One WWE Match You MUST Watch From Every Year 1984-2024
2. 2022 - Gunther Vs Sheamus, Clash At The Castle
This was the moment,
Gunther's Intercontinental Championship retention against Sheamus at WWE's historic Clash At The Castle show in Cardiff was the match of the night, WWE's match of the year and a (still relatively rare for WWE) Wrestling Observer 5*-rated contest, but it was even more than all of those things as it unfolded.
With every skin-piercing chop, every brutal kick and each wince-inducing move the Champion and Challenger inflicted upon one another, it was abundantly clear that the winds of change really had blown through WWE. Two months before the event, Triple H had been placed in charge of creative after Vince McMahon resigned in disgrace for the first time. Changes were apparent but they couldn't be rushed, and while the bar had been so pathetically low for so many years than Raw and SmackDown instantly improved overnight in lots of little way, the big changes were harder to spot.
This match, on this show, was as big a change as 'The Game' could have made. A stripped-back fight between two of the three best to hone the style on the main roster, this asked for nothing but your attention in its style and execution. Not all of WWE could be this, and it'd get dull in a hurry, but a WWE when these two are on screen should be exactly this. Extracting the very best from all involved - Giovani Vinci was even airlifted from NXT to make Imperium whole again before the bell - was Hunter's MO in the early days as he reset the board.
McMahon's autocracy so rarely made space for matches like this one. It now stands as a monument to the beginnings of an improbable boom period.