WWE Extreme Rules 2018 Review

Happy Rusev Day! The long reign as WWE Champion for AJ Styles looks to be in jeopardy as Rusev finally gets his opportunity to win the big one. On the Raw side of things, Roman Reigns meets his match against Bobby Lashley while Seth Rollins looks to regain his Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler in one of the most anticipated matches of the year!

Match 1: WWE Raw Tag Team Championships - Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt (c) vs. The B-Team
Billing themselves as The Deleter of Worlds, Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt take their undefeated record against Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel of The B-Team. Good action to start the show with the crowd invested in both teams, the new gimmick has certainly given a new life to both Dallas and Axel. Dallas is able to pin Hardy to pick up the win for his team as he hands Hardy and Wyatt their first loss as a team. Decent opener that gives The B-Team their big moment and could possibly set up a breakup for The Deleter of Worlds.
Winners: The B-Team
Rating: **1/4

Match 2: Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
Why they got to make Baron Corbin wrestle in that outfit? Anyway, the blood between he and Finn Balor has boiling for weeks as they go up against each other here in the second match of the night. Balor does a great job in playing the undersized guy here with Corbin using his size and power as the advantage. However, Balor is able to quickly roll Corbin up to secure the win. Fairly short match that served its purpose. Just can't help but feel like their talents are being wasted, think at this point, Balor would fit much better on SmackDown.
Winner: Finn Balor
Rating: **1/4

Match 3: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Carmella (c) vs. Asuka
With James Ellsworth being held up high in a shark cage, Carmella won't be having any help tonight against Asuka... right? The story behind this one was basically about Ellsworth being locked in the cage and tossing Carmella objects for her to take out Asuka with. The action in the ring in the meantime was pretty sloppy as they certainly added all the bells and whistles to make sure this wouldn't be a complete mess. Ellsworth unlocks the cage door but gets himself caught up in the cage and then hangs upside down while Asuka goes to town on him with strikes. However, Carmella is able to push an unexpected Asuka face first into the shark cage and escapes with another fluke win. Welp, if you're gonna have Carmella go over again, that's the way to do it. Despite the match being a bit of a mess, I'm still interested to see where the feud takes us leading into Summerslam.
Winner: Carmella
Rating: *1/4

Match 4: WWE United States Championship - Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Quick note, am I the only person who wants Jeff Hardy to use his entrance music from 2008-2009? Before the bell rings, Shinsuke Nakamura hits Hardy with a low blow and follows it up with a Kinshasa as soon as the bell rang. Nakamura is the new United States Champion. There is 10 matches on the card so one match had to bite the bullet and it just so happened to be this one. Was looking forward to seeing these two square off but this made sense. And also... I love Nakamura as a heel and find it hilarious when he hits someone with a low blow. Afterwards, Randy Orton comes out and gives another low blow to Hardy. Nakamura watches in both confusion and fear. We can all agree that both Nakamura and Orton got the easiest paychecks of their lives for this. Hardy, on the other hand...
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura
Rating: n/a

Match 5: Steel Cage - Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens
Let me just say, I absolutely love the feud these two are having and a steel cage match here is the perfect spot for them to be. I don't think there is anyone more entertaining right now than these two, especially Kevin Owens. The look of fear in his eyes whenever he sees Strowman is just fantastic. Of course, Strowman is having his way with Owens here before a couple mishaps on the part of Strowman turned the tides. Eventually, Owens handcuffed Strowman to the top rope as Owens then hilariously teased Strowman as he tried to escape. However, Strowman breaks the cuffs and chases Owens to the top of the cage where he then tosses him off the cage and through one of the announcers tables. That. Was. Awesome. Owens took one of the sweetest dives off the top cage I have ever seen. Afterwards, Strowman sarcastically announces Owens as the winner before walking away. That match was everything it needed to be in the short time they were allotted. As a matter of fact, I think adding any more time to it would cause the match to drag on. Not only does this give Kevin Owens his fluke win to brag about, but it helps Strowman continue to look like an absolute monster. So far, this is easily the match of the night.
Winner: Kevin Owens
Rating: ***1/2

Match 6: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships - The Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs. Team Hell No
Earlier on in the night, The Bludgeon Brothers attacked Team Hell No from behind and injured Kane with one of their hammers. With that, Daniel Bryan looked to be fighting on his own and held it down before Kane finally came out to try and help his partner in need. Of course, Kane had a boot on his leg and struggled to find his way around the match despite delivering a couple Chokeslams. Once The Bludgeon Brothers took Kane out of the match, it left a helpless Daniel Bryan to fend for himself but eventually came up short. Another smart booking decision with Team Hell No having their out for the loss. They still have a lot of steam behind them and hopefully, a bigger rematch at Summerslam is in the works.
Winners: The Bludgeon Brothers
Rating: **1/2

