"Clash of Champions" is the last World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) pay-per-view event of this year. Besides a lot of titles and belts being put on the line, WWE announced a very promising matchup for the main event. Scheduled on Dec. 17, the show will pit AJ Styles against Jinder Mahal, fighting it out for the WWE Championship.
AJ Styles took down the Modern-Day Maharaja in a title match several weeks ago on a SmackDown Live edition held in the United Kingdom. This win made Styles face off with Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.
Lesnar won that bout and now, Mahal wants a rematch with Styles to win the title back. While Mahal was smart to challenge Styles after the latter's loss with The Beast, Styles still has a lot of time to prepare until "Clash of Champions."
This rematch was actually first announced in the Survivor Series, and was supposed to happen in the Tuesday edition of SmackDown. However, it seems that WWE canceled this plan altogether and decided that the Styles–Mahal rematch would be the main event at 2017's "Clash of Champions."
WWE explained the cancellation with a post on their official website, saying, "Mahal decided instead to bide his time and wait" for "Clash of Champions" before invoking his rematch clause.
In addition, the post also noted the fact that this gives Styles enough time for a much-needed rest, after the encounter with Lesnar. However, they justified Mahal's decision by saying that "everyone knows [Mahal] has upended conventional wisdom before."
Forbes tried to look at it from a business angle. They posited that the cancellation and moving of the match to a grander event would lead to more exposure and more income from India. However, the details on this theory are still sketchy at best, as Mahal's earlier wins did not really seem to pull more viewership and revenue from the country.
In any case, Styles versus Mahal will happen on the "Clash of Champions." The match will decide who will hold the WWE Championship title just before the year ends.
