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Clash of Champions emanated from Charlotte, North Carolina earlier tonight and saw some shocking title changes since the likes of The New Day and Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman were dethroned as Tag Team Champions.
Many other championships were retained on the night as well, since Drew Gulak, AJ Styles and Bayley were all able to walk out of the Spectrum Center with gold still around their waists.
There were many seeds planted for Hell in a Cell tonight since the company has just three weeks to build towards one of the most brutal pay-per-views of the year. While many fans were focused on the buildup to next month's pay-per-view, there were a number of botches and mistakes throughout the show that may have gone unnoticed.
#3 Cruiserweight Championship match
It came as no surprise that once again the Cruiserweight Championship was defended on the kickoff show ahead of Clash of Champions this month since Drew Gulak was forced to defend his title against both Lince Dorado and Humberto Carrillo.
This was the match that kicked off the whole show, but there were a number of botches throughout since all three men looked as though they decided to go for some high octane moves that left them much more open to botches.
The most obvious ones came towards the end of the match when Carrillo's moonsault looked as though it hardly even hit Dorado and then the finish of the match saw the referee tell Drew Gulak a number of times that Lince's shoulders weren't actually down on the mat so he had to adjust before the pin could be counted. The referee saved the pin from being seen as a botch, but Dorado should have ensured his shoulders were down following the finishing move.
#2 The referee forgets how to hold a championship
One of the biggest shocks and mistakes that WWE made as part of Clash of Champions was to put AJ Styles on the kickoff show. The former WWE Champion defended his United States Championship against hometown hero Cedric Alexander as part of the show, in a match that saw him walk out victorious.
Interestingly, one of the biggest botches in the match didn't come from the competitors either, since it was the referee that kicked off the match by taking the championship from AJ Styles and holding it above his head upside down.
There were several other botches in the match following the referee's malfunction, including the fact that Cedric Alexander selling the wrong leg after AJ Styles decided to work the leg throughout the match to soften the former Cruiserweight Champion up for the calf crusher.
Styles was still able to come out on top and possibly plant some seeds for Hell in a Cell when he later called out his O.C. teammates Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, who then attacked Cedric in the same way that Ricochet was attacked last month.
#1 Mandy Rose forgets the spot
Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defended their Women's Tag Team Championships against Fire & Desire as part of Clash of Champions after Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville seemingly made a good case to be given a chance at the championships this weekend.
Bliss and Cross dominated the match, but there was one spot where Alexa Bliss was seemingly ahead of Mandy Rose, who forgot her spot in the corner. Bliss ran in expecting Rose to get her leg up and kick her so she put her hands out to catch her foot. Rose forgot that the spot was coming up so she didn't kick Bliss.
Alexa then decided to think on her feet and forearmed Rose in the face before going for the spot again, which allowed Rose to get her foot up so they were able to continue the planned moveset. Bliss and Cross later went on to retain their Championships once again which means that Rose and Deville will now head to the back of the line since the Women's Tag Team Champions will be looking for new challengers heading into Hell in a Cell next month.
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