Styles finishes year on a high at WWE Clash of Champions

AJ Styles retained his WWE Championship at WWE Clash of Champions. Photo from WWE.com.

Phenomenal.

AJ Styles showed the heart of a champion as he fought through an injured rib and submitted Jinder Mahal to retain his WWE Championship at WWE Clash of Champions Monday (Manila time) in Boston.

The Phenomenal One bucked the interference of the Singh Brothers and kicked out of a Khallas from the Modern Day Maharaja late in the match as he kept his grip on his title.

Mahal attempted a Styles Clash on the champion, but Styles reversed it to a Calf Crusher to force the Indian challenger to tap out.

The victory capped off an amazing year for Styles, who proved his worth in the company as he churned out stellar matches night after night.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn also saved their WWE careers after a controversial ending in their tag team match against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura with SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon and general manager Daniel Bryan serving as the special guest referees.

Orton had the match won after hitting Zayn with an RKO, but just before McMahon counted three, Owens pushed Bryan on him to stop the count.

Confusion then ensued before the Underdog from the Underground rolled up the Viper. McMahon, however, stopped his count at two, which led to Bryan chiding his fellow executive and seemingly sent him to the back.

Orton tried one more RKO on Zayn, but the latter reversed it to a rollup which led to Bryan making the fast count and giving the rebellious duo the victory.

It also shed a light on the apparent friction between McMahon and Bryan with a lot of questions surfacing on the future of the SmackDown management team.

In the night’s other matches, Charlotte retained her SmackDown Women’s Championship as she submitted Natalya with a Figure Eight in their lumberjack match.

The Usos also survived an action-packed fatal-four-way match to keep their SmackDown Tag Team Championship after a superkick-and-splash combo on Chad Gable.

The match also included The New Day, Rusev and Aiden English, and the duo of Gable and Shelton Benjamin.

Dolph Ziggler also won his second United States Championship after pinning Baron Corbin in a triple threat match.

The Showoff hit a Zig Zag on the defending champ, who had other challenger Bobby Roode in position for the End of Days.

The Bludgeon Brothers dominated Breezango after Harper and Rowan nailed a double crucifix powerbomb on Fandango.

In the kickoff show, Mojo Rawley put an end to the Hype Bros as he beat Zack Ryder with a running forearm to nab the win.