WWE Clash of Champions: The future belongs to The Wyatt Family

Clash of Champions showed us that the future of WWE is firmly under the grasp of  Bray Wyatt and the former members of The Wyatt Family.

It wasn’t too long ago that fans would dream of WWE pay-per-views that put a massive spotlight on all three members of The Shield. Shows like Money in the Bank 2016 where we all got to see each of “The Hounds of Justice” hold the WWE championship in the same night.

Besides that overlapping run of massive singles success for the former Shield brothers, we really haven’t seen a faction, current or former, reach those same heights in WWE.

That ended at Clash of Champions.

All four members of the latest version of The Wyatt Family seized the spotlight at the show, each making a statement that they are here to stay in the process.

Bray Wyatt, as The Fiend, attacked Seth Rollins to set up what could be one of the most eagerly anticipated matches in recent memory at Hell in a Cell next month.

If there were ever any doubts as to what WWE’s plan was for Wyatt’s red-hot gimmick, those should have been emphatically erased. It’s clear that the company values him as highly as fans do right now, meaning who knows what his ceiling might be.

Meanwhile, his former original stablemates pulled off a massive win over Roman Reigns earlier in the show.

Thanks to a surprise return from Luke Harper, Erick Rowan was able to pin Roman Reigns smack in the middle of the ring.

Going into Clash of Champions, even as someone who was fully invested in this new version of Erick Rowan, I just couldn’t have envisioned him picking up a win over “The Big Dog”. That’s just such a rarity in WWE these days. Considering now that it’s happened though, it leads me to believe Rowan and Harper might be primed for their biggest push since their time teaming with Bray.

Finally, although it might not seem like it at first, Braun Strowman came away from Clash of Champions looking better than ever.

I have to admit, I was concerned by the prospect of Strowman potentially having to lose two titles matches in the same night. It’s not often that it feels like you can trust WWE to keep a superstar looking strong in a situation like that, yet that’s exactly what they were able to accomplish.

Braun Strowman kicking out of three stomps from Seth Rollins, who’s finisher has historically been one of the most protected in the company, is nothing to sneeze at. The fact that it took a pedigree and fourth stomp to seal the deal means that WWE was obviously just as concerned as any of us about how Strowman looked in defeat.

Although those losses mean his next steps are somewhat unclear, I can’t imagine this is the last we’ve seen of “The Monster Among Men” in the main event.

If you put all of those performances together, you have a clear picture of a pay-per-view dominated by a single faction, even if that team isn’t still together today. It’s the kind of performance reminiscent of those glory days of Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Dean Ambrose practically running the show.

At the end of the day, Clash of Champions was simply proof that the future of WWE now belongs to the former Wyatt Family.