WWE Extreme Rules 2013 Review

Match 1: Chris Jericho vs. Fandango
Opening up the show features Chris Jericho trying to rebound from his loss in New Jersey against Fandango. The hype of Fandango has gone through the roof and the big shoes he must fill is not an easy task. Action between the two was kept at a steady pace and flowed nicely throughout with the St. Louis crowd behind them. Some minor mistakes tossed in that made things look sloppy but they cleaned it up with a nice finish that saw Jericho land a Codebreaker to avenge his loss against the new guy on the block!
Winner: Chris Jericho
Rating: **

Match 2: United States Championship - Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Dean Ambrose
Without The Shield by his side, Ambrose looks to capture his first taste of championship gold on his own. Good pacing to start off the match with no favorite being shown. Kingston looks to gain control of the match as he nailed a Trouble in Paradise to Ambrose who then fell off the apron. Kingston rolls Ambrose back into the ring but is not able to achieve the win. Kingston goes for another but this time, lands on top of the ropes to which Ambrose plants Kingston face first into the mat. Ambrose gets the win as The Shield come out to celebrate. Good match that once again shows the spiraling of Kingston's career along with the rise of The Shield.
Winner: Dean Ambrose
Rating: **1/4

Match 3: Strap - Mark Henry vs. Sheamus
Aside from all the racist jokes, this should be a fun match. Oddly enough, these two have some great chemistry and I feel like they could get creative with the rules for this one. Strap matches definitely can be crowd killers but these guys managed to keep the crowd focused throughout. Really fun to watch these two guys brawl against each other while trying to be cunning at the same time by tapping each turnbuckle. Sheamus gets the win after nailing Henry with the Brogue Kick and tapping the last turnbuckle. Short and sweet, good match to keep the show rolling.
Winner: Sheamus
Rating: *3/4

Match 4: I Quit - Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger
Since suffering a concussion by the hands of Jack Swagger on SmackDown, Dolph Ziggler was deemed unable to compete. Therefore, a match between these two has been set to see who will challenge Ziggler for the World Heavyweight Championship. It should also be noted that JBL has been great on commentary so far as he is able to discuss his experience in the previous types of matches since the very start and it is likely to continue. Good brawling between the two with the huge problem being that the referee constantly asking if the competitors want to quit. It was annoying, tedious, and in some ways, diluted the match. With that being said, the crowd also had trouble getting into the thick of things. Things didn't help when Ricardo was asking Del Rio if he should throw in the white towel. This doesn't make sense considering they specifically announced that the only way to win was to make your opponent say "I quit." Either way, Zeb Colter grabs the towel and throws it in. Swagger wins until another official runs down and restarts the match. Del Rio locks in his submission and Swagger quits. Don't know where to begin, the action was decent but nothing memorable. But it was nice to see some wrestling psychology tossed into the mix. It was the ending that threw me off, too many antics that didn't make sense that ultimately became the lasting memory.
Winner: Alberto Del Rio
Rating: **1/4

Match 5: WWE Tag Team Championships - Tornado - Team Hell No (c) vs. Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns
The Shield look to sweep their night with a victory over Team Hell No. I should note that these guys are good and so much fun to watch. It's an incredible thing to see these guys wrestle on the independent scene to finally moving over to the big time. They needed to do something that would separate this match from a tag match that you would normally see on an episode of Raw. The stipulation added made the match a bit more fun but also made things a bit more sloppy. Coming off the I Quit match, the teams just couldn't get themselves out of that first gear. Still, they managed to get a cool ending with a huge knee off the top rope from Rollins onto Bryan who was hanging on the shoulders of Roman Reigns. Ambrose then comes out to celebrate as The Shield win big.
Winners: Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns
Rating: **3/4

Match 6: Extreme Rules - The Big Show vs. Randy Orton
We are in the hometown of Randy Orton and this crowd absolutely loves him! If we could also get a count on how many times these two have faced each other on PPV, that would be great. With that being said, this might actually be a fun match considering with is held under Extreme Rules. It is interesting to see the change of styles from watching younger guys wrestle to two veterans. Sure, the action was slower but the psychology was strong and everything flowed and made sense. Off the bat, they were telling us the story of Orton not being able to match up to the size and strength of Big Show. Not even a kendo stick was enough as Show snapped the stick in half. Show looked dominant and even kicked out of an RKO after Orton escaped Show landing on top of him through a ladder stacked with two chairs on its ends. It kind of diminishes the RKO but it would still pretty cool to see the crowd get so hot for it. Orton then plants another RKO on a chair and plants Show with a punt across his skull. Very cool to see the punt and very cool to see Orton that hyped. Good match that went much better than expected.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: ***

Match 7: WWE Championship - Last Man Standing - John Cena (c) vs. Ryback
For what it is worth, I enjoy watching Ryback. I think he has been great in his role as a heel, much more entertaining than seeing him as a repetitive babyface. This is John's first title defense on PPV coming off his victory at WrestleMania against The Rock. It should also be noted that Cena is nursing an Achilles injury. With that being said, they pulled out alot of objects and cool spots to detract the audience from Ryback's pretty limited offense. These matches tend to drag tremendously but they divided each spot nicely and everything felt like they could be a legit finish from Ryback slamming Cena through a table in a corner, Cena hitting an Attitude Adjustment on Ryback through a table, Cena driving Ryback through the barricade, or another table spot outside in the audience where Cena splashed through Ryback. Felt different to see Cena put in so much offense against Ryback but to not come up with the victory. It was almost as if we saw Cena's role get reversed, it was interesting to watch and you really got the feeling that Ryback had a legit chance. The finish came when Ryback drove Cena through the stage where they ended up crashing in the back. Both were down and the match came to an end. It was a spectacle of a finish with the pyro going off but really annoying to see another false finish. After all, isn't this a Last Man Standing match? Aside from the odd finish, it was another enjoyable Cena Last Man Standing match and one that sets up a rematch in the future.
Winner: n/a
Rating: ***1/2

Match 8: Steel Cage - Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H
This is the rematch from WrestleMania and it is in Triple H's "other office." Triple H attacks Lesnar as Lesnar made his way to the ring and Triple H decks Heyman before the bell rings. They did some cool exchanges early on before Lesnar rammed his knee into the cage. This is where the match takes off, Lesnar does a fantastic job of selling the injury and Triple H uses the injury as a target. Heyman does a great job at ringside as he does his best to root for Lesnar but still shows huge signs of concern for Lesnar's knee. Cool game-changing moment came when Lesnar tried to climb out of the cage but Triple H caught him and nailed his knee with a steel chair that Heyman gave to Lesnar earlier in the match. Triple H then climbed to the top where he grabbed his sledgehammer camouflaged in the metallic steel. Just when things were finally going Triple H's way, Heyman again jumps into the melee and hits a low blow. The hammer then ended up becoming Triple H's downfall as Lesnar drilled Triple H hard in the jaw with it. He then finally landed an F5 for the finish as he wins the rubber match. Lesnar places the hammer on Triple H's unconscious body as Jerry Lawler says, "Live by the sword, die by the sword." Awesome main event with great storytelling featuring two veterans who know just how to work a nicely constructed wrestling match. Much better than their last bout and puts a nice ending to their rivalry.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Rating: ****1/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Decent is the best word for me to describe this show, the two main events are the two things we can easily take out of it. The show relied heavily on the main event and rightfully so, it delivered on what was an average PPV.
Rating: 6/10