WWE SmackDown 5 Takeaways: Added Guest Ref Shakes Up The Clash

Photo by WWE’s Twitter

3. AJ Styles and Jinder Mahal Faceoff Leaves a Lot to Be Desired Heading Into Clash of Champions

Conventional wisdom suggests a world title match at a pay-per-view is supposed to be a marquee battle every single time.  But with the world title match at Clash of Champions, that premise is starting to be questioned.

Jinder Mahal will get his rematch for the WWE Championship against AJ Styles this Sunday, but the two won’t be heading into Clash of Champions with much momentum feud wise.  Last night’s SmackDown saw a relatively cringe-worthy promo at the beginning of the show by The Singh Brothers who were trying to fool Styles into believing they weren’t with Mahal anymore.

It was obvious where the promo was going, which made it even more awkward at times.  The Phenomenal One took care of the Singh’s before a brief standoff with the Modern Day Maharaja.  Thankfully, for the feud’s sake, there was a brief attack backstage later in the night by Mahal on Styles while Styles was being interviewed.

Without that, the feud would have absolutely no steam heading into the pay-per-view.  Last night didn’t do much to get the common fan invested in the WWE Championship match at Clash of Champions.  But given the greatness of The Phenomenal One, expect the match to at least be on the level of the Nov. 7 battle which saw Styles defeat Mahal for the championship on SmackDown.

Is the Modern Day Maharaja’s time in the WWE Championship picture coming to an end?  Last night’s subpar interactions might have suggested it.