Full 2024 Clash At The Castle Predictions Including Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest And Cody Rhodes

A little less than two years after the highly successful and well-regarded Clash At The Castle, WWE is returning to Great Britain for another premium live event. This one will take place in Scotland, and as such, all eyes are on superstar Drew McIntyre. The Scottish Warrior has really found his voice over the last six months or so, and his rabid hometown fans are expected to give him a hero’s welcome as he competes for The World Heavyweight Championship against Damian Priest. It should be a tremendous main event, but that’s far from the only tussle worth getting excited about.

The rest of the card is also really solid, at least for a mid-tier PPV. Bayley will be defending her title against Piper Niven, Chad Gable will look to finally win The Intercontinental Championship in yet another match with Sami Zayn, Cody Rhodes will be in action against AJ Styles, and Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill will put their tag titles on the line in a triple threat.

And you know what the best part is? There are two matches on the card that legitimately could go either way. Sometimes the mid-tier PPVs can be a little obvious in their outcomes, and certainly, we have a few of those matches here, but there are also two I keep going back and forth on.

Before we get to those, though, let’s take a look at my predictions history. I’ve been on quite a tear lately, going a combined 10-1 between Backlash France and King And Queen Of The Ring, but it’s about to get a whole lot harder. Here’s a quick snapshot…

Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair (Champs) Vs Shayna Baszler & Zoey Stark Vs Isla Dawn And Alba Fyre For The Women’s Tag Team Championships

I didn’t say every match on the card was hard to predict. There are several with very obvious results, and this one might be the most obvious of them all. I like Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. I think they could really be an intimidating duo of monster heels if WWE built them properly. I also think Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn deserve some promos and some real TV time to see if they can make their witches gimmick work, but we are nowhere close to the point of WWE even thinking about taking the tag titles off Jade and Bianca. 

At some point, they are almost certainly going to break up amidst tension that will spiral into at least a feud between the two mega-stars and probably a full-on WrestleMania match, but tag team splits rarely come out of nowhere. There’s almost always an extended period of bubbling tension, and right now, Jade and Bianca are still in the honeymoon phase of double team maneuvers, coordinated outfits and fun dance moves. So, yeah, they’re going to win and look good doing it too.

Predicted Winners: Jade Cargill And Bianca Belair

Bayley (Champ) Vs Piper Niven For The WWE Women’s Championship

How are we feeling about Bayley’s title run so far? Yeah… I feel the same way. She needs to find a feud with a little more juice, and despite maybe the strongest promo of Piper Niven’s career last week, this one isn’t it. There just hasn’t been enough time to build it, and with Nia Jax on the horizon, Niven hasn’t been presented as a credible threat. 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any stakes here though. A good performance from Piper Niven could help WWE see her as a credible upper card player that should, at minimum, be given another big push alongside tag team partner/ mouthpiece Chelsea Green. And a good performance from Bayley could remind everyone why we were all so stoked about her winning The Royal Rumble and her WrestleMania match against Iyo Sky. She can be one of the most emotionally affecting performers in WWE and someone fans really want to root for and get behind in the ring, with the right storyline and dance partner.

Predicted Winner: Bayley

AJ Styles Vs Cody Rhodes (Champ) For The WWE Championship in an I Quit match.

I don’t think the original plan was to run AJ Styles and Cody Rhodes back again a few PPVs later, but after they put on one of WWE’s best matches in years at Backlash, fans started clamoring to see a follow-up. Styles’ Mark Henry-style fake retirement was a nice little touch to build animosity and draw heat to the storyline, but the ending still is no less unclear than it was when they met earlier this year. Cody Rhodes is going to win because WWE already heavily teased a showdown with The Rock for the title whenever he returns.

So, I guess that leaves us two points of interest here. The first is, of course, the quality of the wrestling match itself, which should be a banger. Sometimes wrestling fans, especially WWE fans, struggle to appreciate how special it is to see two legends put on a match at a premium live event, even if the outcome isn’t as uncertain as you’d hope. The second is whether we get any hint as to where AJ Styles might go from here. The future Hall of Famer still has it in the ring, but he’s also quickly approaching 50. Most wrestling fans, myself included, believe he has one more run to the top left in him, but with so much chaos at the top right now, WWE needs to find something else for him to do, preferably involving a feud he can win.

Predicted Winner: Cody Rhodes

Sami Zayn (Champ) Vs Chad Gable For The Intercontinental Championship

The first three predictions were easy. These last two are significantly harder. So, let’s talk this out and see where we land. On the one hand, Chad Gable is clearly due for a win. He’s been flirting with The Intercontinental Championship since last year, and it would be great to validate his recent heel turn with a win here. That would convince him being a scumbag was what he was missing for all those years, and it would allow him to believably double down on his new found heelish ways. Plus, it doesn’t feel realistic to give him another title shot anytime soon if he loses again. A man can only take so many Ls.

On the other hand, WWE has been teasing Otis turning on Gable for weeks. Fans are desperate to see the big man finally stand his ground and back the rest of Alpha Academy, who Gable routinely abuses on a weekly basis. Triple H and company are going to want to pay off that moment, which feels like it would be the culmination of this match. Plus, Sami Zayn is still mega-over, and as much as this outcome feels like a referendum on what WWE wants to do with Gable, there’s also the practical question of whether to keep the belt on Sami Zayn, which is never a bad idea given his popularity.

I think Otis is going to cost Chad Gable this match, which is going to convince Gable to fire Alpha Academy and bring The Creed Brothers on board. That’ll finally unlock his true potential and allow him to go on the first big singles win streak of his career. I think. That makes the most sense to me, but a Gable victory is very much in play here.

Predicted Winner Sami Zayn

Damian Priest (Champ) Vs Drew McIntyre For The World Heavyweight Championship

If you would have asked me who was winning this match a month ago, I would have reflexively said Drew McIntyre. It seemed really obvious at that point. The Scottish Warrior is on the best run of his career. This PPV is taking place not far from where he grew up, and the last time there was a Clash At The Castle, he got screwed in the main event by Roman Reigns and a debuting Solo Sikoa. It felt like WWE owed him, especially after his WrestleMania 40 win against Seth Freakin’ Rollins to win The World Heavyweight Championship was marred by CM Punk and a Damian Priest cash-in.

Circumstances have changed though. The winner of this match will be facing Gunther at SummerSlam, and Damian Priest, who initially seemed like an obvious transitional champion, has significantly improved on the microphone. He’s not there yet, but every week, it feels like he’s closer to having that champion aura. Plus, we all know Drew McIntyre’s next big program is going to be against the currently injured CM Punk. Involving Gunther in that seems… complicated and unnecessary. 

After Finn Bálor lost on Monday, Judgment Day’s members are banned from ringside, but you know who isn’t banned? CM Punk. I expect we’ll see him interfere in McIntyre’s match and somehow cost him, adding more heat to that program and allowing Damian Priest to continue as champion.

Predicted Winner: Damian Priest

You can catch Clash At The Castle this weekend. It’s streaming free in The United States with a Peacock subscription, and it’s available via other streaming methods around the world.