Extreme Rules Review

Hello! Well, last night was definitely interesting. That's probably the best way to describe it to be honest. There was a lot of good points from last night, and quite a few aspects of last nights PPV that were simply put horrendous. So, in short- a pretty standard WWE PPV all things considered. There's a lot of different stuff to discuss, so I'm just going to just dive right in today.

Pre-Show: Miz Promo
I don't usually review stuff like this for PPV Reviews, but I'm making an exception for this. This Promo was absolutely amazing. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's on YouTube presumably- to borrow a phrase from Miz this Promo really is "must see". I've said it so many times now, Miz is ridiculously underrated by so many people who can't see past his early years and WWE Title run. He's just absolute gold.

Pre-Show: Big Cass & The Dudleys "thing"
I won't say this was a complete waste of a segment, but it wasn't far off. I knew Enzo wasn't going to return on a Pre-Show, but an Enzo return was the only thing that would've made sense within the context of the segment to not make it an almost complete waste.

Pre-Show: Baron Corbin v Dolph Ziggler- No DQ Match
This match was a weird one right off the bat. They only started the match with about 10 Minutes left on the Pre-Show, so I thought they might do a thing where they started the actual PPV with Corbin and Ziggler brawling all over the arena. You know, something different. As it is, we got pretty much a standard RAW match between these two- the No DQ stipulation didn't even come into play until the finish unless I'm mistaken and Corbin got the win.

I wish Corbin would have absolutely destroyed Dolph, as I said in my Predictions. The simple fact is, he's already on the Pre-Show for the last PPV before the return of Rollins, Cena, Orton and the Wyatts. That's not even including possible debuts, in short with how low Corbin currently is on the totem pole- to keep him even slightly relevant he needs to look like a proper monster. I'm fine with him winning like a Heel with the low blow, don't get me wrong. But, if Corbin's pushed off TV with all of the returns between now and MITB it'll really annoy me. Although, I can see Corbin in the actual MITB match- because they always have a proper "power" guy in the match with that role mainly being filled by Kane.

The Club v The Usos- Tornado Tag Match
I'll open this section by saying I absolutely love Tornado Tag Matches. It was probably on Reddit, I saw something that said the last one before last night in WWE was on NXT and it involved Hunico & Camacho. In short, the stipulation needs to be used a lot more than it is. I just love the chaotic nature of them, and this match could definitely be described as chaotic at times.

This isn't a surprise to anyone who's seen Gallows since his release from WWE in 2010, but he's infinitely better than he was before. Anderson's barely scratched the surface of what he can do at this stage, and fair-play to The Usos they were really good last night as well. That's the thing though, The Usos are just Tag-Team Cena. Their match quality is always up to a certain standard, their characters are just absolutely horrendous. At the time, I loved the finish as well with The Usos appearing to be injured- because I described the logic behind it in my Predictions. But, as I'll discuss more later on- they couldn't even give me that.

Rusev v Kalisto- US Title Match
I knew exactly what the story they were going to tell in this match was going to be. With that in mind, I thought they did about as well as they possibly could have done. Both guys knew what their role was, and they played them really well. I am slightly worried about where Kalisto's headed now. I'm expecting him to use his Rematch Clause tonight to just get it out of the way, clearing the path for Cena to get it next week. That'll leave Kalisto free to do some flippy shit in the MITB Match, but after that I can't see WWE doing much with Kalisto- apart from him just going back to being a Lucha Dragon.

I just wish they would've done the Ref Stoppage idea I pitched in my Predictions, which it looked as though they were going to do at one point.

New Day v The Vaudevillains- WWE World Tag Team Championship Match
This match was just absolutely genius. Whomever was putting the match together presumably knew that this match was one of the ones where people (well, at least me) were thinking the finish could be a swerve and The Vaudevillains could win. So what do they do? Put Xavier Woods in the match. It was just an amazing decision, so whoever thought it up- you get a Gold Star.

The false finish with The Vaudevillains hitting the Whirling Dervish on Xavier is the first one since the one with Rollins and Neville where I've legitimately thought we were getting a "shock" outcome and the crowd completely bought it as well. The actual match was decent, I still wish Big E would stop doing those Middle Rope dive spots though- because he is going to kill himself on one of those.

If I had to talk negatives, firstly Kofi/Big E winning MITB is completely out of the window (if it was ever not) with New Day retaining. That's just annoying on a personal level, because as I said in my Predictions if it was ever going to happen for Kofi it would've been this year. Secondly, the more I think about it the more I wish The Vaudevillains would have won. I think it was Extreme Rules last year (yes, I know they switched the order) where WWE decided to actually go all in on a relatively fresh Heel Tag Team and put the Titles on them. That Team was of course New Day.

Since Enzo got hurt, The Vaudevillains have been great- and while it's obviously bad for Enzo it's the best thing that could've happened for The Vaudevillains. They've been getting legitimate heat from Crowds ever since, so imagine if they were the ones to have ended New Day's nearly year-long Title run to just keep the momentum going.

The Miz v Cesaro v Kevin Owens v Sami Zayn- Fatal 4-Way for the IC Title
This year's been a pretty bad one as far as legitimate Match of the Year Contenders go. Understandably given the fact Cena always has a couple (minimum), Rollins has been out, Orton's been out etc. This match is the second best match I've seen in WWE all year, with the first obviously being Zayn/Nakamura.

