Clash of Champions will be taking place this Sunday and the Raw roster will need a strong showing to top the extremely solid Smackdown brand exclusive pay-per-view Backlash. With the way the card is shaping up, it should be just as good, if not way better with the caliber of matches set up. I’m here to break down the match ups and give my predictions on each one of them.

The New Day and The Club will be battling for the Raw Tag Team Championships in what should be a very solid match. The buildup however, has been absolute garbage. The Club has either been booked as cringe worthy or boring and The New Day are up to their same old stale gimmick. I’m hoping The New Day retain the titles because they are still a popular team and The Club has been far too inconsistent to be the ones to end The New Day’s record-breaking reign.

Two slugfests will also be taking place on Sunday. The first will be the last match in a seven match series between Sheamus and Cesaro. The series is tied at 3-3, and honestly, I’m glad to see this end. It’s gone on for far too long and it’s about time it has ended. While I think the smart move would be to have Cesaro win and finally get pushed into the world title scene, I wouldn’t be surprised if the victory went to Sheamus here. Cesaro is one of the people that fans have wanted to be pushed for a long time now, and with the brand split just getting started, now would be the ideal time to do so.

The second of the slugfests will be for the United States Championship between Rusev and Roman Reigns. These two have really allowed some prestige to come to the title recently, and I look for this match to be pretty decent. Rusev has had a great title reign and Reigns is finally in the midcard where he belongs. This match could honestly go either way, but Roman may win to keep the feud going as well as to keep him in the midcard. It would be smart to keep him away from the main event scene because that’s when the jeering will return towards him. He is not fit for the main event and everybody knows it.

Moving right along, the cruiserweights have returned to the WWE and they made their first appearance on Raw this past week. After the first Cruiserweight Champion in TJ Perkins was crowned via the Cruiserweight Classic, he was in need for a challenger for Sunday. It was determined that The Brian Kendrick would be his first challenger for the title and I couldn’t like this pick more. Kendrick is an experienced WWE veteran and also a heel, so he’s the right guy to put over Perkins since he is new to the WWE and hasn’t been seen on its programming outside of the CWC.

The women’s triple threat will be a huge match in the night. It will pit the champion Charlotte against Sasha Banks and Bayley. These are three of the best women’s wrestlers today and they should absolutely tear the house down. Charlotte has been a good heel champion, but it is hard to tell which way this match will go. Whichever way it does though, it should really be a great match on the card.

What I consider to be the co-main event and a match that could potentially steal the show is Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn. Jericho is one of the greatest in ring performers of all time and Zayn is one of the greatest performers of recent memory. Both men are doing some of the best work in their illustrious careers which means we’re in for a good match up. Sami finally has a feud and it would be extremely beneficial for him to pick up the win over Jericho if WWE is going to be booking him as a top babyface in the future. Jericho winning isn’t completely out of the question, however. In the time that this feud has been given, it has done very well for itself and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jericho picked up a win to keep it going. Either way, this match should be one of the highlights of the night.

The main event of the evening will put the WWE Universal Champion, Kevin Owens, against his challenger, Seth Rollins. Both of these men are absolutely fantastic in the ring and are also fantastic characters. This match is highly anticipated not just because of the wrestling, but the story behind it. Triple H turned his back on Seth Rollins to allow Kevin Owens to win the Universal Championship and due to that fact, Rollins was awarded this match. Rollins has been working as a heel for the past few years, and it’s quite refreshing to see him as a babyface. Owens has been a great heel as always. He’s been able to get Rollins over as the good guy in the feud and he’s gotten some boo’s from the fans despite being a popular and respected performer. Now my choice is a bit conflicted as these two are my two favorite superstars, but I believe that Kevin Owens should retain here. As nice as it would be to have Rollins win the title, having Owens have such a short reign would just make him look weak. Owens should have a nice long title reign and Rollins should move onto a feud with Triple H.

This pay-per-view could be one of the best ones of the year if everything is booked properly. There should be great wrestling, great story advancement, and great segments. I predict this show to beat out Smackdown’s Backlash with ease as long as everything goes the way it should.