I still cannot believe we have a pay-per-view called “Great Balls of Fire”. Is it really a 1950’s themed show? Vince sure is hip with the kids.
Besides learning officially that the next Raw’s PPV has the stupidest name ever, we had another edition of Extreme Rules from Baltimore. It was the purgatory of pay-per-views; it was neither really bad or good, that is until the main event, which was exciting.
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With all of this in mind, here’s the list of the top five most surprising moments of the WWE Extreme Rules 2017:
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#5 Dean Ambrose didn’t get disqualified!
I will admit that it was not the best idea to have a disqualification stipulation at a show called “Extreme Rules”. But it was fun watching The Miz try to get Dean disqualified throughout the long and entertaining match. My favourite was The Miz having his wife slap him. That is a unique way to try to win a title for sure.
The ending was fun and certainly will divide audiences. It was unusual that the ref assumed Dean ran into him for no apparent reason. The ref then became overly dramatic and played up that disqualification idea for way too long.
This allowed The Miz to win this match pretty cleanly. It sure seemed a bait and switch to not have a disqualification after all the build up.
#4 Bayley’s character was weak
The low point of the night was the Women’s Title match. The whole build of the match was that Bayley was too nice to be Extreme. It led to one of the worst segments in WWE history on Raw. Heck, even Bayley made fun of it. In the match, Alexa Bliss was proven right in everything she said. That shouldn’t happen.
What is the point of the Bayley character? She knows it is a Kendo Stick match but hesitates to use the Kendo Stick? That is idiotic and makes her character weak and ineffective. What happened to the ‘fun but tough when needed Bayley’ of NXT?
I guess this Bayley is everything Alexa Bliss said she was and that is sad.
#3 That tag team finish
I was happy to see that no pinfalls would win the Tag Team Title match. That always annoyed me and seemed to defeat the point of having a steel cage. It was a standard cage match with the really expected dumb jump from the top of the cage from Jeff Hardy. Oh, Jeff, will you ever learn to stop doing silly things?
They didn’t really bother to explain the bizarre match winning rule that both team members had to escape the cage. That left the strange sight of Jeff watching on the outside as Matt got beat up. That doesn’t seem to get any real advantage to leaving first, right?
The ending was a very surprising and weird finish, to say the least. Jeff “re-entered” the match and had to be dragged out by his brother. It set up a weird sight where Sheamus and Cesaro had to slowly climb down the cage to time it better with Matt Hardy.
It didn’t look quite right and likely made little sense to the audience that didn’t know the unusual rules of this cage match.
#2 Austin Aries lost
Austin Aries is clearly the most popular good guy on the 205 Live show. It has certainly raised the profile of the Cruiserweight title matches to have Aries feuding with Neville for the last three pay-per-views. Since Neville had won the last two matches dirty, it seemed logical for him to finally lose the title. Then he beat Aries clean.
In a hard fought and physical match, both men had believable near falls throughout. The ending was really well done with Neville hitting the Red Arrow onto Aries’ back. It makes sense at that point for Aries to tap.
That is the shocking part to me – Aries has now lost three times in a row. It would make no logical sense for him to get another title match. What happens now on 205 Live? It seems Neville really has cleared out the division.
#1 Samoa Joe wins the main event
The main event was a lot of fun as multiple men matches usually are. It helps that everyone can get their spots in, rest as needed and keep the pace fast. This main event had unique pairings, the good Wyatt-Joe alliance and back-to-back brutal looking spots on the outside. If you throw in believable near falls for every competitor, you leave the show on an enjoyable note.
I heard rumours that Samoa Joe might be the favourite but it was still a big surprise to actually see it happen. He really was a guy getting lost in the shuffle on the Raw brand and had a few high-profile wins to speak of since joining the show. To see the WWE let him go over cleanly was a surprise, to say the least.
As strange as it is for me to say, I am looking forward to “Great Balls of Fire”. Samoa Joe looks like a credible threat to Brock Lesnar and can give the reigning Universal Champion a solid, physical match.
It is nice to see the WWE try a fresh match-up for a change.
