At times, this show did not deserve the name ‘Extreme Rules’. Far too much of the show felt like an episode of RAW, and despite the existence of the WWE Network, fans deserve better.
Here are 10 questions we most need answering from a forgettable night of WWE programming.
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#1 Did the WWE write themselves into a corner?
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When it came to booking the Intercontinental Championship match, the WWE didn’t leave themselves a lot of sensible options. The trouble with having a stipulation that says the babyface will lose the title if he gets disqualified is that in kayfabe terms, the heel would have to be an idiot not to come away with the win.
Towards the end of the match, it seemed to finally dawn on The Miz that by getting somebody to intentionally slap him, he’d win the match by DQ and therefore have the title. If the plan was for the referee not to accept this as an adequate conclusion to the match, why didn’t the bookers just have the ‘It Couple’ attempt it straight away?
The Miz ended up looking really stupid here for not thinking of such an obvious trick earlier.
And the way the match ended also made very little sense. If the referee was smart enough to realise that Maryse's slap was all a dastardly plan by The Miz, why did he look like he had fallen for The Miz’s second plan – to throw Dean into him?
Under what circumstances did the ref believe Ambrose would be so idiotic as to randomly hit the official and throw away his championship so needlessly?
At least this wasn’t the eventual conclusion to the bout. Luckily cooler heads prevailed and The Miz won with a Skull Crushing Finale. But even this made the whole stipulation feel pointless anyway. This was a textbook example of the WWE writing themselves into a corner without a lot of foresight, and no real plan to make the whole thing work.
#2 How has Sasha fallen so far?
There was a time Sasha Banks was tipped for greatness. She was quite clearly the most popular member of the so-called ‘Four Horsewomen’ from NXT, proving her abilities inside and outside the ring. So where has it all gone wrong?
Sasha Banks should have won the triple threat match for the new Women’s Championship belt back at Wrestlemania 32. The stage was set, including a memorable walk down to the ring accompanied by Snoop Dog. Instead, the company went with Charlotte, and Sasha’s career has been in second gear ever since.
While Alexa Bliss and Bayley were representing the RAW women’s division in a kendo stick on a pole match, Sasha was playing a supporting role to a cruiserweight feud that very few people care about.
What makes matters worse is that this was originally supposed to be about Sasha Banks and Alisha Fox. The RAW’s women’s division cannot live up to the standards of Smackdown’s at the moment, and part of the reason is that the division has no real depth.
For a three-hour show that airs every single week, it’s absurd that they cannot find something for the women to do unless they’re directly involved in the title scene.
Fox vs. Banks could have been the kick start that RAW needed and could have provided some much-needed focus on the division as a whole, rather than just the two at the top. Instead, this was much more about the men involved in the match than the women.
Sasha was not even involved in the conclusion of the bout, instead, acting as a cheerleader while Rich Swann took all of the attention for himself. The WWE should not be using their women’s division to prop up 205 Live right now, and this match was a perfect example of why.
#3 Was that a squash match?
Alexa Bliss and Bayley have clearly been trying their best to get their rivalry over with the fans. Try as they might, however, they keep meeting unjustified resistance.
Last week on RAW they were involved in a questionable ‘This is your life’ segment that raised the ire of the WWE universe to ‘X-Pac Heat’ levels. And last night, their ‘Kendo stick on a pole match’ didn’t fair too much better. But, can we really go as far as to say Bayley was buried here?
I am the first to admit that Bayley is not being well utilised on RAW. Her gimmick is basically portraying her like a 12-year-old child, incapable of ‘getting extreme’ and generally being unprepared for facing a tougher opponent. This is all despite the fact that we’ve seen her go through two gruelling matches with Sasha Banks down on NXT.
If there is one thing to say in favour of this feud, it’s that the WWE chose to tell a story, and have been consistent with it. It may not be the story a lot of fans wanted to follow, but so far all of the promos, and all of Alexa’s taunts and mockery have fitted into the narrative perfectly.
For a company that doesn’t tend to fare too well with storytelling these days, the writers need to be commended at least a little bit here.
This match should probably not be seen as a burial or a ‘squash match’. The whole thing was pretty short, and Bayley did get her offence in. If the point of the match was to retrieve the kendo stick, it makes sense that Alexa was able to defeat Bayley with the help of said stick.
