WWE Clash of Champions 2019 Results: Reviewing Top Highlights and Low Points

Credit: WWE.com

No night in the WWE year features more gold on the line than Clash of Champions, where every title on the main roster is up for grabs.

By featuring the Superstars who are supposed to be the best of the best, it's a show that should easily be among the greatest of the year. However, all the potential in the world doesn't necessarily mean it's a guaranteed success. It's all in the execution.

Now that the event has ended, how did things play out? What were the standout moments of the night, for better or worse?

Presented in order of appearance, here is a breakdown of some of the highlights and low points of Clash of Champions 2019.

Credit: WWE.com

WWE Clash of Champions 2019 results

• Drew Gulak defeated Humberto Carrillo and Lince Dorado by pinfall to retain the Cruiserweight Championship.
• AJ Styles defeated Cedric Alexander by pinfall to retain the United States Championship.
• Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode defeated Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins by pinfall to win the Raw Tag Team Championship.
• Bayley defeated Charlotte Flair by pinfall to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship.
• The Revival defeated The New Day by pinfall to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.
• Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defeated Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville by pinfall to retain the Women's Tag Team Championship.
• Shinsuke Nakamura defeated The Miz by pinfall to retain the Intercontinental Championship.
• Sasha Banks defeated Raw women's champion Becky Lynch by disqualification.
• Kofi Kingston defeated Randy Orton by pinfall to retain the WWE Championship.
• Erick Rowan defeated Roman Reigns by pinfall in a No Disqualification match.
• Seth Rollins defeated Braun Strowman by pinfall to retain the Universal Championship.

Credit: WWE.com

From the start of the tournament, it was said a new King of the Ring would be crowned at Clash of Champions. Even on Monday Night Raw, this was still the case.

On Tuesday's SmackDown, though, WWE quietly changed everything by putting up a graphic that Baron Corbin and Chad Gable would fight in the final on the next episode of Raw instead.

At best, the rationale is that the tournament's conclusion is a hook for viewers. In theory, Raw will draw a better rating if fans want to tune in to see who wins as opposed to just the fallout from Clash of Champions.

That's giving everyone the benefit of the doubt that it wasn't just due to poor planning, though. WWE probably didn't realize until Tuesday how many matches were on the card and felt the need to bump one off the lineup, with this getting the axe.

In either scenario, it has diminished the tournament. Being taken off the card gives off the perception that it wasn't important enough to be featured, so the winner is now lesser as a result for winning a match that isn't as meaningful.

Had it stayed at Clash of Champions, it would have been seen as the equivalent of a title match. Now, it's not as special, because it's just another match on Raw with only a pinch more glitz and glamor surrounding it.

Credit: WWE.com

AJ Styles and Cedric Alexander didn't have much of a build heading into this match. The setup was rushed on Monday Night Raw with a simple pin to establish Alexander as the contender.

But surely, given their in-ring skills, the match would make up for it and be much better than the build, right?

Wrong. This was short—less than five minutes—and since it was so rushed, it had nothing of substance to it and served no real purpose.

It didn't wow the audience even as much as the Cruiserweight Championship match before it, when people were still shuffling into the arena. Alexander didn't leave this match looking stronger than before. The O.C. didn't even come off more villainous than we're used to.

If you skipped this, you missed out on nothing. If this wasn't Clash of Champions, it wouldn't have even been on the card, as it's clear WWE wasn't invested in doing much with this title.

Here's hoping there's more of a direction of what to do with both Styles and Alexander after this and they aren't in just as meaningless of a spot for Hell in a Cell.

Credit: WWE.com

This was a rock solid match with a bit of an old school feel to it.

From the start, Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins showcased a team synergy that gave the illusion they could pull off retaining the titles. Meanwhile, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode were trying little tricks to get an advantage, such as raking The Monster Among Men's eyes and trying to double-team their opponents any chance they got.

Of course, the titles needed to change hands. There was no way Rollins and Strowman could stay champions and still face each other later for the Universal Championship.

