Predicting the match order at Clash at the Castle

It’s one thing to predict the winners and losers at Clash at the Castle, but how about taking a guess at the match order for the event?

Clash at the Castle takes place on Saturday, Sept. 3, at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, starting at 1:00 pm ET, live on Peacock (in the U.S.) and WWE Network (everywhere else).

WWE has announced six different segments for the main card of this event. Here is my subjective view of how important each of these six segments rank, ordered from most important to least important.

1. Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre
2. Edge & Rey Mysterio vs. The Judgment Day
3. Matt Riddle vs. Seth Rollins
4. Belair, Asuka, Bliss vs. Bayley, SKY, Kai
5. Gunther vs. Sheamus
6. Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler

This ranking is much harder than usual. Reigns vs. McIntyre is clearly the biggest match on the card. After that, the other five matches can pretty much go in whatever order you like. Morgan’s match falls to the bottom for me due to the lack of focus on it last week, Morgan’s portrayal as a weak champion, and Baszler being a consistent loser throughout 2022.

Main event

This one is obvious. Drew McIntyre is plastered all over the poster of the show for a reason.

Opening match

The opening match of the night is usually one of the mid-level attractions with good work rate that doesn’t require a dedicated video package ahead of time to hype it up.

In this case, I think it makes sense to go with Gunther vs. Sheamus. The work rate will be there, Gunther previously dominated NXT UK, and Sheamus is from Ireland. The fans should be very excited to see these two guys beat the shit out of each other to begin the night.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Gunther vs. Sheamus
Segment 2:
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6: Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

Everything else

The two women’s matches will probably be split up, with one in the first half of the show and the other in the second half. Morgan’s match seems like a better fit right before the big main event, either as a cooldown match or as a platform for Ronda Rousey to show up and get involved. Therefore I’ll put Morgan in Segment 5. I’ll make the corresponding move of putting Bayley in Segment 2, to put more separation between these two matches.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Gunther vs. Sheamus
Segment 2: Belair, Asuka, Bliss vs. Bayley, SKY, Kai
Segment 3:
Segment 4:
Segment 5: Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler
Segment 6: Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

One thing that sticks out to me about this card is that it feels like an incomplete lineup of matches. I expect a longer list of matches for one of WWE’s major stadium shows. Therefore I’m going to add some sort of filler match or segment to this event and throw it in Segment 3. Maybe Tyson Fury gets in the ring to embarrass a lower card heel? Sure, why not.

That gives me the following card:

Segment 1: Gunther vs. Sheamus
Segment 2: Belair, Asuka, Bliss vs. Bayley, SKY, Kai
Segment 3: Tyson Fury segment
Segment 4:
Segment 5:
Segment 6: Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler
Segment 7: Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

After that it’s just a matter of choosing between Seth Rollins and Edge for Segment 4 and Segment 5. Let’s go with Rollins in Segment 4 and the tag match in Segment 5, to break up a string of singles matches at the end of the night.

Finalized card

So here is my final prediction for the match order at Clash at the Castle, along with guesses on the bell-to-bell match times:

Segment 1: Gunther vs. Sheamus (16 minutes)
Segment 2: Belair, Asuka, Bliss vs. Bayley, SKY, Kai (15)
Segment 3: Tyson Fury segment
Segment 4: Matt Riddle vs. Seth Rollins (17)
Segment 5: Edge & Rey Mysterio vs. The Judgment Day (17)
Segment 6: Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler (10)
Segment 7: Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre (21)

These times add up to 96 minutes, which suggests the Fury segment (or an additional match, which could be announced on SmackDown tonight) might be needed to fill out four hours in length.

That’s my prediction for the match order at Clash at the Castle. What’s yours?