash of Champions PPV in a singles match. But the WWE made things a lot more interesting by adding Dolph Ziggler to the mix. Ziggler's WWE career is almost over, but there is no denying the fact he delivers inside the ring more often than not.
Even though we all know that Dolph Ziggler will not become the US Champ at Clash of Champions, the WWE Universe can expect a stellar triple threat match at the PPV as a result of his inclusion to the bout.
Baron Corbin has been an underwhelming US champ and still needs to work a lot on his craft. Corbin has tons of potential and his 'End of Days' is one of the best finishers in the WWE at the moment. But he should drop the title to Bobby Roode at Clash of Champions.
Bobby Roode was a welcome and glorious addition to Smackdown but has been criminally underutilised ever since his main roster debut. Bobby Roode is a name known to each and every pro wrestling fan all over the world. Thus, a wrestler and performer of his stature should be the mainstay of a company instead of being just another mid-carder. The WWE should therefore right their wrong by crowning Bobby Roode as the new US champion.
Roode still needs to have many dream matches against the likes of AJ Styles, Eric Young and Samoa Joe inside a WWE ring. That's why a victory at Clash of Champions is a must for Bobby Roode in order to establish him as a main eventer in the WWE.
#5 AJ Styles retains the WWE Championship
Jinder Mahal was once nothing more than a joke in the WWE. The 3MB stable is till date one of the worst factions to have ever competed in the WWE. WWE fired Jinder Mahal in the year 2014, but he managed to rise from the ashes and has transformed himself into a 'Modern Day Maharaja' since then.
Jinder Mahal is now extremely popular and has helped the WWE grow leaps and bounds in India. But sadly, he still has some way to go to make it to the elite level with the mic or inside the squared circle.
Crowning Jinder Mahal as the numero uno guy of Smackdown is probably WWE's worst booking blunder till date. He was a lacklustre champion, and his feuds with Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura were downright terrible. Thus, the WWE should not book a Jinder Mahal victory at Clash of Champions. They should instead focus on making the bout between AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal a decent one.
AJ Styles is at the peak of his game at the moment. He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best in-ring performers in the world today and deserves to be the champ of the blue brand. Imagine the dream matches Styles can have against Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode and Randy Orton, as the champion.
So, AJ Styles still holding the WWE Championship belt at the end of the show will surely make Clash of Champions a success.
