Deep Dive: Roman Reigns Vs. Jey Uso Was WWE At Its Absolute Best

Uso and Reigns' Clash of Champions showdown was often heavyhanded in its delivery, but the story beats were perfect. This will go down one of the most memorable main events in modern WWE history.

An extended squash in the vein of John Cena and Brock Lesnar's SummerSlam 2014 bout saw Uso and Reigns enter elite performances in contrasting roles. The Universal Champion was cold and ruthless, but also methodical and composed, informing Jey's early offensive spurts and the controlled dominance that would follow later on. His opponent sold as well as he timed his comebacks, spiking sympathy and drama at all the right points. A live audience would have gone nuts for him.

Jey was soundly defeated in the end, the lopsided pounding forcing his injured brother Jimmy to throw in the towel. Reigns, definitively, was the 'Tribal Chief.' The family hierarchy was now undeniable.

The layout was of great importance here, as a textbook back-and-forth main event would have undermined the goal of establishing Roman's superiority. He needed to look like a monster at Clash of Champions. The normalisation of 50/50 booking has broken fans' brains, instilling a belief that wrestler A should always look like wrestler B's equal, prompting absurd "burial!" accusations whenever somebody looks halfway dominant.

Yet nobody left Clash of Champions thinking Reigns had buried his cousin: a testament to two excellent performances and equally high-level storytelling from the promotion that created these warped perceptions in the first place.

And Reigns emerged from Clash not only his tribe's alpha, but WWE's as a whole.