An Evening at WWE Extreme Rules, A Live Report

An Evening at WWE Extreme Rules: My Live Report

-This started out as a quick review of my time at the WWE PPV last night before getting to the Post Show, but I ended up writing more that I anticipated.  Saturday morning my cousin messaged me about going to Extreme Rules and after searching online I found seats for $45 which was in my price range.  So I decided to make the trek 51 miles north to PPG Paints Arena.

-Sadly I arrived late and missed the first pre-show match.  Pittsburgh was hammered by a thunderstorm (if you watched the end of the Pirates game you saw the down pour) and it caught me as I was driving to the show.  Heavy rains mixed with hail caused flooding of the street we were on and soon police cars and fire trucks were out to block the road and send people alternate routes.  All this coupled with the normal traffic led us to getting there in the middle of the Sin Cara/Almas match.

-The show drew a pretty decent crowd as all the lower bowl was filled save for the area around the cameras and tech equipment.  The upper deck seating was also filled for about 20 of the 24 sections that were open.  3 sections were blacked off and the there were noticeable empty seats in the other 4 sections and again those were all behind the cameras so TV wouldn’t pick it up.

-For what I saw Almas and Sin Cara was fine and the crowd that was there was into the match.  Speaking of the crowd I assumed there would be more kids and families, but the majority I saw and the majority around my section were teenage males and guys around my age (37).  There were a lot of Bullet Club shirts and you also got the fans that were into the cosplay.  The most interesting I saw was a man and woman dressed as Ambrose and Renee Young.

-The production crew brought out the tables for New Day/Sanity and as you would expect, New Day was way over with the crowd.  Sanity winning was the right call since they are the new group and New Day is basically bullet proof as far as being over with the fans.  Fun match and the crowd loved it.

-The tribute video for Bruno was played in a classy move.  It didn’t get as big of a response as I had expected, but it was still cool hearing “Bruno” chants ring throughout the arena.

-The PPV started proper and I found it odd that we had normal ring posts and no LED apron, but perhaps with  the cage and whatnot they figured it was better to go the traditional route.  The opener had a hotter crowd that expected as The B Team was over as faces with half the crowd and booed like crazy by the other half.  There was an audible “Let’s Go B Team/B Team Sucks” chant mixed in with the normal “delete” chants you would expect.  The crowd popped for the unexpected title change and then seemingly everyone was waiting for a Wyatt turn, but it never came.  Bray’s entrance is pretty sweet live!

– At this point the 2 empty seats next to me were filled which was kind of a bummer as I enjoyed the extra room.  For some reason though they only stayed for the Balor/Corbin match and then bounced.  So either they were big fans of one of those two, or they found a bar to watch the rest of the show to get hammered.  Balor/Corbin was a standard big man/little man match with Balor winning in a fluky way that probably means this feud continues.  Corbin wrestling in a suit is weird and takes away from his natural imposing manner.  His theme music is cool and Balor’s entrance was good stuff, but sadly, I will likely never get to see a Demon entrance live.

-Carmella/Asuka was next and this was obviously a low point in the show.  The smarks around me hated it and the kids, women around me thought it was hilarious when Ellsworth was hanging upside down.  I did notice there were quite a few people wearing Enzo and Cass shirts, so for some they are still holding out hope for a return  The ending irritated pretty much everyone in the building.

-The main reason I decided to go to the show at the last minute was I wanted to see Nakamura and Owens.  I figured as a wrestling fan I owed it to myself to be able to say I saw them once.  Nakamura/Hardy was next and though the match only lasted a few seconds I got everything I wanted: Nakamura’s entrance, dick punch of death, and a new US Champion.  The place went crazy for the Orton return and then they were confused when he stomped on Hardy’s ball sack.  Heel Orton is always a plus though if that is where this is heading.

-The cage match was next and this was the second cage match I have seen live with Taker/Batista on SmackDown where Edge cashed in being the first.  The crowd loved Strowman and actually liked Owens as well.  Match went as expected and the crowd was with them the entire way.  Obviously the bump off the top of the cage got one of the biggest reactions of the night and brought everyone out of their seat.  This was obviously a nod to Foley flying off the Cell 20 years ago in Pittsburgh (though some drunks in front of me swore that happened in the same building.  Guess they forgot Civic/Mellon Arena was across the street and had been torn down years ago).  The crowd gave Owens a standing ovation as he was stretchered to the back.

