What's going on folks! Glad you came back for another day with me, as I review the evening of Extreme Rules 2015, and how I felt about the evening's matches. As a spoiler, don't expect a huge grade from me on this one. Before I get all the way started, I would first like to say Rest In Peace to AWA founder and visionary, WWE Hall Of Famer Verne Gagne. Verne was single-handedly responsible for many wrestler's careers such as Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Andre The Giant, Gene Okerlund, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and Big John Studd. Wrestling was his heart, and we as devoted fans will always remember respect and appreciate Verne Gagne for his legendary contributions. Tell folks up there such as Owen, Eddie Guerrero, the Von Erich Brothers, Terry Gordy, Randy Savage, and the Ultimate Warrior we said hello and we miss them!
Now on the event highlighted. Extreme Rules came from Chi-Town for yet another year, and of course the "CM Punk" chants rang out early. That would've been the ultimate mark out moment had "Cult Of Personality" hit and he and AJ walked out just to say what's up to his hometown crowd. Of course that didn't happen therefore on with the first match. The first bout was a match I actually looked forward to seeing, the "Chicago Street Fight" between former rivals in the indies Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper. As much as they were going at each other, the story here was when they went into an SUV that Harper commandeered and Ambrose dove in the car and they were fighting as Harper drove off. For two matches, there was no sign of them until later. Because it was a street fight match, their version of the match didn't mean pitfalls counted anywhere, it meant pinball or submissions still counted in the ring. Stay tuned for the end of the match.
Next up was the "Kiss Me Arse" match between Dolph Ziggler and Shaemus, who recently returned after being out of action for months due to injury and re-emerged as a heel. Since his returned he has targeted smaller guys like Ziggler and Daniel Bryan (more on him later) to hype up this bully persona. As usual, Dolph gave it 100% in this one...and it paid off as he defeated Shaemus. Per the stipulation, the loser had to kiss the ass of the winner and after enough teasing and ass-cheek showing, it was finally time for the "Celtic Warrior" to pucker up, but instead Doplh got a vicious low blow for his efforts then a Brogue Kick for it all. Then, to add on the humiliation, he exposed his ass cheek and put the face of a semi-conscious Ziggler up against his ass. Very classy on the part of Shaemus *rolls eyes*
Next up was the Tag Team Championship match between the champs of Cesaro and Tyson Kidd versus The New Day, being represented by Big E and Kofi (I'm still trying to wrap my head around Kofi being a sneaky heel). This match was actually pretty good and everyone used the most of their time in the match. At the end, it was a numbers game, and Kofi rolled up Cesaro to have he and E become the new Tag Team Champions. Of course, with Xavier "Mr. PhD" Woods in tow, this makes for an interesting turn of events, as they'll likely incorporate the Freebird rule, as any of the three guys can defend the tag belts. As they were getting interviewed by Renee Young, the SUV from earlier sped in, with Luke escaping the back door and Dean diving off the top and onto Luke and the new champs. The fight continued back into the ring where kind sticks and chairs were used, but in the end Dean picked up a much needed win.
Daniel Bryan was supposed to defend the Inter-Continental Title against Bad News Barrett, however WWE claimed doctors stated that he was unable to compete and had not been medically cleared. Therefore, Barrett's opponent was Adrien Neville, who has taken the main roster by storm since he graduated from NXT as a former tag team champ and former NXT Champion. Not too bad of a match between the two British wrestlers, but Neville picked up his first pay per view win with the best high flying finisher in the entire sport, the Red Arrow.
The U.S. title match was next between John Cena and Rusev, as Cena came into the match as champ, having defeated Rusev at Wrestlemania. This match was a "Russian Chain" match. Pretty much it was under the same stipulations as other matches like the Texas Bullrope match and the Leather Strap match, which was to drag your opponent around to all four corner posts in succession and tag them all. Although the match wasn't a classic by any means, this match did show that Rusev could hang in a main event-esque match with the polarized yet dominant megastar Cena. Actually, the intensity was picked up after Rusev sent Lana to the back due to the fact that the fans were chanting for Lana and she acknowledged them by waving. Ultimately, Cena came away with his belt still in tact and further solidified his nickname given to him by JBL as "Big Match John". Afterwards, Rusev, speaking and berating Lana in Russian, sent Lana to the office of The Authority. We later learned that Rusev had challenged Cena to an "I Quit" match at the next pay per view, Payback. By the way, that's a match Cena has never lost, and never will lose.
