WWE Clash Of Champions 2016: 10 Awesome Moments

Kevin Owens is still your WWE Universal Champion...

Kevin Owens Chris Jericho
WWE.com

Clash Of Champions, the first Raw exclusive pay-per-view since the WWE Draft, is now in the history books. With five different belts on the line, only one ended up changing hands at the event. Rusev was the unfortunate party, losing out to Roman Reigns and therefore giving up his WWE United States Title status.

Still, that match featured one of the best bumps in the entire show. Reigns and Rusev work extremely well together, and it's clear that the pair have had time to hone their chemistry on television and non-televised events alike. The same can't be said for Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens, those men were meeting for the first time in the show's main event.

On the whole, Clash Of Champions was an enjoyable pay-per-view, one punctuated by moments that could accurately be considered awesome. Popular title defences pepper this list, as do notable spots and the fact that Cruiserweights were welcomed back into the supershow fold.

Brilliant selling and great bumps were plentiful on the show, so here are the ten most awesome moments from Raw's pay-per-view bow...

10. Gallows & Anderson Nearly Win The WWE Tag-Team Titles Instantly

Kevin Owens Chris Jericho
WWE.com

The WWE Tag-Team Title bout was a clever choice to open Clash Of Champions. In the Kickoff pre-show, Nia Jax had beaten Alicia Fox, but fans were delighted to hear Big E's usual introduction for The New Day after all the pyro had died down. There's no doubt about it, New Day are every bit as popular now as they have been for well over a full year.

Straight away, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson went on the offensive. The bell was almost still ringing through the arena when Anderson hit a silky smooth Running Powerbomb on Kofi Kingston. What followed was a remarkably quick near fall, but one of the most exciting of the entire pay-per-view.

This hot opening really set the tone for the rest of the match, and kept the threat lingering that The Club just might take the tag gold from The New Day. They didn't, of course, but the Powerbomb and subsequent pin upped the excitement and captured fan attention immediately.

Something like this was definitely needed, because the build up to Gallows and Anderson challenging for the titles had been tepid at best.

Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.