Grading Each Champion's Current Reign Entering WWE Clash of Champions 2020

WWE Clash of Champions 2020 hits us Sunday, so all eyes are on the Superstars currently holding all the belts.

Every champion on the main roster is set to defend their titles on this show and will look to prove why they're still the top of the food chain in WWE.

However, holding a title doesn't mean one is truly top-notch. There's more to a great title reign than just carrying a belt to the ring.

To have the total package as a great champion, a Superstar must impress with their matches, feuds, longevity, win-loss records and the overall storyline of their run.

Who among the current crop have proved themselves worthy of that honor, and which champions are struggling with their responsibilities?

Let's take a look at all of the main roster champions and grade them with a performance evaluation prior to Clash of Champions 2020.

24/7 Champion R-Truth

Credit: WWE.com

The 24/7 Championship is an odd title. It has held nearly zero credibility since its inception and can be best summed up as the belt everyone consistently fumbles to the next champion.

Given how the title has changed hands over 100 times since May 2019, almost all from roll-ups out of nowhere, there isn't much to actually grade.

However, R-Truth has made the title fun enough to stick around all this time. It could have been tossed in the garbage like some other gimmicks WWE has tried in recent years, but it's still here.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has been a hindrance to finding new and innovative ways to play around with the 24/7 rule, which has hurt his most recent months pursuing the title compared to the belt's early run. Nowadays, it's mostly just Akira Tozawa's ninjas that he has to look out for.

It would be nice to see WWE put more stock in the title, like they did when Shelton Benjamin and Riddick Moss were defending in actual matches. Instead, while this is a main roster title, WWE won't even bother announcing it for this card despite its "every title on the line" nature.

R-Truth is limited in what he can do, but WWE can still do more with this title than what is happening right now.

Grade: B–

Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler

Credit: WWE.com

When The Golden Role Models Bayley and Sasha Banks won the Women's Tag Team Championships, it was simply to tell the story of their strong friendship reaching an inevitable split.

They dropped the titles to the random pairing of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, who haven't liked each other from the start. That's a bit different from the norm and has made their partnership interesting.

The premise is good enough that WWE could do some interesting things with it. However, it's only been a few weeks, so there's no telling how much staying power this angle has.

The Riott Squad may beat Jax and Baszler at Clash of Champions, making this a transitional reign that never quite got started. Then again, these two could hold these titles into 2021.

It's just far too early to judge with any deep analysis.

Grade: B–

SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura

Credit: WWE.com

With The New Day and The Usos missing members; The Miz and John Morrison busy feuding with Heavy Machinery; The Forgotten Sons on the sidelines and Lucha House Party falling apart, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura are the best options for tag team champions on SmackDown by default.

They're a textbook example of two singles stars who aren't WWE's cup of tea but who work well together, so they're in this position out of necessity. As a unit, they serve a purpose in the tag team division. On their own, they'll just get fed to Superstars who are bigger priorities.

It's a shame, as both are better than clearly given credit for. Cesaro could be a world champion in AEW, and Nakamura arguably should have beaten AJ Styles for the WWE title at WrestleMania 34.

For now, they're just filling in the gap of a division that has little direction and not doing much, so their reign has been lackluster. It won't get any better, either. They'll just eventually lose the titles to a new team that WWE cares about for a week or so.

Grade: C

Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits

Credit: WWE.com

The Street Profits have held the Raw Tag Team Championships longer than any team in the past eight years, save for The New Day's record 483-day run.

On paper, that's about as impressive as a team can get. They're charismatic, fun to watch and have deserved these titles. Whether they're cutting some of the liveliest promos of the night or holding down the fort with long matches on Monday nights, this is a trustworthy duo to get the job done.

It's a shame, though, the bulk of their reign has been in an era where the pool of Superstars to work with is limited and WWE is even less motivated to think of creative solutions. This has led to countless matches against Andrade and Angel Garza, which has dulled this title reign.

Like others on this list who suffer from this repetition problem, this isn't their fault. Nevertheless, it's their burden to deal with and prevents them from being A-plus.

Grade: A

United States Champion Bobby Lashley

Credit: WWE.com

The Hurt Business is better as a unit than any of its individual parts, but the most threatening of them all is definitely Bobby Lashley.

Ditching Lana and partnering with MVP was a career-saving move. It turned him from a joke no one finds funny enough to laugh at to one of the more dangerous members of the Raw roster.

While he failed to win the WWE Championship earlier this year, his credibility didn't waver, and he managed to take the United States title from Apollo Crews in an almost prophetic fashion. The writing was on the wall that he could beat Crews, as MVP kept saying, and he did just that.