Next was the Diva's Title match between the newly face Nikki Bella (still figuring that one out) and the newly heeled Naomi, who came out to a new look with the Kanye shades from his Graduation LP and new music, which she actually did the vocals to. This was an okay match but nothing to write home about. This did show how excellent of a competitor Naomi continues to be and how comfortably she's fitting into her heel role. In spite of this, thanks to Brie, Nikki came away with the win and still the champion after over one hundred fifty days as champion.
Next was the Last Man Standing match between Roman Reigns and Big Show. Truthfully, I wasn't expecting this match to be the match of the night, but it was. The man who, just last month was headlining Wrestlemania with Brock Lesnar and had a damn good showing, came to play that night, but so did Show. This was a hell of a story that was told and Roman showed that he could go the distance once again in a main event match. This, in my opinion, was the best story Roman told as he put forth his best effort to date. Also kudos to Show as he showed (no pun intended) he still had it to have an awesome match. After nearly thirty minutes, Reigns won by dumping the announcer's table onto Show and it was enough for the referee to count Big Show out, and Reigns "reigned" as the last man standing.
That match was hard to follow, but we still had the main event to go. First, Bo Dallas came out to bring his charm of disengenuine motivation to the crowd, only to get "shell shocked" by Ryback who came out to end the bleeding of the ears.
It was finally game time, as the cage lowered and it was time for the WWE World Title match between the champion Seth Rollins and Randy Orton. After the match they had at Wrestlemania (which Orton got the W in), I knew this one would be pretty good as well. The added element of Kane as the "gatekeeper" to the cage further multiplied the drama factor. Truthfully, the match wasn't quite as good as their prior meeting, but the entertainment was better, as J&J Security tried to intervene, but was either subdued by Orton himself, or Kane double chokeslammed them. Then, a clearly conflicted Kane (due to his issues with Seth and brewing tensions with Triple H) choke slammed Orton, however he also choke slammed the hell out of Rollins. Although those choke slams weren't enough to stop neither one of the two, Orton RKO'd Kane (his RKO was banned in the match by using it on Rollins), however Orton got RKO'd by Rollins and Rollins escaped the cage for the win, thus retaining his title. Great drama, yet also predictable.
Now to my close-out feelings on the event. This was an overall predictable, average event for them. There have been some damn good Extreme Rules pay per views, especially the one where Cena and Lesnar headlined, but this was not one of them. If it wasn't for the Last Man Standing match, Street Fight, and the Tag Team title match, this would've been even worse than it already was. Not only was the action average, but the commentary was sub-par. It would've been awesome to have Bryan there and have him defend the title, but he sadly personifies the claim of "wrestling's unluckiest wrestler", as we don't know what exactly caused him to not be able to compete. Speculation early on had him concussed during the Great Britain tour but that has not been confirmed as the company has been extremely tight lipped about it. Could the event had been worse? Absolutely, because we've seen a lot worse from them. However, this is why many fans are becoming disenfranchised with the product, as even children can be able to predict certain things that are spelled out right in front of them. I will give them props for making Roman look damn awesome in his win, and hopefully he'll start obtaining the right momentum instead of being shoved down people's throats like a few months ago. By the way, I'm still confused as to how the Bellas suddenly became faces all of the sudden, with zero explanation or build. Creative writing team, WAKE UP!! Stop trying to play us as completely stupid idiots. Oh yeah, I forgot. A "Kiss Me-Arse" match??? Really??? This was clearly a Vince McMahon form of entertainment. On the other hand, what do you expect from WWE and Vince? It seems his only viable jackpot is Wrestlemania, with Summerslam a close second, and the NXT brand practically demolishing everything else the main roster presents. Kudos to Roman/Show, Ambrose/Harper, and New Day/Cesaro & Kidd. Everything else...snooze. If I had to rate this, the event would get 3 out of 5 slams (or 3 out of 5 mice if this was The Source magazine). Will Payback be any better? One can only hope. Until next time cats and dogs, keep it easy!
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