Match 7: Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley
A bit surprised this isn't going on last for the night, probably a smart decision based on what happened at Backlash with Roman Reigns. I know I am probably in the minority here, but this was a match I was certainly looking forward to as the feud that turned personal grabbed my interest. Despite the annoying crowd trying to hijack the match again, surprised they weren't chanting CM Punk, the guy these fans just can't seem to get over for whatever reason. Putting that side, the two beat the hell out of each other here and their similar styles worked well against each other. While the whole match itself didn't have me on the ropes, the last couple minutes were great with Reigns hitting a Superman Punch on Lashley as he was on the top rope. However, Reigns went for a Spear but was instead met with a bigger one from Lashley. Lashley quickly pinned Reigns to get the biggest win of his career in over 10 years. Great match that will hopefully lead to Lashley challenging Brock Lesnar for his Universal Championship at Summerslam. Very surprising clean win over Reigns here, just confusing to see where his character is going. Are they all in on Reigns or not?
Winner: Bobby Lashley
Rating: ***1/2

Match 8: WWE Raw Women's Championship - Extreme Rules - Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax
In a WrestleMania rematch, we see Alexa Bliss once again defending her Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax. This time, however, it is an Extreme Rules match and Ronda Rousey is watching from her seat at ringside. Jax is easily dominating Bliss once again and tossing her around like a toy exactly how she did at WrestleMania. However, once Mickie James came to the side of Bliss, that's when things got hectic. Rousey would go on to insert herself into the match and get her hands on Bliss before James whacked her with a kendo stick. Bliss then beat down Jax in the ring with a steel chair before hitting a DDT to her on a steel chair. Bliss escapes with the win and sets up a big match against Rousey at Summerslam. Good for what it was and like I said, helps set up a bigger match down the line for Bliss against Rousey.
Winner: Alexa Bliss
Rating: *1/2

Match 9: WWE Championship - AJ Styles (c) vs. Rusev
Silly me, here I was thinking the WWE Championship would main event the PPV. Can someone remind me the last time AJ Styles closed out a PPV? Anyway, Rusev finally gets his day and his first crack at the richest prize in the business today... or is it the Universal Championship? Crowd is definitely into both guys and the good news here, they brought the goodies tonight. Roller coaster of a match that saw Styles work his way around the bigger Rusev by targeting one of Rusev's legs. Rusev did a great job in selling the onslaught and later had trouble applying his Accolade submission because of it. Aiden English did his best to help his partner but ended up spinning things around for himself and Rusev as a removed turnbuckle pad would go on to help Styles. Styles was able to kick English out of the way and hit a Phenomenal Forearm to retain the gold. Believable nearfalls, fast action and smart wrestling here made this another great outing for the champion on his long title reign on the top. Here's hoping his reign continues, would love to see him match Lesnar's reign so he can also top Punk's reign from a few years ago.
Winner: AJ Styles
Rating: ****

Match 10: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Iron Man - Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Seth Rollins
Can someone tell me when the last time the Intercontinental Championship closed out a PPV? That would be a pretty interesting fact. 30 minutes are on the clock as Seth Rollins looks to score some revenge against the man who took the title away from him. Accompanied to the ring by the big Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler easily has the advantage. However, two fast pins from Rollins leads to McIntyre inserting himself in the picture and beating down Rollins. The referee gives Rollins another fall but it doesn't matter, Ziggler would easily catch up before eventually taking the lead. Keep in mind, the crowd is counting down the clock throughout the match as if it were a Royal Rumble match. The two guys in the ring look visibly upset over it and for damn good reason. Rollins would go on to tie it and nearly scoring the win with a Curb Stomp before the final buzzer went off right when he was going to make the pin. Pittsburgh's own Kurt Angle then comes out to declare that the match would go into a sudden death overtime. However, a distraction from McIntyre led to Ziggler hitting Rollins with a Zig Zag as Ziggler would quickly win the contest a few seconds after it was restarted. Look, it's 2018 and most crowds have a habit of being smarky in attempts to put themselves over. As much as I love wrestling, these long matches just don't do the trick in the world of the WWE. Attention spans have become much thinner and with Raw being 3 hours long, it feels like many of these matches are recycled. While it was still a great match from an in-ring standpoint, there is definitely many reasons for the WWE to get back to the drawing board.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Rating: ***3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
No knock on the city of Pittsburgh, but I really hope the WWE doesn't do any PPVs in the city in the near future. They were quiet for the good parts and when they were chanting, it mainly to get themselves over. I get it, you pay for a ticket and you have the right to chant what you want. However, at some point, pay some damn respect for the wrestlers you paid to see and for the fans who actually WANT to enjoy the show. With that being said, the show was still fun to watch with a couple standout moments being Strowman tossing Owens off the top of the cage and the great WWE Championship match. But let's face facts, the show was 4 hours long and featured 10 matches with an extra two coming from the pre-show. If the Iron Man match wasn't ant indication, nobody has the patience for this anymore. Like I said, I enjoyed the show for the most part but this is definitely a matter that needs to be addressed in the near future.
Rating: 6.75/10