That poor Scotland crowd.
Not only did the hometown boy, Drew McIntyre, come up short in his quest to win the world championship in front of his hometown audience, but they also were forced participants in one of the worst match finishes in recent WWE history.
Triple H has had a lot of hits since grabbing creative control in the company, but this McIntyre, Damian Priest, and CM Punk debacle wasn’t one of them. McIntyre vs. Punk was a shining beacon of hope for the Triple H led booking strategy of WWE and now it’s an inconsistent mess that’s in need of saving. More on that later.
The rest of the show was a fine to good event with some solid wrestling that was saddled with predictable outcomes. Not bad, but inconsequential.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it. Period.
Cody Rhodes vs. AJ Styles - WWE Undisputed Championship “I Quit” Match
A strong opener for the show and the match of the night. The crowd gave Cody Rhodes a tremendous response and the match utilized that response for drama. Styles and Cody both beat the other up and flipped the “I Quit” concept on it’s head with the focus placed on big spots rather than prolonged pain. Styles very much needed to do more to Rhodes during this to justify Rhodes smashing him with the stairs after Styles quit and lost the match, but the idea was to show an edgy side of Cody. The match was good, but I wouldn’t give them a passing grade on that final point. He came across as unlikable instead of edgy and aggressive.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/4
Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill vs. Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark vs. Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn - WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
The worst match on the show because of some missed spots from all teams involved. The most confusing match too. Fyre and Dawn are tag champions? Really? Look, I get that you wanted to give the Scotland crowd a hometown title win, but really? Belair and Cargill came across as living down to the level of their competition in this. I don’t see Fyre and Dawn holding the belts long, but they shouldn’t go back into the hands of Cargill and Belair either. This finish plants the titles firmly in the realm of meaningless after this and WWE shouldn’t want Jade and Bianca in that spot with them.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 1/2
Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable - WWE Intercontinental Championship
A good match, but one that was marred by the lack of logical storyline progression. Otis needed to turn on Gable in this match to move that narrative forward. We’ve now kind of gotten the turn two times and it has hurt the value of the full turn from Otis whenever it happens. Big stages call for big moments in feuds and this was an ideal spot to do something significant. Instead, we got a match that was good, but one that left every person involved in the exact same spot as they were going in.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
Bayley vs. Piper Niven - WWE Women’s Championship
Solid, but without drama. Like, none at all. Chelsea Green was heavily involved in shenanigans outside the ring to try and create some belief that Niven would win the championship, but nobody bought it. Good spots here and there, but like a house show match, this was good while it was on and immediately forgettable once it wasn’t.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre - WWE World Heavyweight Championship
An unfortunate mess. Unfortunate because the match itself was excellent. Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre had nice chemistry and worked a match they didn’t plan once Priest got injured during a botched dive. The pivot made for fun drama and a gutsy performance by Priest that included some big strength spots that were even more impressive being done on an injured leg. The finish ruined everything. Punk was backstage at the exact right time next to a ref shirt? Not a soul was around to prevent him from grabbing that and running down to the ring? A stretch and that’s putting it nicely. The execution was bad and illogical, but worse was the inconsistent light that the finish put both McIntyre and Punk in. McIntyre is fully justified in wanting to hurt CM Punk — as the heel. Punk looked like a jerk getting involved in something that wasn’t his business — as a babyface. It’s senseless. WWE had a very organic feud brewing between these two talents and now they have a convoluted mess that will require fans to play along rather than stay invested because of how good the story has been. A tough night at the office and the first big example of a true booking miss on the part of Triple H.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
What did you think of WWE Clash at the Castle 2024? Drop your thoughts in the comment section!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media YouTube channel HERE.
Become a Brass Ring Media member HERE.