WWE Extreme Rules Review 06/04/2017

Hello Misfits! It’s the Wrestling Classic here with my Extreme Rules Review. Its the one night of the year the WWE goes EXTREMEE!!! This was  Raw exclusive PPV and every title besides the Universal Championship was on the line. Although, The PPV for this card looked great on paper there was still huge part of me really just not excited for this event. It may have to do with the fact that I haven’t really sat down and watched Raw start to end the last couple of week but instead recording it and watching the segments that intrigued me. The Rollins/Reigns main event on the go home show before this event was tremendous but everything else has been pretty lacklustre. I was really looking forward to the five way main event and knew it was going to steal the show. However, I don’t know how I felt about the rest of the card, but after watching the event let me share with you how I really felt about it in my review. I was 2-4 with my predictions. This was probably the worst I’ve been with my predictions yet. Yikes.

The 2017 edition of Backlash comes from the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, MD.

– The opening video package was actually pretty cool and then we get all the pryo and ballyhoo. The announce team tonight is Michael Cole, Corey Graves and Booker T.

Intercontinental Championship
The Miz w/ Maryse def. Dean Ambrose (C)
in 20:00 by pin
The stipulation for this match was that if Ambrose got DQ’d he would still lose the title. The stipulation sounded whack at first but in the end it allowed this match to tell a great story. Props to whoever came up with the idea. I’m a fan of both guys. I sometimes feel like Ambrose can be booked to feel dull and complacent but when he’s on and properly booked he’s fucking on. The Miz is hands down the most hateable and top heel the company has. I don’t think they could turn him babyface even if they tried. The match was good. The wrestling was good. There was drama and some comedic moments. I know everyone thought the easiest way for Miz to win this was to get Maryse to hit the Miz getting Ambrose DQ’d but they played that part to see how it failed. The end of the match seemed a little silly with the referee bump when Miz pushed Ambrose into the ref causing the ref threatening to DQ Ambrose only for Miz to hit the Skull Crushing Finale for the win but it worked here with the story. Miz becomes a seven time WWE Intercontinental Champion. I’m happy about this because Ambrose’s reign was pretty meh, but Miz always makes a great heel champion.
Rating – ***1/2

Rich Swann & Sasha Banks def. Noam Dar & Alicia Fox
in 06:20 by pin
This was a television match. I could say that for most the matches on this card. It wasn’t bad by any means. It was a fun action packed match but it really wasnt anything special. All four people involved are super talented and I’m a Sasha Banks mark for life but I feel like this isn’t using Sasha Banks at her fullest potential. Thats just my humble opinion though. I enjoyed the finish and I liked how Swann picked up the victory in his hometown with a Phoenix Splash. I know I’m most likely wrong about this but it feels like it’s been forever since we have actually seen someone victorious in their own hometown. The real question is what is next for everybody because this basically caps off this feud.
Rating – **3/4

Women’s Championship
Kendo Stick on a Pole Match
Alexa Bliss (C) def. Bayley
in 05:10 by pin
Well…I wasn’t expecting too much from this match but I expected more than what we got. I’m happy about the outcome and I like Bayley but something about her getting beat with a kendo stick by Alexa Bliss made me happy. Bayley is great wrestler, I really enjoyed her on NXT and there isn’t a single doubt at all that she is a great person apart from the character, however the way her character has been portrayed and pushed on the main roster made this so fulfilling. If they think this quick 5 minute match that showed Bayley being too soft to hit Alexa with a kendo stick only to be abused is going to make us feel sympathy for her and try making her the ultimate underdog now after she’s already a two time champion and beat four women at Wrestlemania, it really makes me wonder who’s booking this crap. Bayley should have came in an underdog who couldn’t win the title from the get-go, only to win it at Wrestlemania in that fatal-four way but lose it to Alexa less than a month later and maybe this would have worked better. All it does now is make Bayley look weak. Personally, I want Alexa to move forward from Bayley to her next opponent. Alexa looked great overall and this fit her character perfectly. Total dud of a match though.
Rating – *1/2

