After matches for the Cruiserweight Championship and United States Championship on the pre-show, WWE Clash of the Champions opened with another title match, one that would impact yet another title match later the same night.
Seth Rollins, the WWE Universal Champion, and Braun Strowman, his challenger for later in the night, defended their Raw Tag Team Championship against the recently-formed team of Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. It was a match of two pairs of unlikely partners, and it had an ending that fans may not have expected.