WWE Bringing Back Clash Of The Champions?

[Jack-Hammer]

I ran across a brief but interesting report today stating that WWE has recently applied for a trademark on "Clash of the Champions" and that this trademark is to be used with a new TV show as well as various merchandise including toys and games. The obvious, though unconfirmed, inference is that WWE MIGHT be bringing back the popular WCW specials, under WWE's banner of course.

Off the top of my head, in regard to the report mentioning that the trademark was to be used for a TV show, is that the Clash of the Champions concept could be used a handful of times a year in which certain special episodes of Raw and SmackDown would be "Clash" episodes with the episodes essentially being a ppv event on television similar to the NXT TakeOver specials.

It's entirely speculative on my part, though I think there's a possibility that they could be WWE Network specials that air a few times a year. The problem with this, however, is that, if the reports are true, then each brand will have its own ppv each month and that already has people worried about it being too much and having the Clash as some sort of network special seems redundant when you consider all of the content with what would be 24 ppv events a year. I'm holding out hope that each brand gets a total of 4 ppv events each while sharing the original Big Four shows and, as a result, maybe having a Clash of the Champions special now and again wouldn't seem so bad.

 

[BringThePain834]

Yeah, I would like to see this concept be used on WWE TV. However, I think that they will rename Night of Champions to Clash of the Champions.

 

[dsotm5150]

That wouldn't be a bad idea as long as they keep the brands separate the rest of the year. We already know they intend on having Smackdown and RAW share Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor Series so if they intend to have Smackdown vs Raw matches at those events it kind of makes the idea of a Clash of the Champions moot.

On the flip side though, I grew up watching the Clashes on TBS back in the day, it was WCW's equivalent to WWF's Saturday Night Main Event and would rather it remain a WCW memory but if done correctly I wouldn't mind seeing it return.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

Big deal. "Clash of the Champions" is just a name. There is no identifiable gimmick behind it. When you tell me they're bringing back "War Games" you'll have my interest.

 

[justinept]

Big deal. "Clash of the Champions" is just a name. There is no identifiable gimmick behind it. When you tell me they're bringing back "War Games" you'll have my interest.

Actually, there was a hugely identifiable 'gimmick' behind Clash of the Champions. It provided pay-per-view quality matches on free television, a novel idea at a time when the pay-per-view market was becoming the lifeblood of the industry. By the end, its identity was mostly stripped due to Eric Bischoff wanting to run the same concept on Nitro each week - McMahon did the same with Raw.

So the problem isn't that Clash didn't have a gimmick. The problem is that the gimmick was muted due to the Monday Night Wars, which created an atmosphere where both programs needed to put on a pay-per-view quality program every Monday just to keep people from changing their channels. Now if WWE brought back the original concept of Clash, giving us pay-per-view caliber matches on free TV... especially inter-brand matches once the split occurs... then I'd be totally interested.

Unfortunately, I doubt that's the way they're leaning. Why? Because the Main Event was the WWE's version of the Clash of the Champions. If the WWE wanted to run a free special event that featured a pay-per-view caliber card, they'd more than likely choose the one they branded as opposed to bringing back an event their former rival branded.

More than likely, Clash of the Champions was trademarked not to run off the show's original concept... or even to replace Night of Champions. It was most likely trademarked because the WWE is serious about running monthly network events for BOTH brands, and so they need more names for these events. Expect Clash of the Champions to compete against Night of Champions, wherein one brand uses Night of Champions and the other brand uses Clash of the Champions for their brand.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

I'd rather Halloween Havoc myself, was always one of my favorite WCW Events.

 

[MINISTRYrising]

Well there are rumours going around at the moment that WWE are planning on having two PPVs a month, one for Raw and one for Smackdown with the exception of the months when the big four take place. So bringing back clash of the champions makes perfect sense. RAW could continue to host events like payback and extreme rules while Smackdown would instead hold clash of the champions events once a month.

 

[dsotm5150]

If it's done once or twice a year as the only show to feature Smackdown vs. RAW matches then I could see bringing back Clash of Champions. If theyre going to feature those kind of matches on the big 4 though it seems like a moot effort to even bother.

That being said I'm torn on the idea of WWE resurrecting the show. I grew up watching the Clashes, from the first one back in '88 up to the last one in '97. Alot of them delivered a hell of a lot better than the PPVs they were putting on, not to mention commercial free on Cable TV. Id almost rather wwe leave the past alone and not bring the show back, on the other hand though, it would be nice to see some life breathed into the NWA/WCW even if it is just resurrecting an old event name.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

If the rumours are true and WWE are having a PPV for each brand per month, I wouldn't be surprised to see Night of Champions and Clash of the Champions. Because no brand deserves to miss out on such an important themed show.

 

[enviousdominous]

This really doesn't surprise me, considering the news that the WWE might be having each show do their own monthly PPVs. Maybe it'll be a joint venture, but I think that while they were trying to figure out who gets what catchy PPV name, they started to run out of ideas and now they're desperate.

Hopefully they don't completely upend the concept and allow this to resemble a free PPV.

 

[TDFG]

If it's anything like WWE's version of 'The Great American Bash' then I can live without 'The Clash Of The Champions' coming back, they may as well bring back 'In Your House'.