I’m sure Bayley will recover from this and eventually get revenge on Alexa, but at the moment it’s safe to say Bliss is doing her job as the heel perfectly well, especially when you consider the reactions people seem to be having towards her.
#4 Should Nia Jax have been on the main card?
So it appears the controversial rivalry between Bayley and Alexa Bliss might have come to an end for the time being. If this week’s episode of RAW is anything to go by, it looks like Alexa is going to have her hands full with the dominant Nia Jax for the next few weeks and months.
This is a positive step forward for the women on Monday Nights, as fans have always felt like Jax could be being better utilised. For a while, it did look like the pair were going to form a tag team rather than a rivalry, but perhaps this is the time for WWE to put their foot down and accelerate their Monday night female monster’s career.
While this transition is positive, it feels like the company missed a bit of an opportunity to highlight Nia more than they did at the PPV. Jax was instead placed on the pre-show, where a significantly smaller number of viewers would have seen her perform. Bearing in mind the other ‘women’s match’ on the card was a mix-gender bout, it seems strange that Jax wasn’t given the main card to showcase what she could do ahead of her challenge for the title.
Jax was involved in a bit of controversy this week after claiming that RAW are underutilising their women’s division in comparison to Smackdown. There is definitely some heat around the woman at the moment, which the WWE clearly recognise, and it’s a shame this wasn’t used to elevate and improve the Extreme Rules show.
#5 Did the steel cage match make any sense?
When the Hardys announced that the match for the RAW Tag-team titles would take place inside a steel cage, it’s safe to say some people were left a bit confused, mainly because the Hardys are known for their performances in ladder matches. So if the pair had one opportunity to choose the kind of a match they were going to have to defend their championships, why not choose that?
And more importantly, having a tag team match inside a steel cage doesn’t actually make that much sense. When Jeff Hardy fell to the ground, a large portion of the audience cheered as if this was the conclusion. After all, one of the participants fulfilled the requirements of a steel cage match – to escape the cage! Instead, we learnt that Matt Hardy also had to escape for the match to be over.
After Jeff had escaped, the match was in a strange kind of limbo phase. Matt was left to fend for himself, despite his team having the upper hand in terms of the victory. What would have happened if Matt got pinned by Sheamus or Cesaro? Would they have become the new champions? If so, what was the point of Jeff escaping?
A little like the IC Championship match, the WWE fell victim to their own lazy writing and Sheamus and Cesaro’s victory felt a little flat as a result.
#6 What will the Cruiserweight division do without this feud?
For somebody who doesn’t watch 205 Live or take much interest in the cruiserweight matches on RAW, the rivalry between Austin Aries and Neville has been very enjoyable. Ever since their impressive pre-show match at Wrestlemania, these two have taken the division by storm. Neville has continued to exceed expectations as a heel, and Aries has just done his natural thing of being the ‘Greatest Man Who Ever Lived’.
But therein lies the problem. Sooner or later, this rivalry is going to come to an end. Even the WWE cannot keep the same championship feud going indefinitely.
By the looks of it, Extreme Rules may have been their last ride together, and a new challenger will have to emerge for Neville. But the WWE may have placed the bar too high. Outside of Neville and Aries, there just isn’t the star power in the cruiserweight division to keep the majority of the fans interested.
There’s a reason why these two were chosen to represent the division at Mania, but the WWE could have at least utilised their time better and built up a worthy challenger for whoever came out of this victorious.
Perhaps something will now happen between Neville and TJ Perkins, or maybe Rich Swann’s victory will propel him to the title scene this week. But nothing is going to be able to compete with Neville Vs. Aries, and it would be a shame to see the thing end.
#7 Does Joe have a chance against The Beast?
Ignoring your personal opinions about Samoa Joe for a second, are we really expected to believe he has a real chance of taking Brock’s title away from him?
On paper, there is no reason whatsoever for Joe to not beat Lesnar. Both are billed as powerhouse destroyers, and both have enjoyed success all around the world of pro wrestling, but in WWE’s world, Brock Lesnar is unstoppable, and beating him is only reserved for the those with a long term plan behind them.
We are all assuming that Brock will hold his belt until Wrestlemania 34, where he will probably drop it to Roman Reigns. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility for Finn Balor to fill that role if, for whatever reason, Roman falls out of favour with Vince. But Samoa Joe just doesn’t feel like somebody the company cares about enough right now.