Since then, Lashley hasn't run through a gauntlet of challengers. He's been busy fighting a faction war against Crews and Ricochet, with some outliers. This has taken some shine away from his reign as the focus isn't on the championship, but he still looks like a solid champion.

There is a good chance if he retains at Clash of Champions that his run will take off.

Grade: B

Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy

Credit: WWE.com

If you believe Sami Zayn, Jeff Hardy isn't even the rightful intercontinental champion. Of course, that's entirely untrue, and he's willing to prove it against both Zayn and AJ Styles at Clash of Champions.

Being a fighting champion boosts Hardy's clout. Beating Styles already gives him a good start, and if he's able to retain in his upcoming ladder match, it will be a major feather in his cap.

There have been far more complex, interesting and overall better reigns than what we've currently had with Hardy's intercontinental title run, but he's only had the belt for a month.

In his past four reigns, he's proven himself a rock solid intercontinental champion. There's no reason to think this run will be any less, and since he appears to be trying hard to make this last stretch of his career extra special, it may be his best one yet.

Grade: B+

SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley

Credit: WWE.com

Bayley's time on top of SmackDown's women's division has been beyond infuriating. Outside of five days in October when she dropped it to Charlotte Flair and won it right back, Bayley's held the title since May 19, 2019.

Her two title reigns combined have her at over 480 days—far more than double the runner-up Becky Lynch's 216 days.

Had WWE bothered to give her more opponents than Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss for this past year-and-a-half, Bayley would have one of the best title reigns of any women's champion of all time.

Instead, her grade is greatly diminished by how little she's actually done.

Other than continually retain against the same handful of people and perpetually tease a breakup with Sasha Banks, what is memorable about her run? The WWE Universe has simply been waiting for Bayley vs. Banks, and each month it gets told to wait a little longer while someone like Tamina, whom no one expects to win the title, challenges unsuccessfully.

WWE's insistence on dragging out the split of The Golden Role Models turned what could have been a more satisfying run for Bayley into a longer but less rewarding journey.

Grade: C+

Raw Women's Champion Asuka

Credit: WWE.com

It's not Asuka's fault that her current reign has been such a drag. WWE clearly has had issues settling on a direction for this title in the past two months.

Obviously, it was never the plan for Becky Lynch to drop the title as she did in the first place, but WWE could have built Asuka as a much better successor. 

Once Shayna Baszler stepped away from the title hunt to allow Sasha Banks and Bayley to step in and dominate the scene, everything crumbled. Asuka was less of a focus than The Golden Role Models and won the title back with no one on the roster worthy of challenging her.

Now that she's fighting Zelina Vega (who rarely wrestles and always loses when she does) and had a botched match with Mickie James (whom WWE hasn't shown much value in pushing, sadly), The Empress of Tomorrow isn't as hot. She can't look strong if her challengers are weak.

The potential is still there for Asuka's second reign to be better than the first if WWE steps it up and puts in the effort to give her something to work with.

Grade: B+

Universal Champion Roman Reigns

Credit: WWE.com

Since winning the Universal Championship, Roman Reigns has only really looked angry at Jey Uso and let Paul Heyman hype him up, but this is already A-plus material.

Turning heel is a drastic change in his character that makes him more interesting than he's been in years.

Now, The Tribal Chief can tap into something fans were begging to see with John Cena over a decade ago. As a former multi-time world champion who has done it all, he's paid his dues and doesn't have to play nice anymore.

That allows him to be the strong, silent type who has proven himself worthy of all the bravado he brings to being champion. He can boast that he's The Big Dog because he is. Deal with it.

That's fantastic, and it's just the beginning. Reigns will likely hold this title until at least WrestleMania 37, if not far past that show.

This could be his defining run and one of the most intriguing storylines in WWE going forward.

Grade: A+

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre

Credit: WWE.com

Variety is the spice of life, but sometimes you can't beat the basics.

Drew McIntyre isn't the first to win the Royal Rumble and go on to topple a heel at WrestleMania to win his first world title, but he's the latest to follow that path in a wonderful way.

Since overcoming that massive hurdle, he's stood tall as Raw's top champion who is ready to fight any challenger. Besting Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, Dolph Ziggler and Randy Orton is an impressive list to take out.

At the moment, he's going through his toughest challenge, with The Viper more incensed than ever and Keith Lee nipping at his heels, but McIntyre's track record proves he has what it takes to overcome it.

If he makes it past Clash of Champions, there's a strong likelihood McIntyre keeps this belt until at least WrestleMania next year. That would make him one of the better WWE champions in many years.

Grade: A+

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.