The 2020 Clash of Champions, also promoted as Clash of Champions: Gold Rush, was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the fourth and final Clash of Champions and took place on September 27, 2020, from the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble that at the time was hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The theme of the event was that all of WWE's active main roster championships at the time were defended, with the exception of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship as an originally scheduled match for the title was canceled as the champions were not medically cleared to compete.
The event was originally scheduled to be held on September 20, 2020, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, but Governor Phil Murphy canceled all large public gatherings of more than 50 people due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With WWE's ThunderDome residency at the Amway Center that began in late August, Clash of Champions was subsequently relocated to this venue and pushed back to September 27. An event was planned for 2021, but its September date was instead given to Extreme Rules.
Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso by technical knockout to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship. In the penultimate match, Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton in an ambulance match to retain Raw's WWE Championship. In other prominent matches, Bobby Lashley defeated Apollo Crews to retain Raw's United States Championship, and in the opening bout, Sami Zayn defeated AJ Styles and defending champion Jeff Hardy in a triple threat ladder match to become SmackDown's undisputed Intercontinental Champion.
The event received positive reviews from critics, praising both the triple threat Intercontinental Championship ladder match and the Universal Championship main event.
Production
Background Clash of Champions was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event first produced by WWE in 2016, and was held every year except in 2018. The theme of the event was that all active championships available to each brand division featured at the event were defended. The fourth Clash of Champions featured the Raw and SmackDown brands and their respective titles at the time. These included the four championships on Raw—the WWE Championship, the Raw Women's Championship, the United States Championship, and the Raw Tag Team Championship—the four championships on SmackDown—the Universal Championship, the SmackDown Women's Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship—and the non-exclusive 24/7 Championship. The event aired on PPV worldwide and was available to livestream on the WWE Network.
Only one of WWE's 10 active main roster championships at the time was not defended, which was the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. The title was originally scheduled to be defended, but the match was canceled just prior to the event as the defending champions were not medically cleared to compete. The 2019 event had also featured the 205 Live brand and its Cruiserweight Championship, but that brand and title were merged under NXT in late 2019.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
Clash of Champions was originally scheduled to be held at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on September 20, 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic that began taking effect in mid-March, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy banned all large public gatherings and live public events of more than 50 people from March 16 onward. As a result of the pandemic, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's shows were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience.
In late August, WWE's programs for Raw and SmackDown were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, which at the time was hosted at Orlando's Amway Center. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans. With the change in location to the ThunderDome at the Amway Center, Clash of Champions was pushed back to September 27.
Storylines The event comprised eight matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
At SummerSlam, Drew McIntyre defeated Randy Orton to retain the WWE Championship. The following night on Raw, McIntyre gloated about his victory against "the greatest wrestler ever" with a wrestling move (a backslide), and stated that he knew that Orton wanted a rematch. As McIntyre made his exit, Orton attacked McIntyre with two Punts. Later, Orton was confronted by former NXT wrestler Keith Lee, making his Raw debut. Lee, on behalf of McIntyre, challenged Orton to a match. The two faced each other that night; however, the match ended in a disqualification win for Orton after McIntyre attacked Orton. After the ensuing brawl, Orton performed a third Punt to McIntyre, taking him out for the next two weeks. Lee then faced Orton in a rematch and on behalf of McIntyre once again at Payback where Lee defeated Orton. On the following night's Raw, three singles matches were set up with the winners of each facing each other in a triple threat match that night to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship at Clash of Champions. Orton, Lee, and Seth Rollins won their respective matches with Orton winning the ensuing triple threat to secure another title opportunity against McIntyre. Throughout the course of the September 7 episode, McIntyre performed three Claymore kicks to Orton. On the September 14 episode, McIntyre changed the stipulation of their match to an ambulance match. Also that night, due to the uncertainty if Orton would make it to Clash of Champions as a result of McIntyre's attacks the previous week, Lee faced McIntyre in a non-title match where if Lee won, he would replace Orton in the event that Orton could not compete at Clash of Champions; the match, however, ended in a no-contest when Retribution attacked both men. The following week, Lee faced McIntyre in a match with the stipulation being that Lee would replace Orton in the WWE Championship match if Orton was not medically cleared to compete. McIntyre won via disqualification when he was attacked by Orton.
