WWE Extreme Rules: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

The Ugly - The Opening of the Show

Bo Dallas of the B-Team at Extreme Rules

Extreme Rules took a massive departure from "extreme" branded pay-per-views of the past. In fact, there wasn't much extreme involved for the first 1 hour 15 minutes of the main show. That's how long it took to get to the Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens cage match. Sure there was the James Ellsworth in a Shark Cage Match; but, that's hardly reminiscent of ECW and the WWE should know better, especially in ECW's home state of Pennsylvania.

The opening match was decent and it was good to see Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas win main roster gold; but, hardly the type of match one would expect from a show that calls itself extreme. Baron Corbin vs Finn Balor even ended with a small package (A SMALL PACKAGE) at a pay-per-view branded as Extreme Rules.

In fact, most of the card had nothing extreme about it. There were matches with stipulations like the Iron Man Match; but, there is nothing extreme about such a stipulation. It's only a stipulation & no one in history has ever thought of an Iron Man Match as extreme wrestling.

If WWE can't offer fans an actual extreme pay-per-view in the publicly traded PG era, then perhaps its time to do away with the Extreme Rules title altogether. To keep it as it currently stands is a disservice to fans that are old and wise enough to remember what extreme actually looks like.

Mick Foley - King of Extreme