Whoever came out of this fatal five-way as the winner was always going to be a placeholder. Brock will probably not lose his title before Summerslam and is unlikely to be defeated before Mania. Therefore, the best that Joe can hope for is to come out of this looking like he could have beaten the Beast if his luck had changed just slightly.
Maybe there will be a non-clean finish somewhere that protects Joe from being just another Brock Lesnar victim. Otherwise, all this effort put into the main event of Extreme Rules is going to come across as completely irrelevant.
#8 Who should Roman Reigns feud with now?
Assuming Samoa Joe is now going to be spending most of his near future tied up with Brock Lesnar, what will become of the remaining four competitors? Finn Balor was given quite the rub from Paul Heyman a few weeks ago, to the point where fans believed he would be the one to go on and face the Beast at Great Balls of Fire.
Seth Rollins also needs something to keep his momentum going. This week on RAW, Seth faced the number one contender in the main event, but surely the Kingslayer deserves a bit more than to just keep Joe busy until Brock decides to turn up.
Unfortunately for some, the man the company cares most about amongst the five is their poster boy, Roman Reigns. There is a strong suspicion amongst the fans that Brock Vs. Reigns will be headlining Wrestlemania 34, so it’s unclear what will happen to the Universal Title picture before then.
Logic would dictate that Lesnar will hold it until next April, dropping the belt to Roman on the big stage. However, that’s not to say the WWE might not throw a curveball and allow somebody else the opportunity to defeat the Beast.
For the time being, Roman needs to remain relevant and interesting. Provided there are going to be no big heel or face turns over the next few months, it seems unlikely that Roman will be feuding with Seth or Finn. Therefore the most logical option would be to put him against his old rival, Bray Wyatt.
This week on RAW might have been the start of a lengthy feud between the two.
Their match kicked off the show with Roman getting the win. If the WWE are serious about re-establishing Bray’s character, he needs to get a pinfall victory over Roman at some point in the very near future. This is what should be happening right now, as both men could do with a signature set of matches and promos in order to keep their profiles up while Joe entertains The Beast.
#9 Should we be seeing more tapping when it comes to submission victories?
There seems to be a trend at the moment in WWE to use the ‘tap out’ victory sparingly. When their main event talent are involved in signature matches, the bookers apparently prefer to have the match end with the victor making the loser pass out to the point where he is unresponsive to the referee’s voice.
This makes sense, in a way, as tapping out is probably the most humiliating way to be beaten. But for such a long time in WWE, we saw main event star after main event star tap out in order to make the winner look strong. Even Triple H, the man famous for denying others the chance to look strong at his expense, has occasionally tapped out on the biggest stages.
If we go back to Wrestlemania 13, and the timeless classic between Stone Cold and Bret Hart, the finish of that match told a fantastic story that helped a true legend be born. Stone Cold refused to quit against Bret’s sharpshooter despite visibly being in agony. This was a time when these sorts of conclusions to matches were reserved for special talents for special occasions.
Samoa Joe got a victory over Finn Balor, but we saw no tap out. Would it have really hurt Finn that much if we did see it? Joe is now going on to face Brock Lesnar, and if he can’t make somebody the size of the Beast’s leg tap out, what effect is his finishing move supposed to have on Lesnar himself?
#10 What was ‘extreme’ about last night’s rules?
For a PPV entitled ‘Extreme Rules’, last night’s show was pretty tame. The WWE have a plethora of unconventional match types to choose from these days, but instead, we got a weird collection of rules and stipulations that can only be called extreme if we’re being very, very generous.
The steel cage match was probably the only bout that you’d expect to see in an Extreme Rules show, the rest were more confusing than anything. Perhaps this PPV could have been called ‘WWE Confusing Rules’! The IC match actually had a stipulation that prevented the competitors from getting extreme, whereas the main event was simply a fatal five-way match that is typically no DQ anyway. Where were the ‘Falls count anywhere’ matches, or the street fights?
Why did we have to sit through a mixed-gender tag match with no real stakes on the line, a women's match that just focused on a kendo stick, probably the weakest weapon available, and the main event that could have taken place on any episode of RAW?
If we as fans are going to be asked to watch more PPVs than ever before, the company needs to be doing a better job of making them stand out from the weekly episodes of RAW and Smackdown we see for free.
