Stevenson’s Extreme Rules Thoughts – Reigns and Styles Deliver the Good Wrestling!

In contrast to last month’s rock solid but not especially spectacular Payback PPV, Extreme Rules was an inconsistent show more than redeemed by two magnificent championship matches. Roman Reigns and AJ Styles headlined the event in an Extreme Rules match for the WWE Championship which took their very good bout from last month and completely blew it out of the water. Styles stole the show by seeming entirely indifferent as to whether he would be able to walk for the rest of his life, throwing himself about like a man possessed. He crashed through two announce tables, and in a slightly more understated moment leapt onto the wobbliest bit of the top rope only to be cracked with a Superman Punch by Reigns, leaving him teetering back and forth, seemingly in imminent danger of falling backwards and taking a flat back bump on the concrete floor. In the end he bounced relatively harmlessly off the ring apron, but it was a delightfully terrifying moment. For AJ, another marvellous performance in a career littered with marvellous performances, but it would be unfair to dismiss Reigns’ contribution to proceedings- he kept up with one of the best wrestlers of modern times every step of the way, at one point delving deep into his arsenal to pull out a beautiful Splash Mountain Powerbomb, which really needs to become a regular feature of his matches. The near falls were just gripping, as the fiery New Jersey crowd (and me hunched over my laptop) willed Styles to secure a momentous WWE Championship victory. It was remarkable just how hot the crowd were for it, demonstrating once again that nowadays, the story WWE is best at telling is ‘internet favourite vs. internet pariah…’ even if they’re only capable of doing so accidentally. The Usos, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows all got involved, their interference impeccably well conceived, adding huge amounts to the drama. The moment where AJ completely snapped and began smashing all of the Bloodline with a steel chair over and over again was just electric, as was the near fall where Styles absolutely had the match won, only to be dragged from the ring by one of the pesky Usos at the very last second. The finish was moderately anti climactic, as Reigns absorbed a fearsome amount of punishment from steel chair shots and Styles Clashes, only to pick up the win simply by countering the Phenomenal Forearm with a spear. It didn’t really detract from a soaring main event though, for my money the best main roster WWE match of the year so far.

Mind you, the Fatal Four Way for the Intercontinental Championship ran it mighty close. With three super wrestlers like Cesaro, Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in the match, and the champion himself being the insufferably smug, punchable Miz, it always seemed likely that this would be a cut above your usual midcard championship spotfest, but it was startling how good it actually became. Right from the opening bell, which Zayn greeted by charging across the ring and smashing Owens to the floor with the Helluva Kick to the delight of the crowd, this was something special. The remaining 20 minutes were a whirl of great spots and nail biting near falls- Owens crushed all three competitors with cannonballs, Zayn and Cesaro pulled off an absolute jaw-dropping, gorgeous Code Red, and the Swiss Superman lived up to his nickname with one of the finest Giant Swings he’s ever pulled off, spinning the flailing Miz round and round and round. The finish was perfect as well- Zayn and Owens lost their cool and brawled down the entrance ramp, allowing the ever unscrupulous Miz to cover Cesaro, who had just eaten a Helluva Kick, and pick up the win. A perfect character moment for Miz, and while it felt mildly disappointing that we didn’t get a title change, he’s been an excellent Intercontinental Champion so far and I have no complaints about him getting more time. This was an utter frenzy and lit up the undercard.

Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho was the only other match as notable as those two, but it was for all the wrong reasons. It remains a strong possibility that the bout is still going on even now. Rumour has it that another segment was cut from the show last minute, and like last month when Enzo & Cass vs. The Vaudevillains was suddenly curtailed, Ambrose and Jericho were gifted the extra time. They didn’t deserve it. The Asylum match itself has a degree of merit to it- the cage with the weapons hanging above it was visually interesting and I’m always in favour of WWE trying new things- but neither Y2J nor the Lunatic could make it work in practice. On and on and on the match went, every single second of it following the same tedious formula- Wrestler A climbs cage, grabs weapon, uses it in a not especially interesting way for a bit, loses it somehow, Wrestler B climbs cage, grabs weapon, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN. They seemed hell-bent on ensuring every single thing hanging above the ring was utilised, with only a potted plant remaining untouched. A barbed wire 2×4 and thumbtacks were plucked from up high and, astonishingly, they were actually used. Jericho gave Ambrose some very hesitant shots with the 2×4, only to have a Codebreaker countered and collapse into the tacks, streaking his arms and back with blood. Why this fucking match was allowed to reach such levels of barbarism but Dean Ambrose vs. Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania was basically castrated will forever be a mystery, but it’s a real shame that a genuinely shocking moment like Jericho’s tumble into the thumbtacks was wasted on a bout like this. It was an admirable sacrifice by Y2J, but it didn’t even come close to salvaging anything from the wreckage of the Asylum.

The United States Championship may be a clear step behind the Intercontinental Championship at this stage in terms of prestige, but Kalisto and Rusev still had a fun battle for it. It was a little slow in places but they pulled off the Sting-Vader formula very well, Rusev beginning the match by literally swatting Kalisto out of the sky before crippling him with a bear hug and a torture rack. The champion made a spirited comeback but the title slipped away from him when he dropped back first onto the ring apron, priming him for a particularly nasty, bendy Accolade which secured Rusev the submission victory and a richly deserved U.S. Title. Once upon a time Kalisto seemed one of the more promising talents on the roster, the closest WWE had come to finding an heir to Rey Mysterio, but his stint with the U.S. Title never really went anywhere or generated any memorable matches, outside of one or two with Alberto Del Rio. Rusev is superb and should be a semi regular in main events, so anything that takes him even slightly closer to that position is a good thing in my book.

The other two championship matches were forgettable, though the New Day vs. The Vaudevillains had its moment, with Gotch and English obliterating the ever vulnerable Xavier Woods with a Whirling Dervish in one of the night’s most convincing near falls. Charlotte vs. Natalya lurched about, never managing to break out of first gear, and ended in deeply frustrating fashion with Dana Brooke dressing up as Ric Flair to distract the challenger, giving Flair’s daughter the opening she needed to win. Matches that implicitly guarantee a clean winner, as this one did with Ric Flair’s ban from ringside, and then just find a more creative way of doing another inconclusive finish can gooooooooo fuck themselves. Before turning their attentions to the main event, The Usos, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows opened the show with an energetic but limited tornado tag. Those sorts of matches have a big plus point in that there’s always something going on, but a big negative in that they’re very difficult to structure in a coherent fashion, and so it proved on the night. Stuff happened, much of it was entertaining, little of it had any rhyme or reason, and so it felt less that the sum of its parts.

STAR RATINGS
The Usos vs. Karl Anderson/Luke Gallows- **½
Kalisto vs. Rusev- **¾
The New Day vs. The Vaudevillains- **¾
The Miz vs. Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens- ****¼
Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho- *
Charlotte vs. Natalya- *¾
Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles- ****½

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

As fat and bloated and tedious as the Asylum match was, the wonderful Fatal Four Way for the Intercontinental Championship and even more wonderful Reigns-AJ main event made Extreme Rules a hugely worthwhile show and maybe the best WWE PPV of the year so far. A more significant title change than Rusev winning the U.S. belt might have made this show feel even more rewarding and significant, but with some of the best wrestling you'll see on WWE TV all year, Extreme Rules can still hold its head high. Definitely make a point to watch the aforementioned ****+ epics.