WWE Clash At The Castle 2024 Review

Drew McIntyre comes home to reclaim the World Heavyweight Championship off the shoulders of Damian Priest, Cody Rhodes & AJ Styles push each other to the extreme in an I Quit match, and more incidents that unfolded at Glasgow will be covered in this joint review by myself, Prince Osborne and fellow team member, Ben Boorman.

“I Quit” Match for the Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes [C] vs. AJ Styles

Cody Rhodes made AJ Styles quit at 27:46

Prince Osborne: These men built excellent chemistry as rivals, and this match stood out with a distinct difference from their French encounter. The action was very old-school, the intensity was on a skyrocketed level, and most notably, the Scottish crowd was blazing! The introduction of a crimson mask did add more weight to the personal wedge that’s been built around and to top that off, Rhodes’ mother had a great interaction with Styles. Albeit the textbook ending, this fight kicked off the show on a magnificent note.

Rating: 4.5/5

Ben Boorman: It was brilliant to see double blood spots from both guys which have been unheard of in WWE over the last 15 years. The crowd was into everything both guys did, especially the heat segments by AJ were insane. Cody continues to deliver mega matches in his title run and even teased a bit of “Homelander” Cody with the ending that was perfectly delivered. The scene after the match with Cody & Solo suggests something in the works between those two or maybe a 6-Man Tag with Tonga Brothers and Randy/KO, creating lots of different directions for Cody’s title run to go now.

Rating: 5/5

Triple Threat Match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill [C] vs. Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark vs. Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn

Isla Dawn pinned Shayna Baszler to win the titles in 12:16

Prince Osborne: These women were building onto something that looked like a wild sprint, and that feeling was created because of treating this as an actual triple-threat match so kudos on that detail. Jade’s slip-ups had a nice recovery but it made things worse to give off an upsetting yet beautiful homecoming victory for Alba & Isla. The Scottish duo deserves this platform to show their capabilities and this reign could work wonders for them, possibly continuing this story in a different style.

Rating: 3/5

Ben Boorman: A decent showing from everyone involved, good action all-round, great back and forth and everyone intercepting everyone’s pinfall attempts, and a genuine surprise and great moment when Alba & Isla won. A celebration that got everyone choked up with Alba losing her mother in a car accident a month ago, it was beautiful to see everyone happy for a great team to win the tag titles.

Rating: 3.25/5

Intercontinental Championship Match: Sami Zayn [C] vs. Chad Gable

Sami Zayn pinned Chad Gable to retain in 22:16

Prince Osborne: It was a slow burn in terms of in-ring competence, but the story of Gable’s manipulative mind in dealing with Alpha Academy reached its peak here. The emotions were excellently expressed by all, especially Otis who’s prepping up for the big breakout. You can’t doubt both of these lads’ potential to deliver a miraculous mat classic, but they let the story breathe in to generate the needed buzz from the audience, and it was a huge success! I can’t wait for the huge payoff and the final nails to be punched in the coffin.

Rating: 4.75/5

Ben Boorman: This was amazing! Sami is the perfect underdog champion fighting underneath and Gable is on the run of his life. The story with Gable and Otis is the hottest thing going on in WWE right now. Gable using both the cross-face and the diving headbutt definitely reminded fans of someone from the past and the exchanges of wrestling are just gold. These two could feud forever and I wouldn’t get tired of the matches. The ending furthers the eventual split with Otis and Maxine leaving at the end and Sami hitting the Helluva Kick for the win. The death stare from Gable afterward suggests hell is coming Otis’ way on Monday night.

Rating: 5/5

WWE Women’s Championship Match: Bayley [C] vs. Piper Niven

Bayley pinned Niven to retain in 13:34

Prince Osborne: Bayley’s workhorse run as the blue brand’s empress continued as she fought another great battle against the hometown heroine in Piper. As much as I loved Bayley’s performance, it was Piper who outshined the champ for a brief moment which gave room to dwell a feeling of taking the victory. Chelsea as the valet was phenomenal, bringing great moments of relief from the tensely built matchup. As surprising as the finish looked, it made the most sense to have a competitor like Piper take a tainted loss rather than a standard decisive loss.

Rating: 3.75/5

Ben Boorman: Bayley is the MVP of Women’s wrestling right now and delivered with every opponent; great to see Piper given a PLE match to show how great she is in the ring, brilliant work, great back and forth showing Bayley using unorthodox moves to try and beat Niven, Chelsea Green hilarity is brilliant on the outside the whole time and her running back with the mask on is great comedy moments. Also afterwards the fact Bayley acknowledged Piper gives Piper some genuine credibility and shows she should be featured more heavily on TV in the future.

Rating: 3.75/5

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Damian Priest [C] vs. Drew McIntyre

Damian Priest pinned Drew McIntyre to retain in 20:16

Prince Osborne: This was a fever-pitch moment for Glasgow where their hero was set to lock horns against a champion who was in dire need of a statement victory to thwart the “paper champ” doubts, and they delivered certainly what was requested! Even though there was a scary incident that repercussed Priest’s physique, Drew played his part flamboyantly to recover from that and progress the scale to a seething fight. It was a tooth-and-nail collision that could’ve gone either way even before the dramatic ending. Speaking of something dramatic, the excitement scale was officially broken for me when Punk popped in as the guest referee to ruin Drew’s plan all over again. I can’t wait to see how the final payoff will be led even though the Scottish audience left the Hydro on a livid note.

Rating: 4.5/5

Ben Boorman: They survived a big scare early when Priest went for a dive and got caught in the ropes. Both managed to work around and got through but Priest was hobbling on his ankle for the rest of the match. It was a big fight with lots of strikes, where eventually, the ref went down and Drew hit the Claymore, no ref until another “ref” arrived, counted to 2 but stopped because it was actually… CM Punk. With a smirk, he low blows Drew and allows Priest to beat Drew again just like at WrestleMania. A bold call but ultimately Drew/Punk is a hot enough feud that it doesn’t need the World Title and Priest needs more victories to legitimize his run as Champion.

Rating: 4.25/5

Overall Match RatingPrince Osborne: 4/5 Ben Boorman: 4.25/5

Overall Show RatingPrince Osborne: 9.5/10 Ben Boorman: 9/10

Match of the Night: Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable Highlight of the Night: Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn’s beautiful Homecoming victory Weak Link of the Night: Jade Cargill’s unfortunate slip-ups

Overall Thoughts

Prince Osborne: Just like the Wales edition, this event was encapsulated with an ample amount of matches that meant the most to take place and every match’s purpose and story was presented magnificently. Starting from the wild rematch between Rhodes and Styles to the emotionally superlative main event, every matchup had valid reasons to receive the time it had and convey what has to be. To top it all, Glasgow was wonderful enough to elevate the energy to an elite scale. There are a lot of pathways created and unfinished with new twists, and as a fan, I can’t wait to see the road to SummerSlam emanate crazily.

Ben Boorman: An excellent show all around with brilliant matches that furthered every storyline ongoing and we should be crescendoing towards a massive payoff at SummerSlam and beyond. Sami/Gable stole the show, Cody/AJ was amazing, Isla/Alba winning was a great moment, and Punk costing Drew again furthers the program between them which will be godly to see. Everything that happened made sense, kept the storyline continuity intact, and furthered the eventual endings of these feuds coming soon that will lead to the next chapters post SummerSlam.

What are your thoughts on this Premium Live Event? Chime in your opinions in the comments section below.

Until the next write-up, enjoy wrestling and life!