CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Erick Rowan has said he’s a free man, and nobody will ever again tell him what to do. That seems to be all well and true; he was certainly unhinged and uninhibited for the entirety of his No Disqualification victory over Roman Reigns at WWE Clash of Champions. But it was the sudden return of Luke Harper that sealed the match when Reigns began to rally, and the reunion was a fitting one. Even a creature like Rowan needs help now and then, and when the chips are down, there’s nobody who has your back quite like family.
Before Harper made his presence known, however, the match was all Rowan, all the time. The former SmackDown Tag Team Champion absolutely mangled Reigns from the jump; save for a Superman Punch here and there, The Big Dog simply had no answer for the behemoth who had waged physical and psychological warfare against the former Universal Champion over the past several months. Good chunks of the match took place on the arena floor, with Rowan getting the upper hand via an Iron Claw through a table.
Reigns, however, turned the tide by using one of Rowan’s weapons of choice — the jib cam — against him. The Big Dog swung the rig repeatedly into his foe’s sternum, landing another Superman Punch that sent the big man tumbling down the ramp. With Rowan lined up, Reigns took off for a supersized Spear and was met headlong by a big boot from Harper, sporting a metal tee of his own to go with Rowan’s and an eerie, ear-to-ear grin as he fed Reigns into an Iron Claw from Rowan that put The Big Dog away.
The return of Harper in and of itself is a terrifying prospect — he is a frighteningly talented man, after all, and the SmackDown LIVE landscape would shift on its own with him back in the fold. But seeing him in this manner makes the situation even more dire. Erick Rowan was looking like a Superstar who would do anything he wanted, to anyone he chose. Now, he’s looking like he’s the kind of man who’ll get away with it, too.
