7 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Clash At The Castle

2. McIntyre, Reigns Deliver Suspense In Main Event

Roman Reigns Drew McIntyre
WWE.com

Setting aside what happened post-match and the trope of Roman Reigns relying on the Bloodline to bail him out, he and Drew McIntyre had a tremendous title match at Clash at the Castle.

Oftentimes, Michael Cole proclaims that a match has a “big-fight feel” and it sounds like hyperbole, but this time, it absolutely was true. Both men played into it, with Roman backing off early on and then trading offense with McIntyre. Drew refused to stay down, kicking out of numerous pinfall attempts at 1.

The match went from standard mode to bomb-throwing midway through, with both men going for their knockout blows repeatedly, and countering each other several times. Reigns even hit a Rock Bottom at one point.

Both men kicked out of each other’s finishers, which really fired up the fans, right up to the point where Solo Sikoa made his debut and pulled the referee out on what was most likely a 3 count for McIntyre. That, followed up immediately by a spear and pin for Reigns, deflated the crowd something fierce.

But overall, this was a highly entertaining match.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.