This weekend is WWE's return to the UK for Clash at the Castle, this time in Drew McIntyre's home country of Scotland.
Once again it's a lean five-match show. Unfortunately WWE doesn't seem to think much of Scotland, since this card looks pretty mid at best. Drew finally gets his rematch with the transitional champ who cashed in on him, two throwaway women's matches, an admittedly good Intercontinental Title match with a damaged-goods challenger whom the champ has already beaten, and....*checks notes*.....the exact same scenario for the WWE Title. This company can't book a babyface champion to save their lives. Newly crowned babyface champ gets challenger who isn't at all credible anymore, beats him clean, challenger goes on a mean streak, gets a rematch because "reasons." Are they deliberately cooling Cody off until Dwayne and Roman come back?
Women's Tag Team Championship: Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill vs. Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn vs. Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark
Yeah this is pointless. Bianca and Jade retain, obviously. Jade does her usual schtick, showing very little in-ring improvement.
Pick: Bianca & Jade
WWE Women's Championship: Bayley vs. Piper Niven
Fuck is this? I get that Piper is from the UK but in what universe is she a believable threat to Bayley's title? Hey at least she's not Doudrop anymore....
Pick: Bayley retains
Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable
This match should be really good, but isn't Gable's contract up? Or did WWE let it expire just so they could re-sign him and pretend they landed a hot free agent? Either way I don't think Sami's losing the title yet.
Pick: Sami retains
World Championship: Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre
Yeah I really don't see it with Priest as a top guy. He's a solid hand but this run resembles CM Punk's Money in the Bank-induced title runs from 2008 & 2009. It's another case of WWE trying to have the title make the man, when that approach almost never works. The match should be very good and both guys will work hard. Speaking of Pepsi Phil, does he get involved to screw over Drew again or does Drew finally win the belt on his home turf? I think the latter is more likely and then Punk maybe comes out and challenges Drew for SummerSlam. Side note: I know Drew will be the babyface in Scotland but who are the rest of us meant to be rooting for here?
Pick: Drew
WWE Championship I Quit Match: Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles
Seriously, how many times is this company gonna recycle this heatless template? They had Seth beat Nakamura clean last fall, then Nakamura got ANOTHER shot because Nakamura was mean. Hell, back in 2018 they had AJ beat Nakamura clean, Nak turned heel, and he got ANOTHER shot. And ANOTHER one. How hard is it to plan ahead past WrestleMania so your new babyface champion actually has a series of credible challengers to make his first title run feel like a big deal? The first time Shawn Michaels won the belt his first challenger was his former friend Diesel, who'd just turned on him, and more importantly, WHOM HE'D NEVER DEFEATED. So when Shawn finally turned back that challenge it felt like an accomplishment. Then Shawn wrestled Davey Boy Smith (whom Diesel failed to beat the previous fall) to a draw, necessitating a rematch. Logical, right? Then he started a feud with Vader, who'd been booked like an indestructible monster up until Shawn beat him. A first-time babyface champion getting from 'Mania to SummerSlam shouldn't feel like an obligatory time-filler until your "real stars" come back from hiatus. Again, this match should be really good, but AJ could not be less of a threat with the way he's been used the last five years.
Pick: Cody retains
WWE sure doesn't seem to care about loading up these overseas shows, do they? Glorified Saturday Night's Main Event really. Seriously, can someone explain to me why this product is so fucking popular right now?
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