10 Genius Ways Wrestlers Outsmarted Their Opponents

6. Sami Zayn – Clash of Champions 2020

One of the most genius ways a wrestler has ever outsmarted his opponents occurred only last year at the Clash of Champions PPV.

The set-up to the match started in May when Sami Zayn was stripped of the Intercontinental Championship due to not being able to defend it due to the ongoing pandemic. AJ Styles won a tournament the following month to win the vacant IC title. Then Jeff Hardy won the title in August which kicked off a feud between Jeff and AJ. Then Sami Zayn re-emerged with his old IC belt, proclaiming himself to be the real IC champion as he was never defeated. This all escalated to Clash of Champions where a Triple Threat Ladder match between all three of them would take place where the winner had to grab both Hardy’s IC title and Zayn’s faux title high above the ring.

The match kicked off the show and it turned out to be a modern classic. The ending had Zayn retrieve pairs of handcuffs from his jacket pocket. He threads the first handcuffs through Jeff’s earlobe, cuffing him to a ladder. He then calculatingly cuffed himself and AJ together so AJ couldn’t easily climb the ladder. AJ beat on Sami and threw him on his shoulders and started climbing the ladder but as this was happening Sami was able to free himself (from a key he hid in his mouth) and cuffed Styles to the ladder. AJ and Jeff watched on helplessly as Sami joyously retrieved the titles.