wrestling / Columns

WWE Extreme Rules 2016: Roman Reigns Is Phenomenal

May 24, 2016 | Posted by Justin Watry

Image Credit: WWE

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such classic columns as March 2012’s “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan in Less Than a Minute” and October 2015’s “WWE NXT: Bobby Roode, You’re Next.”

Reader Feedback

Nick L via email: For many years, I read any wrestling-related news story or opinion piece that I could find. Everything from major news outlets to the dirtsheets, I read it all. Today, I get everything I need from just two sources. First, I catch up on all the rumors and alleged backstage “news” from the dirtsheets, then I visit Jay’s Ways (and his other columns, naturally) to get what no other fantasy-booking opinion writers have been able to provide. Here you’ll find logical, reasoned, and entertaining commentary on all the real news, rumors, and of course…the garbage posted by a miserable minority in the comments. Justin offers everything a great writer should; frequent content, communication with his readers, the occasional exclusive, and a remarkable track record of being right. I’m sure there are other quality writers out there, but until I find someone else who is right nearly 100% of the time AND humble enough to write “I Was Wrong” when he’s not, I’ll stick with Justin Watry.

You are too kind. Truthful but too kind. Look forward to hearing from you again man.

BillyBlaze: Is this the guy that wrote that fan fiction of CM Punks first fight?

Fan fiction? Huh? No idea what you are talking about. When CM Punk has his first UFC first, I will write about it.

Rod Gapely: Vintage Watry!

Thanks Michael.

Luisho: J, are you turning face? Calling out Punks hypocritical quote and pointing out the “cons” of his bucket list project will get you a lot of praise (at least with me). And about Court Bauer I said the same thing (not sure how to feel about that), regardless of his source or former “connections” he is the one that leaked the news.

Not a heel or face. Just myself, love me or hate me.

Adam: Punk will fight once. Win or lose, then be done. If he wins then he can say he went out on a victory. If he loses, then he can admit defeat and come out a bigger man. But I don’t think he would let himself not fight at all and prove all the haters right. Just not in his DNA.

Pretty much. I gave him a little more credit two years ago in predicting a few fights…but now, it seems like a one and done deal. Win or lose, he gets to prove the doubters wrong and claim it as a moral victory. As noted last week, I am NOT proclaiming the Punk/UFC thing a failure. Not yet anyways. All the signs may point in that direction, but Punk is Punk for a reason. Even he knows not fighting at least once is going to be a HUUUUUGE mark against him. He has to fight eventually.

MikeK.: This cracks me up. You can hate Watry because, you know, it’s wrestling so it’s worth hating someone because of their opinion (even though, as I’ve been saying for ages, odd how many people read a writer that they “hate”) but you can’t ignore he’s dead on about Punk thus far. He hasn’t fought yet and so far, it’s been all hype and no results. I realize it’s Punk and people here have some strange attraction to him but what Watry wrote is dead on.

Yep, it usually is.

AG Awesome: I hope Punk fights and that win or lose he gets a chance to show he took it seriously. Whether he has a good scramble and wins/almost wins or just goes the distance and survives. It’ll be a nice achievement for a guy who may be a big mouth jerk at times, but who also worked very hard to entertain people (and make good money doing it) for nearly two decades. I don’t want to see a total failure from a KO or Submission loss in the first 30 seconds.

Honestly, even a 30 second knockout loss in the first round would be considered a “win” versus the alternative option of not fighting at all, despite the countless promises and smack talk for the past 18 months. Again, he has to fight.

Backstory

My column for next week is already about 95% of the way done. However, that can wait another seven days. This is the day after a pay-per-view, so the topic should be pretty obvious: MY WWE Extreme Rules 2016 review! Like Payback, I nailed every prediction (excluding the ridiculous Dolph Ziggler over Baron Corbin outcome) and as usual, predictability proved to NOT be a bad thing. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look…

WWE Extreme Rules 2016

Where Was Enzo Amore? – Big Cass beat up the Dudley Boyz with relative ease. Hmm, I know it was the Kickoff Show and big things tend to be saved for the pay-per-view (or RAW the next night), but I would have been fine with Enzo Amore coming back here. Without him, this was pointless filler. With him, it would gets fans buzzing and looking forward to the rest of the show. Either way, Big Cass and Enzo will be together again soon.

Baron Corbin over Dolph Ziggler – Should have been a one minute crushing. Seriously. There is plenty of ‘solid ten minute matches’ every single week on WWE television. Why not change up the formula once in awhile? Have a 30 second one sided bout? Like I said, it’s not like the in-ring quality will suffer. We see plenty of good matches in WWE. Corbin wins, which was the right move, and we all wonder where Apollo Crews is. Maybe they can feud now?

Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows Get A Victory – The Usos are faces, right? It may not be a bad idea to turn them heel. Give them a little bit of a refresher. Regardless, this was not their night to shine. This was Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows’ moment in the sun. They deserve a strong showing after the past few weeks of…well, not looking very impactful. My guess is this two goes for the tag team titles during the summer. However, sadly, the conversation will likely continue to hover around Finn Balor and the 363,186 rumors of his impending main roster debut.

