Clash of Champions (2019)

The 2019 Clash of Champions was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the third Clash of Champions and took place on September 15, 2019, at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions. As per the theme of the event, all championships available across the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands at the time were defended.

Eleven matches were contested at the event, including two on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Seth Rollins defeated Braun Strowman to retain Raw's Universal Championship. In other prominent matches, Kofi Kingston retained SmackDown's WWE Championship against Randy Orton, Bayley defeated Charlotte Flair to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship, and the Raw Women's Championship match between Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks ended in a disqualification win for Banks, but with Lynch retaining. In the only non-title match on the card, Erick Rowan defeated Roman Reigns in a No Disqualification match thanks to the returning Luke Harper.

Of WWE's eleven championships across Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live, only the Raw Tag Team Championship and SmackDown Tag Team Championship changed hands. Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode defeated Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman to win the Raw championship, while The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) defeated The New Day's Big E and Xavier Woods to win the SmackDown championship.

Clash of Champions was a professional wrestling event first produced by WWE in 2016. The theme of the event was that every active championship available to each brand division featured at the event were defended. The 2016 event was Raw-exclusive while the 2017 event was SmackDown-exclusive. A Clash of Champions event did not occur in 2018, as it was replaced by Evolution, but following WrestleMania 34 that year, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive pay-per-views (PPV). On June 17, 2019, Clash of Champions was reinstated and all WWE titles available to Raw and SmackDown at the time, as well as 205 Live, were defended. These included the four championships on Raw—the Universal Championship, the Raw Women's Championship, the United States Championship, and the Raw Tag Team Championship—the four championships on SmackDown—the WWE Championship, the SmackDown Women's Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship—205 Live's sole championship—the WWE Cruiserweight Championship—and the promotion's two non-exclusive titles—the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship and the 24/7 Championship. After the 2017 event was held in December, the 2019 event returned Clash of Champions to the September slot and it was held on September 15, 2019, at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The event aired on pay-per-view worldwide and was available to livestream on the WWE Network. Tickets went on sale on June 21 through Ticketmaster.

The event comprised 11 matches, including two on the Kickoff pre-show, which resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.

On the August 12 episode of Raw, Universal Champion Seth Rollins faced United States Champion and O.C. member AJ Styles in a non-title champion versus champion match, which resulted in a brawl with fellow O.C. members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson with Braun Strowman coming to Rollins' aid. The following week, Rollins and Strowman defeated Gallows and Anderson to win the Raw Tag Team Championship. Rollins was then scheduled to defend both the Universal and Raw Tag Team championships at Clash of Champions. On the August 26 episode of Raw, Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler won a Tag Team Turmoil to earn a Raw Tag Team Championship match at the event, while later that same night, Strowman challenged Rollins for the Universal Championship, which Rollins accepted.

At SummerSlam, Becky Lynch defeated Natalya in a submission match to retain the Raw Women's Championship. On the following Raw, Lynch stated she respected Natalya and put out a warning to the rest of the women's division. Natalya later came out with her arm in a sling and stated they would face each other again. She was then interrupted by the returning Sasha Banks (in her first appearance since WrestleMania 35 in April). Banks and Natalya embraced only for Banks to attack Natalya, thus turning heel. Lynch came to Natalya's aid but was attacked by Banks with a chair. On the September 2 episode, after defeating Natalya a week prior, Banks challenged Lynch for the title at Clash of Champions, and Lynch accepted.

During the WWE Championship match at SummerSlam, Randy Orton attempted to target Kofi Kingston's family, who were at ringside. Kingston brawled with Orton outside the ring, resulting in both men being counted out; thus Kingston retained the title, but he continued to attack Orton. On the following episode of SmackDown, The New Day (Kingston and SmackDown Tag Team Champions Big E and Xavier Woods) faced the team of Orton and The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) in which the latter won, after which, Orton performed an RKO on all three members of New Day. On the following Raw, Big E and Woods defeated The Revival via disqualification due to interference from Orton. Kingston came to their aid only for Orton to attack Kingston, while The Revival and Orton temporarily injured Woods' leg. On August 27, a WWE Championship rematch was scheduled between the two for Clash of Champions, while Big E and Woods were scheduled to defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against The Revival at the event.