When the time came for the finish, there was just enough of a miscommunication between the champions to justify their loss and drive a wedge further between them to heat things up a little more.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if there is a game plan for Roode and Ziggler as champions or if WWE simply wanted to do this story with Rollins and Strowman.

If WWE didn't think of anything past this point, we're in uncharted territory and anything can happen. However, if there is a goal in mind, it's fun to wonder what the end game for these new title-holders will be.

Credit: WWE.com

Bayley and Charlotte Flair have proved themselves capable of some absolutely amazing matches, yet this wasn't one of them.

Just as it started to get rolling, it ended. As if the United States title match wasn't rushed enough, this was even shorter, not even reaching four minutes.

That was commonplace years ago in a different era that WWE is supposedly well beyond, yet here we are with a match that can be boiled down to one maneuver, which was Bayley slowly pushing Flair's head into the exposed turnbuckle.

If a match is going to be quick, it needs to have an impact. This one move was sloppy and ended things too prematurely.

Credit: WWE.com

On a night that was heavy on heel wins, this was no different, but it told a good enough story to still have legs going forward.

Sami Zayn's annoying interference on the outside came into play multiple times, starting with his microphone babbling and culminating in his distractions.

This allowed Shinsuke Nakamura to take advantage and both avoid a pinfall and strike a swift Kinshasa to retain the title.

The Miz has all the right in the world to claim he deserves another shot at the title, and WWE might have held off on crowning him the champion until SmackDown's October 4 debut on Fox.

That would certainly be a big moment, which will be made even bigger after having watched The Miz get screwed here. If he had won the title on this night, it would have been just another match and not a featured highlight moment.

Credit: WWE.com

WWE likely didn't want to have the title change hands, nor for Sasha Banks to tap out or be pinned, so everyone was booked into a corner and a non-finish of some sort had to happen.

Thankfully, this was handled well to further push this feud rather than simply stall it. It kept both looking tough and managed to help set up the future.

The Boss was seen tapping out a few times, but she won the match on a technicality by disqualification, so she has grounds to challenge for the title again. Meanwhile, she was the one to introduce the chair to begin with, so Lynch might not have gotten carried away if the fight had remained fair.

Having both Banks and Becky Lynch brawl outside the ring was exciting and set up how there is a need for containment, which is where the Hell in a Cell cage will step in.

It's truly established now that their bitter rivalry, based on deep-seeded issues from over the years, is only getting worse over time. To settle the score, they will have to battle it out inside WWE's most devilish structure.

After so many missteps where WWE stalled feuds in lame ways, this was a surprise great example of how to stretch something out and build to a fast-approaching event to come.

Credit: WWE.com

The No Disqualification match between Roman Reigns and Erick Rowan was a lumbering affair with nothing memorable going on up until the final moments.

Then, after a series of punches and not much else, Luke Harper made his return to help Rowan take out The Big Dog.

Harper had previously requested his release from WWE several months back and seemed like a goner who would sit out the remainder of his contract before moving on to All Elite Wrestling or elsewhere. If anybody would have interfered, it seemed like Daniel Bryan would be the go-to prediction.

This surprise was perhaps the biggest shock of the night and is great news for both the tag team division with the revival of The Bludgeon Brothers as well as the roster in general, now that there's another talented big-man back between the ropes.

Credit: WWE.com

True to form, Strowman always comes up short when it comes to the big win, but he manages to take a lot of damage in the process. It's disheartening The Monster Among Men can never follow through and win the Universal Championship, but at least he went down swinging.

It took a pedigree and four stomps to take him out, which puts him over once again as a tough opponent, even if it seems as though his challengers are always able to get the job done.

Where WWE takes Strowman from here will truly make it a failure or a success, but at least we know what Rollins will be doing next, as Bray Wyatt followed through with his promise to go after the universal champion.

Hell in a Cell is only three weeks away, and WWE has already gotten a head start on building Wyatt vs. Rollins—a rare showing of foresight. Perhaps that is a good sign of things to come, and with the WWE Universe seemingly pleased with how Clash of Champions concluded, this segment can be counted as a win.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.