Tag Team Championship
Cage Match
Cesaro & Sheamus def. The Hardy Boyz (C)
in 15:00 by eliminating the cage
This was a very good match. Although I feel like we’ve seen it before. Hardy’s defending their titles in a steel cage match, Jeff getting out first leaving Matt to fight for survival and Jeff coming back in with some daredevil tactic to ultimately cost them the match in the long -run. If you’re a younger fan, this was new to you. If you’re an adult like me, we’ve seen it before. Once again, that is just an analysis but the match overall was good. There wasn’t a dull moment and it was highly entertaining. There were some cool spots but it was what you would expect from the talent involved. I’m glad Sheamus and Cesaro went over because if they didn’t win I don’t know where they would go from here but as tag team champions they still have a reason to be together. Also, as great as the Hardy’s Wrestlemania return was, I’m kind of over their return. I know I prefer them as a team better, however with the current roster I feel like there is so much more they can do as single stars. I do think thus rivalry continues and we’re in for a rematch next month. I hope this is slow build up to Matt becoming “Broken.”
Rating – ***1/2

Cruiserweight Championship
Submission Match
Neville (C) def. Austin Aries
in 17:35 by submission
These two had the best technical in ring wrestling match at Wrestlemania and it was on the pre-show. I knew they wouldn’t slow it down in this match. Also the stipulation gave them the ability to tell a different story. I really went in thinking that this was Aries big moment, however the “King of the Cruiserweights” found a way to overcome “A Double” once again. Once again, Neville pulled out the Red Arrow out of desperation, this time on to Aries back to soften him up for the last attempt at making him tap to the Rings of Saturn. I don’t know what happened to Aries now since he’s lost to Neville again and the last three months won chances go face him for the belt. I don’t want to see them go that route for a fourth time. Aries has also faced TJP in some capacity so many times in the past couple of months so don’t know if I want to see that again either. I’d love to see someone else get a chance at Neville, such as Mustafa Ali and really don’t want to see TJP turn into a tweener or something face him. 205 Live and the Cruiserweight Division confuses me sometimes and I hate how the crowd barely reacts to their matches, because if anything is clear to me its that their matches are usually the best one if not the second best one on every card their featured on.
Rating – ***3/4

Extreme Rules
Fatal Five Way Match
Samoa Joe def. Finn Balor, Roman Reigns, Bray Wyatt & Seth Rollin
in 29:15 by submission
I went into this match knowing that with talent involved and the actual lack of knowledge of who might go over gave it the potential to tear the place down. At this point of the show, I also knew this match had to be the one to save the show from being an absolute forgettable show. It did exactly that. It was a complete barn burner. It did suffer from that usual multi man match problem, where some guys seem to disappear from the match being did outside the ring, but at least when they did that they made sure the move before the guy was knocked out for multiple minutes seemed like it would actually cause them to be knocked out for a little bit. For example when Rollins was out after getting a DDT on steel steps made absolute sense. Everyone had their moment to shine and moment of momentum. I loved the double team work between Joe and Wyatt as they were the two heels in the match. I loved the two big spots with the Roman’s spear to Finn and Joe through the barricade and Rollins frog splash onto Wyatt that had them crash through the table. I loved the back and fourth between Roman and Rollins. I don’t care what people think of Roman but Rollins and him know each other so well, its magical what they put together. There was a tease for everyone almost winning. They teased us with Roman winning which had the crowd hot. They teased us with Balor winning which was most people predicted and were really behind. There was even a brief moment where it looked like Wyatt was gonna steal the win but in the end Joe came in and stole the victory from locking Balor in the coquina clutch. Balor never tapped out but he did pass put leading to Joe being victorious. It was unpredictable and I like dig it. I don’t think anyone really went into this thinking Joe was going to walk out victorious. Mostly because he hasn’t been booked that strong since his main roster debut and he’s a heel and we consider Lesnar a heel. I’m intrigued and excited for this though. Two big tough men going at it and Joe is legitimate tough guy which means I can see a really good story being told between Lesnar and himself. It may have not been the most extreme “extreme rules” match but it was a really good battle. WATCH THIS MATCH.
Rating – ****

Final Thoughts
Overall this was an average show. There was nothing too exciting about it besides the end half of the show. The three last matches really saved the show from being a total dud. Mainly the main event which I think everyone should watch if they want to see an action pack chaotic war. If I was being brutally honest, this was really just a one match show with the main event being the only match to truly take time out of your day to watch. The rest of the show was decent at best but definitely wasn’t “extreme”. Check it out if you have some free time, definitely check out the main event. They showed a commercial for ‘Great Balls of Fire”…I actually found it cheesy, funny but I liked the nostalgic feeling of it. The fact that the Universal Championship will be defended on it hopefully will make it a better show than this. This has to be Raw’s weakest exclusive PPV of 2017 thus far.
Final Rating – 6/10

What were your final thoughts on Extreme Rules? What final grade would you give the event? Where would you rate it on a scale of ten? Do you agree with my review? Leave your comments, opinions and thoughts below in the comments section.