WWE Clash at the Castle 2022 Match Ratings and Commentary

Written By Chris Scott Moore

Cardiff, Wales—Principality Stadium

September 3, 2022

Principality Stadium (courtesy of wwe.com)

Here’s where we landed with WWE Clash at the Castle 2022. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.

WWE Clash at the Castle - 9/3/2022

  • Damage Control def. Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka: ★★★

  • Gunther def. Sheamus to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship: ★★★★1/2

  • Liv Morgan def. Shayna Baszler to retain the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship: ★★

  • Edge and Rey Mysterio def. Judgement Day: ★★

  • Seth Rollins def. Matt Riddle: ★★★★1/4

  • Roman Reigns def. Drew McIntyre to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: ★★★

Roman Reigns (courtesy of wwe.com)

Show Highlight—

  • Camera work.  Wrestling fans have waited for the camera work to improve for as long as we’ve waited for Vince’s hands to be off creative.  Simply put, you can watch the show again.  It didn’t make you sick.  It wasn’t obnoxious.  It didn’t take you out of the matches.  There weren’t cuts after every strike.  When a wrestler worked over someone in the ring corner, there weren’t zooms and shaky cam and excessive cuts every millisecond.  WWE has some of the best production on television, but the camera work and edits have destroyed their product.  There will be a bump in ratings when wrestling fans see that they can watch again.  I swear to God, I genuinely cheered like it was Hogan/Rock when I realized the language of their style had relaxed.  

What Worked—

  • The production.  The stadium looked so impressive and made this feel like a special, once-in-a-lifetime atmosphere.  WWE’s production with their wide-shots and cranes make a big stadium look gargantuan, it really is what they do best.  The HD screens making the Castle over the ring was unique and artfully done.  And the stage being more restrained as opposed to sectioning off a quarter of the end of the stadium looked sharp, too.

  • Bayley’s chant.  Bayley prevented the UK crowd to do the sing-along they serenaded her with at NXT: London.

  • Honoring SummerSlam ’92.  What a touching, simple moment.  You didn’t have to do a big thing, just a nod towards history and expression of appreciation towards the family of Davey and Bret.  I almost got choked up seeing how much it clearly meant to Bret.  What a classy move.

  • Gunther/Sheamus.  Absolute classic, brutal match.  Two badass men beating the shit out of each because the Intercontinental title matters.  Sheamus got a standing ovation as he should have.

  • Rocket Man.  Seth’s Elton inspired entrance garb was great enough, but they told a great story with Rollins using Riddle’s hatred against him to get the Original Bro off his game.  Matt Riddle was protected in his loss.  He didn’t look stupid, he just got caught-up in his rage and Rollins used two curb stomps (one off the top rope to boot) to earn a credible win.

  • NXT-vibes.  Triple H’s vision of producing the old school, black and gold brand was realized on the main stage.  It felt epic from a lack of fluff.      Less matches, but they all got time.

What Didn’t Work—

  • Ads.  We’ve talked about it before, but a gradual change that could happen is during the ads for the basic package of Peacock, WWE could run videos of wrestling cutting promos in the classic vein of WWE from the 80s and 90s.  A little cloudy blue backdrop with the show logo over it, and cut coked-out 25 second drops.  Would go a long way.  Make the cheap bastards only paying for the bottom tier feel like they’re missing out!

Show Cringe—

  • Nothing.  My intelligence was never insulted.  The storylines and production didn’t make me resent the company.  You do great shit I’ll say great shit!  Well, okay, fine, Dominik.

Showstealer (courtesy of wwe.com)

Chris Scott Moore
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