4 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Clash Of Champions 2017
Downs...
6. A Confusing Setup
New match stipulations pop up all the time as WWE tries to make its product fresh and interesting. Some of them work, and some of them bomb and are never heard from again.
But a fatal four-way tag match has a generally accepted format: two competitors are legal in the ring at any time, and they can tag out to anyone (except their opponent’s partner). However, WWE unveiled a new format Sunday, with one member of each team legal, and they could only tag out to their partner.
With four people legal in the ring, we got a very weird dynamic early on, with Rusev and Aiden English beating up one of the Usos, and Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable beating down Kofi Kingston. And they almost never interacted unless one went for a pinfall. It was a boring segment that seemed to confuse fans because it just dragged on with little real action. You’d think with four guys legal, it would be all action from bell to bell.
By the last third of the match, they were firing better, but it was really touch-and-go for a while. Regardless, they should never do that stipulation again.