12 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Clash Of Champions 2019
5. Putting Over Rowan
Erick Rowan has been kind of in a no-man’s land for a while now. He’s been alternatively treated like a bruising big man, and at others a lumbering goof. He lost the quickest WrestleMania match ever against The Rock at WM 32, but he and tag team partner Luke Harper ruled the SmackDown tag division for a good while.
As Daniel Bryan’s heavy, Rowan has been pretty well-protected, but also without a signature victory. In fact, he hadn’t won a televised singles match since returning earlier this year.
That changed Sunday, when Rowan defeated Roman Reigns in a no-DQ match at Clash of Champions. Of course, he had help from longtime tag partner Luke Harper, but during the match itself, Rowan held his own and looked like he could compete on Reigns’ level. That’s exactly the kind of performance Rowan needed if you’re going to ask fans to take him seriously.
Now, we can still scoff at this and say it’s just temporary and Roman will “get his win back” soon, rendering any notion of a Rowan push moot, but on Sunday, Rowan came out looking good, while Roman still looked strong, only finally falling when Harper got involved.