Rusev CRUSH!!! – This was the right call. As much as I have been behind Kalisto and have him as one of my 2016 breakout stars, this was the time to change United States Champions. With John Cena on his way back, the belt had to go to a heel. Plus, this allows fans to rally behind the masked underdog and put him in a true “underdog” role for awhile. Nice to see Rusev and Lana back in a good position on the card after wasting their time with League of Nations (a stable I said would be a bust from day one).

New Day Rocks – Another tag team title win for The New Day. Another fresh NXT callup now in limbo. I know this is being a bit over dramatic and hyperbolic…but what do The Vaudevillains do now? Their finisher only earned a two count, and a loss to the champs on PPV seems like the end of the feud to me. The Vaudevillains are more talented and have a better future than The Ascension at least. I think.

The Miz Retains – First off, a great match that had me second guessing the winner after every nearfall. Props to all four men and even Maryse for her involvement. I have been praising the IC Title scene on Twitter A LOT recently. Everybody is in such a perfect spot right now. All positive feedback, nothing negative. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens keep fighting, Cesaro looks like a million bucks being back from injury, and The Miz gets to remain the slimeball champion that weasels away with the title. Awwwwwesome!

The Asylum Match – Okay, to be fair, let me make three points before discussing the actual match:

1. Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose had to follow the spectacular fatal four way IC Title match. No matter, the two were facing an uphill climb from the beginning. Yes, both should be skilled enough to get the fans behind them and invested with their work; they are clearly very good. I’m just saying the the card order put them at a huge disadvantage.

2. This was the first ever Asylum gimmick. While I think it would be cool to have this become the specialty match of Dean Ambrose, fans were unsure what to expect. Like any ‘first ever match,’ there is a feeling out process to get people going. Perhaps the second version will be tweaked and fans will be more forgiving?

3. I have to believe there was a last minute change on the card to give this segment over 25 minutes. Nothing has been reported yet, but that is my thinking. This dragged and dragged and dragged, only like they were told to fill time on purpose. Weak excuse, I know…just felt off.

That being said, this was the worst part of WWE Extreme Rules 2016 and was barely saved for the ending sequence. Barely. Without that, this would be ripped pretty badly by yours truly. Since Ambrose did win (as he should) and Jericho DID take a grueling thumbtacks spot, I will be nice and just say I am happy we got a satisfying conclusion to the feud.

Charlotte Wins With(out) Flair – Get it? Wins with flair…alright…

Rumor has it Dana Brooke was either going to be paired with Eva Marie or Charlotte. I think WWE made the correct decision. Sadly, Emma is out, and simply throwing Dana to the side is not a fair alternative. Give her something meaningful to do for a few months. If it clicks, then it clicks. If not, then oh well, reunite her with Emma. This story was never about Natalya winning the Womens Championship. It was about seeing Charlotte win WITHOUT Ric Flair for a change. Ironic that she ended up celebrating with her father and a new ally by her side.

Like most, I am ready for Charlotte to link back up with Sasha Banks (or Becky Lynch even) heading into Summerslam. That is where you do the title change, as the reign length will be longer than Nikki Bella’s and be treated as a major event. Nattie winning at Extreme Rules? Meh. Sasha Banks winning at Summerslam? Boss.

Main Event Delivers – A big fight feel indeed. The live crowd in New Jersey was jacked, the fans were anticipating a classic, and the tension was in the air for a WWE World Championship main event. That is everything you want as a wrestling fan, so as usual, I don’t understand the complaints. Two great stars, fans cheering and booing loudly, intense action, exciting moments, wonderful near falls, a great finish, and the right guy coming out on top…

…what’s the problem again?

Kudos to Roman Reigns and AJ Styles for yet another amazing PPV match. I think the feud is finished, but I certainly would not complain if they had another battle down the road. Heck, this is being written before RAW – any chance they do it again tonight? The best part of this bout and aftermath is both men ‘won’ this feud, with no ‘loser’ at all.

AJ Styles remains a beloved face, The Club is still all in his business, and Reigns again proves why he is THE GUY going forward for WWE.

Well, he is THE GUY as long as Seth Rollins is okay with it because the headline on Sunday was not the main event result. It was the former WWE World Champion returning to claim a title he never lost. Rollins’ injury put him out. Not Reigns. That is an easy story to tell, and based on the crowd reaction at Extreme Rules, fans are well aware of his rightful claim to the gold.

This should be very interesting going forward. Surely, fans will cheer Rollins and want him to get the gold back…yet the Roman Empire is just in the early stages of being built. We are not even two months removed from WrestleMania 32 and the official crowning of THE GUY in WWE. Can’t exactly stop that momentum now. Or can you push Rollins to the side for Summerslam.

What to do?

Honestly, I have no idea. There is no big bold prediction here. The Club and AJ Styles will be preoccupied for awhile, The Wyatts and Brock Lesnar are reportedly going to feud soon, John Cena should be involved with the United States Championship, and that leaves Rollins and Reigns on top, with a new Money in the Bank briefcase holder coming soon. Believe it or not, the X-Factor in all of this is none other than Triple H!

Yes, Triple H. My early prediction is The Game interferes during the inevitable Reigns/Rollins clash to cost *someone* the title. The only question is does he go after Reigns to rekindle that rivalry or officially turn Rollins face and finally feud with him? Tough call.

Until then, Roman Reigns is still your WWE World Champion, and Seth Rollins is back!

Believe that.