10 Times Great Wrestling Was Ruined By Bad Writing
7. Kevin Owens Vs. Seth Rollins (WWE Clash Of Champions 2016)
Clash Of Champions 2016 was a mess of a pay-per-view. Sheamus vs. Cesaro was an outstanding match blighted by a nonsensical no contest finish, the three-way Women’s Title match didn’t live up to the hype, and Roman Reigns’ slaughter of Rusev was completely unnecessary. Still, WWE could have undone all of this by presenting a tremendous main event, and in Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins, they had the perfect participants.
This should have been an outstanding bout between two of WWE’s best wrestlers, but - surprise, surprise - it was dogged by poor booking.
The first issue was Triple H. WWE had booked his betrayal of Seth in such a way that the threat of his seemingly imminent interference made it incredibly hard to immerse oneself into the match. The Game didn’t appear in the end, but the threat of him doing so was a huge distraction for the duration of this 25-minute match.
The Jericho interference was overbooked, as was the referee bump leading to Stephanie McMahon’s arrival with a new official. Rollins seemed to have it won when the original referee was down, but the switch saw Owens notch the first of many title defences through nefarious means.
The match was killed by a mother lode of bad storytelling