Rigel was one of the early example case stars in Father Secchi's stellar classification system. He lumped the white and bluish-white stars together, due to their strong Hydrogen band, to make his Class I stars. Class II, yellow (caugh) included the Sun since his example cases included Capella.
Betelgeuse, no surprise, was another case example, which was his Class III (orange and red) stars.
His thousands of observations visually of stellar spectrums gave him his famous classifications. It was the spectral lines that formed these Classes (Types), but color was helpful and there is that association.
I too see Rigel with a hint of blue.
Interestingly, if you dragged Rigel to where alpha Cen is, then it would be as bright to us as a full Moon.