[7] On the November 7 episode of SmackDown, AJ Styles defeated Jinder Mahal to win the WWE Championship for the second time.

On December 1 on WWE.com, in honoring the theme of the event, Byron Saxton announced that Flair and Natalya would have a SmackDown Women's Championship rematch at Clash of Champions.

[12] On the December 5 episode of SmackDown, Carmella and Lana, on behalf of Tamina, confronted General Manager Daniel Bryan and complained about Natalya getting a rematch for the title.

[15] However, on December 1, it was announced that Corbin would defend the title in a triple threat match against Roode and Dolph Ziggler at Clash of Champions.

[13] On the October 10 episode of SmackDown, Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin defeated The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder), Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze), and The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) in a number one contender's fatal four-way tag team match.

[18] Both Owens and Zayn were given the opportunity to represent Team SmackDown at Survivor Series, but lost their qualification matches.

Afterwards, Shane announced himself as the special guest referee while also putting an additional stipulation that if Owens and Zayn were to lose at Clash of Champions, they would be fired from WWE.

[13] On the final SmackDown before Clash of Champions, General Manager Daniel Bryan decided to add himself as a second special guest referee to keep the match fair.

[14] For months on Breezango's "Fashion Files" segment, Fandango and Tyler Breeze were tormented by two unknown individuals.

The Bludgeon Brothers, the new team of former Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan, now going by the shortened ring names of Harper and Rowan, debuted on the November 21 episode of SmackDown,[10] and after The Ascension "sacrificed" themselves, they convinced Breezango to face The Bludgeon Brothers at Clash of Champions.

[14] On the November 21 episode of SmackDown, The Hype Bros (Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder) were defeated by The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan).

[20] During the Clash of Champions Kickoff pre-show, Mojo Rawley faced his former tag team partner Zack Ryder.

[21] The actual pay-per-view opened with Baron Corbin defending the United States Championship in a triple threat match against Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler.

[22] Next, The Usos defended the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Big E and Kofi Kingston of The New Day, Rusev and Aiden English, and Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable in a fatal four-way match.

[22] In the penultimate match, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn defended their jobs against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura with Commissioner Shane McMahon and General Manager Daniel Bryan as the special guest referees.

[22] On the following episode of SmackDown, General Manager Daniel Bryan and Commissioner Shane McMahon confronted each other about the controversial finish to the tag team match at Clash of Champions.

Shane said that he stopped his three count because of his emotions as he remembered all the wrongs that Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn had done on SmackDown.

Bryan said he became General Manager because he believed in the shared vision that SmackDown was the "land of opportunity", and Shane was trying to take that away from Owens and Zayn.

Shane paused for a moment to process, said he trusted Bryan, and wished him good luck with the show and left.

[23] WWE Champion AJ Styles would then get intertwined into this feud, resulting in Bryan scheduling Styles to defend the WWE Championship against both Owens and Zayn at the Royal Rumble in a 2-on-1 handicap match, while Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura announced their participation in the Royal Rumble match.

[24] Also on the following episode of SmackDown, new United States Champion Dolph Ziggler cut a promo addressing the WWE fans and his championship win.

Other participants of the tournament included former champion Baron Corbin, Tye Dillinger, Xavier Woods, Aiden English, Mojo Rawley, and Zack Ryder.

[28] Also in the tag team division, Breezango faced The Bludgeon Brothers in a rematch from Clash of Champions which ended in disqualification after interference from The Ascension.