Fatal 4-Way's are hard to get absolutely spot on, for the simple fact that it either becomes a 1v1 match with two people sleeping or a complete clusterfuck so easily. I said it in my Predictions, everyone in this match knew exactly what their role was in this match- and as we saw they played it to absolute perfection.

I just absolutely loved this match. There wasn't a bad point to it. They furthered the Owens/Zayn feud perfectly (next stop MITB), Cesaro looked absolutely amazing, and Miz got the relatively cheap win while still looking good enough to not be considered as a completely weak champion. I don't think I've done this match justice to be honest, it's one of the very few matches in recent times where I'd happily just watch it over and over again.

Dean Ambrose v Chris Jericho- Asylum Match
From one of the best matches of the year, to one of the worst. Especially if we're talking what was expected of the match vs what we actually got. The Thumb Tacks spot was cool, and I've got full respect for Jericho for actually doing it. That's where the positives end, and I really wish that wasn't the case because I had really high hopes for this.

I know it would probably have been too close to Lethal Lockdown, but having a Roof on the cage would've made things infinitely better. It's an Asylum Match, unless you're one of Hugo Strange's creations sent to kill Jim Gordon- you shouldn't be able to get out of an Asylum. Not only that, having a Roof would've meant Ambrose or Jericho wouldn't have had to climb the cage every 2 Minutes to retrieve a weapon because they'd have been dangling from said Roof.

This match was just way, way too gimmicky- and fucking hell did it drag. They literally just picked one weapon up at a time, did some stuff with it and just repeated that, doing a circuit around the ring with all the weapons bar one for 25 fucking minutes. I don't usually put too much into what Alvarez says because he makes half of it up for "clicks", but if he's to be believed they took out a segment to give this match 10 extra Minutes. Just, why? As I said, the Thumb Tacks spot was cool, the preceding 25 Minutes was excruciating. It's a shame as well, because this was probably the best built feud heading into last night. Especially if last night was Jericho's last night (or second last if he does RAW tonight) of his current run, because since he turned he's been great.

Charlotte v Natalya- Submission Match for the Womens Title
I said in my Predictions that there simply wasn't going to be a finish for this match that wasn't an Anti-Climax. I wasn't wrong was I? With that said, I think the finish was about as good as it possibly could have been.

I said it in my RAW Review, Dana Brooke was in a nearly impossible situation after Emma got hurt- because as much as she's improved she can't swim on her own yet. Now, she's ended up in an even better situation than the one she was in with Emma. She's going to be on RAW every week, and doing her usual "heater" stuff on the outside with- or being managed by Ric Flair while she wrestles. Emma's injury is obviously unfortunate for her, but seemingly in a theme as of late with Kalisto and Big Cass their partner getting injured is the best thing that could've happened for them.

Roman Reigns v AJ Styles-Extreme Rules Match for the WWE Title
I was a bit annoyed about this match last night, I won't lie. However, with the benefit of sleeping on it I actually really liked this match. Of course Roman kicked out of 7 Billion finishers, did anyone actually expect he wouldn't? AJ looked absolutely amazing last night, and especially now he's presumably out of the WWE Title picture he can really kick on. Also, I feel like it's worth saying Roman more than held his own- which is probably going to get lost in all of the "Super Roman" discussions as a result of last night.

The reason I'm largely positive after this match, having thought about it- is the fact it'll make perfect sense for when Gallows & Anderson turn on AJ next month. AJ's going to be in the Money in the Bank match next month, The Club are going to be holding the Ladder for him with the ring cleared- and then push him off. Then the next night on RAW, AJ comes out to ask "Why?"and we get Balor's debut as they attack AJ once again. The question is why would they turn on AJ? Because he can't get the job done, which Gallows & Anderson can of course- because they beat The Usos earlier on in the show. It would've been a lot better had The Usos just been out hurt for the Main Event in my opinion playing into that, but at least they sort of protected the Styles Clash onto the Chair via Uso interference.

That's AJ taken care of for a while, and for Roman he's of course got his hands full with Crossfit Jesus now. That's right, Seth freakin' Rollins returned- and it was absolutely fucking great. The best bit is, as I've just shown with the Balor stuff- it's clear what they're going to do and they're all the better for it. Triple H is going to be back on TV now Seth's back, Triple H fucks over Seth at Money in the Bank- and they build to Seth/Triple H at Summerslam. I'm not sure where that leaves Roman with the Title for Summerslam, the likely options are Orton, Bray and Brock.

Overall I did really like the PPV. We had two top quality matches with the WWE and IC Title matches, and with the exception of the Asylum Match every match was at the very least decent. I'm expecting this to be a common theme for the next few months really, especially with Cena and Rollins back we're likely to get at least one MOTY Contender for the next few PPV's- but the builds will be shite. Because WWE.

Thanks for reading, as always when there's a PPV Review- the RAW Review is up the next day. So hopefully you'll be back here tomorrow for it, after we hopefully get a good RAW to mark the second coming of Crossfit Jesus. Thanks again for reading, lets end on a positive. As we saw last night in the Asylum Match. WE ACTUALLY SAVED A PLANT! PLANT LIVES MATTER!