This week sees WWE head to Cardiff for the biggest stadium show in the UK for thirty years, Clash at the Castle.
The historic show will take place at the Welsh capital’s Principality Stadium and will be main evented by the titanic clash between Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and the challenger Drew McIntyre.
WWE have made a massive deal out of McIntyre’s quest to return ‘home’ and be the man to finally end Reigns’ 700+ day reign on top of WWE.
GiveMeSport looks at five ways WWE could bring the curtain down on Clash at the Castle on Saturday night.
Roman still rules
The most obvious way to end the night in Cardiff is the same we’ve been seeing world championship matches end for two years now, with Roman Reigns still holding all the gold. It’s image we’ve gotten used to seeing and it’s still the most likely to be the end result, even though there have been some reports over the past few days that for the first time WWE are considering taking the titles off the Tribal Chief.
Much will depend on what’s next for Reigns and what the plan is for WrestleMania, and it would be a massive call for WWE to finally have him lost the straps. Yet, although Drew may come as close to anyone in dethroning the Head of the Table, Roman’s reign will probably continue through Cardiff and onto whatever, and more importantly whoever WWE sees fit to challenge him next for the big prize.
Drew downs the Big Dog
We are probably as close as we’ve ever been to finally seeing the end of Roman Reigns’ championship run on top of WWE. The company has made a massive deal out of Drew McIntyre and his challenge going into the bout – including an epic vignette telling the story of McIntyre’s journey – and Cardiff is almost the perfect place to do it. Even if it’s not quite the ‘home’ setting that WWE is making it out to be.
It would be a massive call for WWE to give Drew what is probably one of the biggest rubs in recent memory, but he’s more than capable of using it as jumping point for another run at the top of WWE. There are some concerns on what reaction he could get compared Roman upon entering the Principality – going on the responses each received during their matches on last year’s UK live events. However, there’s no doubt that if the Scottish Warrior were to get the winning pinfall, Cardiff would erupt in celebration.
Karrion crosses them both
The ominous elephant in the Cardiff stadium comes in the shape of recent returnee Karrion Kross. Kross made a shock comeback to WWE earlier this month by attacking challenger Drew McIntyre on SmackDown and then going on to send a warning to the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, making his intentions known that he wants the gold.
Therefore, if WWE want to protect both champion and challenger and not go with an outright winner, then an involvement for Kross to render the match a no contest could be a possibility. Going in his favour is new head of creative is Triple H, who is a big fan of the former NXT Champion and even though this would be a huge spot for Kross to fill, would be trusted by The Game to pull it off. However, ending such a historical event with screwy finish doesn’t seem like the remit of the new regime and could leave the fans leaving flat coming out of the Principality.
Wyatt’s welcomed back
Another rumour circulating the halls of the world wide web seems to be the return of Bray Wyatt to WWE. Wyatt has kept himself ridiculously quiet since being shockingly released by WWE last year and means he’s free and ready to be brought back into the fold if and when Triple H sees fit to use him. A Wyatt return would represent a nice piece of symmetry, as it was The Fiend who Roman Reigns beat to begin his unstoppable championship reign in 2021.
And it also fuels the idea that Wyatt may not come alone, and could bring Braun Strowman – who was also involved in that match at Payback, and is another name who’s been linked with a WWE return – and even Erick Rowan back to reform the Wyatt Family. This could come after the end result in Cardiff, meaning there would be no need for closing shenanigans, and coud set up a mouth-watering Bloodline vs Wyatts feud going forward.
British Invasion
There is a surprising lack of NXT UK involvement in Cardiff this weekend, perhaps less of a shock given the news of the transition into NXT Europe next year, but could one way to send the crowd home happy is some Brit back-up for Drew.
There is clearly going to be some involvement from The Usos in the main event of Clash at the Castle, so to even the odds, could McIntyre give a showcase to some of the British boys to really hammer home the theme of the evening. Now you could pluck those names from the main roster and use the Brawling Brutes in a note of ‘respect’ for their former foe, or you could use the likes of Tyler Bate, Noam Dar and Gallus to really give a British flavour to the culmination of the biggest show in three decades.