At Payback, Big E and Matt Riddle won their respective matches against Sheamus and King Corbin while in the main event, a now heel Roman Reigns, who aligned himself with Paul Heyman, won the Universal Championship. On the following SmackDown, a fatal four-way match between Big E, Riddle, Corbin, and Sheamus was scheduled to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship at Clash of Champions. However, Sheamus attacked Big E backstage, taking him out of the match. Big E was subsequently replaced by Reigns's own cousin Jey Uso, who won the fatal four-way to earn the title match against Reigns.
On the September 11 episode of SmackDown, Lucha House Party's Kalisto and Gran Metalik (accompanied by their fellow team member Lince Dorado) defeated SmackDown Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a non-title match. The following week, Cesaro and Nakamura were scheduled to defend the titles against Lucha House Party on the Clash of Champions Kickoff pre-show.
In May 2020, Sami Zayn was stripped of the Intercontinental Championship after refraining from competing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A tournament to determine a new champion was then won by AJ Styles on the June 12 episode of SmackDown. Jeff Hardy then defeated Styles to win the title on the August 21 episode; prior to the match, Styles attacked Hardy's leg, which led to medical personnel placing a knee brace on Hardy's injured leg. The following week, Styles interrupted Hardy, feeling that Hardy had cheated in their match as Hardy kicked Styles with his knee brace. As Hardy was leaving, however, Zayn returned with his own title belt, claiming that he was the true champion as he was never defeated. Zayn then attacked Hardy as Styles watched on and taunted Hardy afterward. Over the next few weeks, all three would bicker and state their claim on who was the real champion. The rivalry eventually reached a boiling point on the September 18 episode when an enraged Hardy announced that he would defend the Intercontinental Championship against Styles and Zayn in a triple threat ladder match at Clash of Champions. The following week, it was announced that in order to win the match, both title belts (Hardy's championship and Zayn's faux belt) must be retrieved to be declared the undisputed Intercontinental Champion.
On the September 14 episode of Raw, Asuka defeated Mickie James to retain the Raw Women's Championship, after which, Zelina Vega appeared and stated that she would be coming for the title. The following week, Vega defeated James to earn a title match at Clash of Champions.
At SummerSlam, The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated Andrade and Angel Garza to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship. Over the coming weeks, the two teams continued their feud and on the September 21 episode of Raw, Andrade and Garza won a triple threat tag team match to earn a title rematch at Clash of Champions.
At Payback, The Hurt Business's Bobby Lashley defeated Apollo Crews to win the United States Championship. The two also continued their feud over the next few weeks, and on the September 21 episode of Raw, a championship rematch was scheduled Clash of Champions.
Canceled match At Payback, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship from Bayley and Sasha Banks, while during the Kickoff pre-show, The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan) defeated The IIconics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay). The following night on Raw, The Riott Squad faced The IIconics in a rematch with the added stipulation that the winning team would earn a shot at the Women's Tag Team Championship while the losing team would disband. The Riott Squad won the match and the title opportunity, while The IIconics had to disband as a team. The championship match was scheduled for Clash of Champions. However, just hours before the event, WWE announced that both Jax and Baszler were not medically cleared to compete and the match was canceled as a result.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Corey Graves Tom Phillips Samoa Joe Byron Saxton Spanish commentatorCarlos CabreraRing announcersGreg Hamilton Mike Rome RefereesJessika CarrChad PattonCharles RobinsonRyan TranDrake WuertzRod ZapataInterviewersCharly CarusoKayla BraxtonAlyse AshtonPre-show panelCharly CarusoJohn "Bradshaw" LayfieldPeter RosenbergBooker T
Pre-show During the Clash of Champions Kickoff pre-show, it was announced that Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, who were scheduled to defend the titles against The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan), and Nikki Cross, who was set to face Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship, were not medically cleared to compete at the event. The Women's Tag Team Championship match was canceled while SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley was set to address her match during the pay-per-view.