Interesting Note Regarding WWE Changes At Clash At The Castle
WWE's first major stadium premium live event in the United Kingdom since 1992, Clash at the Castle, took place this past weekend in Cardiff, Wales. The event was headlined by a battle for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, as Roman Reigns defended his two world titles against Drew McIntyre. In the end, "The Tribal Chief" retained the gold thanks to an assist from his real-life cousin, Solo Sikoa, who was making his first main roster appearance after a run on "NXT 2.0." However, the spot in which Sikoa interfered in the bout was reportedly barred until recently.
During the latter stages of the main event match, Sikoa pulled the referee out of the ring just as it appeared that McIntyre had the match won. That particular type of interference was said to have been barred under Vince McMahon because it "made no sense," according to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Meltzer notably agreed that, even though it is an "easy pop," it ultimately "looks stupid." Nevertheless, the spot has now seemingly been brought back by WWE's new Chief Content Officer, Paul "Triple H" Levesque.
Additionally, the Observer highlighted that "for years, [WWE producers] were told one of the secret rules is that an illegal person can't successfully attack a legal person in a tag match without it being a DQ." They furthered explained that, "You could do the five-second double-team spot but if the illegal person attacked the legal person, it had to be with the referee down." A change to that approach was made apparent during the opening six-person tag match pitting Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka against Damage Control. At one point, IYO SKY hit a Moonsault on Belair in clear view of the referee, despite not being legally tagged in.