-Daniel Bryan was crazy over but not nearly to the level he was when I last saw a PPV here (Rumble 2014).  Bryan vs The Bludgeon Brothers was good fun and I could have lived with it just being a handicap match.  Nobody was really clamoring for Kane as those around me were waiting to see if Hogan would come.  The ending kind of took some of the wind out of the crowd, but not nearly as much as Bryan losing did the last show I saw.

-They showed that Lashley/Reigns was next and for some reason people started pouring out of their seats to the restrooms and concession stands.  To be fair I am not sure if they were just trying to beat the video package to get back in time or if they really didn’t care about this match and were using it for their piss break.  Reigns was booed and booed loudly.  The kids and women couldn’t drown out the boos and it was something else.  There were a few ladies in our section and they absolutely loved Reigns and seemed to enjoy egging the crowd on to boo more.  This started slow and the crowd was not engaged at all.  There was a beach ball being bounced around for a bit before it disappeared from my view and then the crowd started a “We Want Beach Balls” chant.  They did get into the match towards the end and Lashley winning drew a big pop, or I guess it would be better to say, Roman losing drew a big pop.  Once he got to his feet Roman was booed some more as he headed to the back.

-Alexa Bliss was crazy over with the males in the crowd as her music got a big reaction.  There may not have been a single person on the card more over than Rousey though.  There were chants before the show started and the place went nuts each time they showed her.  The match was kind of boring, but the crowd enjoyed the Rousey/James exchange and a match between them would be fun.  Bliss won and the crowd was happy.

-The WWE Title match was next and this match had the most heat of anything on the card.  Rusev was massively over and the crowd loved AJ as well.  This was  a very good match with the crowd actually buying some of Rusev’s near falls towards the end as in this day I wouldn’t be shocked to see anyone win the WWE Title.  They told a good story and Rusev sold the leg like a champ.  Just good stuff from these and hopefully Rusev gets another shot to show he belongs on this level.

-Now the fun starts as we get to the 30 Minute Iron Man Match.  The crowd loved Rolliins, but were kind of lukewarm to Ziggler.  The countdown clock started out on the Tron and quickly a few people started counting down every time we got to 10 seconds left on each minute.  Soon it started growing and yes, it obviously took away from the match.  It seemed Rollins and Ziggler started to figure it out and were timing some of their bigger spots and pins to counteract the countdown which was fantastic.  The WWE then took the clock off the tron and the crowd was pissed.  They still could see the timer on the scoreboard above the arena floor, so the WWE took that timer off as well and that was it.  The crowd turned on the match for good and started counting down from 10 whenever they felt like it and some were watching on their phones just for the timer.  When the clock returned on the tron, it drew the biggest pop of the night and it was probably the smart thing to do as now at least Ziggler and Rollins knew when to time things to try to keep the crowd engaged.  I can’t even say how good the match was because I was caught up in the crowd turning on the match and all the drunks doing whatever they could to revolt.  Angle coming out drew a big response, but the quick ending sucked.  The crowd gave Rollins a standing ovation after the match with chants of “Thanks You Rollins.”  I am curious how he took that after the same crowd hijacked his match.

-An announcement was made that SmackDown Live would be in Pittsburgh on Saturday Dec 29 which is the taping for the Dec 31st show I assume.

-As we were leaving the arena the crowd continued to do the Rumble countdown and some were saying they hope it sticks and ends up happening on TV each week.  These people were idiots obviously.  I was not involved in the hijacking of the match and it did suck to see it happen.  I don’t think it was anything against either guy, and it doesn’t happen if it wasn’t for it being an Iron Man Match with the clock on the Tron.  Pittsburgh has had 4 Iron Man matches happen on WWE TV and this is probably the last one we ever get as I don’t see how the same thing wouldn’t happen again.

-Overall I got my $45 worth even if it was on the weaker end of PPVs I have attened (8 in total including 3 WrestleManias).  The most over people with the crowd (besides the clock): Rousey, Bryan, Rollins, Rusev, AJ, Strowman, and New Day.  Orton’s return and Lashley’s win drew two of the bigger pops.  Reigns was booed more than anyone else on the show and it wasn’t even close.  It’s a shame as I don’t recall anyone else really drawing heel heat.

-After Pittsburgh hijacked The Rumble in support of Bryan, some thought we would never get another PPV and that was silly.  Some are thinking the same thing again and some are thinking we don’t deserve one, but that’s just as silly.  Pittsburgh is a big WWE market and I expect another PPV there in 2-3 years as that has been about the cycle we’re on.  Next time just don’t book an Iron Man Match. Give us the Rumble again as sort of a joke!