wrestling / TV Reports
Stew’s WWE Extreme Rules 2021 Review
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...This is a weird show.
Big E just won the WWE Title to much acclaim. He’s not on the show.
Finn Balor is dusting off The Demon character for the first time in years to be the next challenger to Roman Reigns. And he’s already an afterthought as WWE plows ahead towards Reigns/Brock in Saudi Arabia.
UPDATE: Literally as I was typing this intro, they plugged Big E into the show. That’s fine. This is fine. But how do you not advertise in advance that your new champ is going to have a match?
Like I said… weird stuff going on here.
Including the introduction of the first ever Spanglish Announcing Crew for the Liv Morgan vs Carmella pre-show match!
Let’s see how the show shapes up! Watching WWE Pay-Per-Views on Peacock is no end of treats. Let’s not all pretend WWE Network wasn’t a nightmare of technical issues back in the day, but it was at least fully armed and operational for years before the move to Peacock. Now we get different problems every month!
I kind of hope they just swap out the Extreme Rules commentary with the Sunday Night Football commentary.
MATCH 1: The New Day vs Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles, and Amos
AND NOW IT IS IN FRENCH! I kind of love this, to be honest.
Did anyone see the recent UpUpDownDown video where Kofi Kingston was playing ping-pong against Ricochet, Omos, and AJ Styles? Omos is a hell of a ping-pong player! Dude has crazy good reaction time. If you haven’t seen that yet, check it out! I did not expect a guy built like Omos to have those kinds of reflexes.
I know Xavier Woods will almost certainly never win the WWE Title to match what his brothers have accomplished, but all three members of the New Day are so inherently charismatic and entertaining. I genuinely can’t wait for their little Escape The Undertaker adventure on Netflix. Woods had some great work in this one, sure, but he has been so consistently good for years now.
Big E surprisingly pinned Lashley to win this match; I thought for sure either Styles or Woods were going to eat the finish. But nope… they reaffirmed that Big E deserves the title isn’t likely to be a flash in the pan champ.
Commentary keeps selling that the draft can/will separate the New Day again, and man… I really hope they don’t. They still work together all these years later.
MATCH 2: Smackdown Tag Team Title Match
A great match between two great teams. Some great false finishes and action.
And yet…
And yet, the ending was never in doubt, so it always felt like just a really fun ride on cruise control on a closed course. Sure, it was good for what it was, but there were never any surprises around any of the turns.
Still, it’s enjoyable TV. The maligned WWE tag team division just needs to be booked by someone who cares about it, man.
MATCH 3: Raw Women’s Title Match
Peacock went to a commercial break in the middle of Alexa Bliss’ ring entrance, and I thought we weren’t supposed to get full commercial breaks during the live pay-per-view events on Peacock. This service is just never-ending fun, guys.
Well, this match was terrible. These two just did not mesh at all. Not a good effort from either lady here. The match was secondary to its own aftermath, which saw Charlotte destroy Lily and Alexa fail to get alka seltzer tablets in her mouth to properly foam up.
Remember when Alexa Bliss was the friggin’ Dark Phoenix? Suddenly I miss those days. Why aren’t we throwing rigging equipment and fireballs at Charlotte?
It would be interesting if WWE has stealth re-signed Bray Wyatt and this leads to his coming back and being like “When you were my disciple, you were magical and unstoppable. Now you are a clown”.
I… guys, I really just want some resolution to that storyline.
I really did the Paul Heyman / Kayla Braxton interactions. They both seem to be having a blast with those.
MATCH 4: U.S. Title (or “Sheamus’ Gold”) Match
Someone in the crowd has a sign that says “Why did you let LJN make your games in the 90’s”, and that person clearly never played Monday Night Raw for the SNES, because that game was AMAZING.
Top 5 wrestling game of all time, and I will brook no argument on this.
This was a very “meh” match that just kind of trudged along until it got to the finishing stretch. It all started with Sheamus doing the Jeff Hardy dance on the top rope (which I DEMAND GIFS OF), and then they had a nice little flurry of offense and close-calls that led to… well, a roll-up finish for Priest to retain.
Either way, it was a fun final stretch, and I’m admittedly less hard-up on roll-ups than others are.
I kind of wish I got to watch it as a Super Nintendo Monday Night Raw match, though.
MATCH 5: Smackdown Women’s Title Match
Man, why does WWE have to ruin a good thing sometimes? After watching the build-up video twice, I’m already done with hearing Bianca’s “Girl, uh-uh”.
This was a fantastic match, wildly helped out by an energetic crowd who was split over who they wanted to win. This is taking nothing away from the efforts of Becky and Bianca, but the audience really helped this match a great deal. They were hot.
But yeah, both ladies looked great here. Bianca is so damned strong and powerful and athletic. Becky just gets in-ring character work and intensity. It’s like they absorbed all the chemistry Charlotte and Alexa should have had to boost their own.
And the ending was a Sasha Banks run-in. I didn’t mind it. I mean; it took the air out of a match that was so darn good, but if it means we are getting a three-way Becky/Bianca/Banks feud? All is forgiven!
Now we just need Bayley to miraculously heal from her knee injury to get a fourth B in there! Tell me you don’t want to see THAT four-way!
MATCH 6: Universal Title Match
ANOTHER mid-entrance commercial break! What goes on here? I don’t recall any of the other Peacock era shows having these? How long until we start getting them mid-match?
I am reminded of the main event of Extreme Rules 2017 (or 2018?), where the crowd was much more invested in counting down every minute of the Iron Man match more than they were in the in-ring action. This crowd seemed WAY more invested in getting a table involved than they were in either man. It was a bit annoying, but what can I do? I just gave them props for the previous match. The live crowd giveth, and the live crowd taketh away.
Hahahahahahaha FUCK the finish of this match, by the way. Are you kidding me with that ending? Is the implication that GOD saved Roman? What the absolute hell?
What absolute inanity. As much of a downer as it would have been to have Roman win after heavy interference from The Usos, this finish was just…
What a terrible, no good, awful, very bad ending to a pretty good show. Balor/Reigns had been moving along as a pretty great encounter, but all anyone will ever remember is that climax.
