WWE Extreme Rules 2017

WWE Extreme Rules 2017

Baltimore, Maryland - June 2017

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Brock Lesnar is the Universal Champion, Dean Ambrose is the Intercontinental Champion, the RAW Tag Team Champions are the Hardy Boys, and Alexa Bliss is the RAW Women's Champion.

COMMENTATORS: Michael Cole, Booker T, and Corey Graves

Extreme Rules begins with a match where fighting by extreme rules will actually cost the champion his title - Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz for Ambrose's Intercontinental Championship. As countless writers noted, this match could be over in the first three seconds if Miz took one for the team and let Maryse waffle him with a chair. Instead, the bell rings and Ambrose takes The Miz to the mat with a side headlock. EXXTREEM!1!! They trade wristlocks before the action spills to the outside and Ambrose, knowing full well that it will cost him his title, nonsensically pulls a chair into the match only to immediately drop it. Miz tries to use it himself, but the ref stops that too. I don't understand the logic of Ambrose even teasing weapon usage in clear view of the ref, but I'm trying not to nitpick too much. Back in the ring, Miz takes control, hitting a great-looking kick to the face and then following it up minutes later with three dropkicks in the corner and his signature clothesline. Miz looks to have things nearly wrapped up but Ambrose counters an ill-advised forearm smash from the top rope. Miz rolls to the outside and Ambrose connects with an elbow to the arena floor that draws a much milder applause that it warranted. Ambrose busts out a fisherman's suplex for two as Miz rolls towards the corner to speak to Maryse. Swinging neckbreaker for another two count. Later, Miz wisely tries to trick Ambrose into DQing himself by exposing a turnbuckle, but Ambrose doesn't bite - and eats a Daniel Bryan-esque running knee to the face. Miz adds some Yes Kicks, the crowd not necessarily cheering Miz as much as popping for the move itself. Ambrose counters with a figure four that Miz sells terribly before breaking up by grabbing the bottom rope. Both guys are hobbling with damaged knees and Miz demands Maryse to slap him! Maryse does it, but the ref doesn't buy the treachery! With the ref focusing on Maryse, Miz shoves the Lunatic into the ref and the referee is pissed, blaming it on Ambrose. The ref is about to DQ him but Miz connects with the Skull-Crushing Finale! Not an all-time great match or anything, but above average, with a solid sequence to wrap things up. (3/5)

A Money in the Bank commercial and then its time for tonight's 205 Live showcase, a mixed tag match with Noam Dar and Alicia Fox going up against Sasha Banks and Rich Swann. Banks and Fox take the first part of the match and though I'm a fan of both, they don't necessarily have the best chemistry. Things pick up a bit when Dar and Swann come in, especially when they start exchanging haymakers and clotheslines. Banks hits double knees to Dar on the floor and Swann follows it up with a Pheonix Splash to pop his hometown crowd! Too short to be called good, but no worse than your average TV match. (2.5/5)

"The Drifter" Elias Samson appears in the ring to serenade the crowd with a dark country tune about himself. I want to like this gimmick because I like the idea of adding variety to the landscape, but what's the hook here? In WCW, the 400 pound Maxx Payne would play the "Star-Spangled Banner" on a sick flying V and it was ridiculous in a good way. Jeff Jarrett was an over-the-top country singer with light-up clothes. Elias Samson is a "drifter," somber and mysterious, but its a one-note act to me because his singing isn't terrible enough to be funny or virtuosic enough to be interesting. No extra point awarded and none taken away.

The RAW Womens' Championship was on the line next - Alexa Bliss defending against (the surprisingly unpopular) Bayley in a Kendo Stick-on-a-Pole Match. The women waste no time going after the Kendo Stick, Bayley taking control of it after taking Bliss out on the outside of the ring. Before Bayley can put it to use, though, Bliss spears here and grabs the stick herself, leveling Bayley with multiple shots to the back and at least one that looked like it rocked her pretty hard on the back of the neck. Bayley counters with a Bayley-to-Belly but can't make the cover as a small "Bayley" chant starts up. Bliss continues to use the stick on her opponent and then takes her out with a 100% clean DDT. Huh. I would've liked to see Bayley suffer a bit more if you're going to try to sell that Bliss only won because she controlled the Kendo Stick and destroyed her opponent with it. There's simply no way a male talent would lose without some sort of "bigger spot" and Bayley deserves equal booking consideration. (1/5)

The cage is set up and its time for some tag team warfare - former champions Sheamus and Cesaro challenging the WWE Tag Team Champion Hardy Boyz. This is an outright brawl with both teams trying to use the cage walls to their advantage. A "Brother Nero" chant starts up but is silenced by the Euros trying to escape. As is somewhat typical of these sorts of matches, there are some noticeable lapses in logic - the brawnier Sheamus trying to escape the cage when the door would be easier, any point in which a Hardy opts to execute a high-flying maneuver from atop the cage rather than drop to the arena floor and win, Hardy literally standing next to an open door and deciding to hit an "Air Hardy" instead of walk through it, at one point Sheamus hitting a double powerbomb on both Jeff Hardy and Sheamus because...? Matt Hardy ends up straddling the wall but Cesaro pulls him down and into a Rolling Senton by Sheamus. The former champs take over for the next stretch, rocking the Hardys into the cell wall but almost costing themselves the match by hoisting Jeff Hardy nearly to the very top. Solid comeback sequence from the Hardys allows them a chance to climb up the cage walls, but the Euros catch them at the very top. Cesaro holds Jeff Hardy by a single arm, but he eventually escapes and goes to the floor - unfortunately for the Hardys, the match now becomes a 2-on-1 affair as Matt needs to escape in order for his team to win the match (a key point that should've been made clear on commentary much, much earlier to help explain why, at various points, guys ignored an open cage door). Matt goes to the top but is beaten up by Cesaro and Sheamus and a tug of war ensues over his somewhat lifeless body. Cesaro and Sheamus team up and hit a double powerbomb on Matt and then, when Jeff tries to make the save, Sheamus delivers a Brogue Kick to the door to finish him off. Matt manages to hit a Twist of Fate on Sheamus and pulls Cesaro off the cage wall, but as he tries to escape one last time, the Swiss Superman hits him with a big uppercut in the corner. White Noise from the top rope! Matt Hardy looks to be completely out...but Jeff Hardy is back awake and climbing the cage! Hardy connects with a Whisper in the Wind from the top of the cage onto Sheamus and Cesaro and the crowd lets him hear it with a "Holy Shit" chant and then a "This is Awesome" chant as well. Matt is back up and trying to pull Jeff toward the door, but Sheamus and Cesaro escape over the cage wall before Matt can pull Jeff all the way through. Fun, better than average match that owed some of its entertainment value to a crowd that was fully invested. (3/5)

The next match may have been the sleeper of the night - in that half the crowd was either already asleep or falling asleep at the start of it. Neville and Aries worked hard and execution-wise, there may not have been a better performance by anyone all night, but no matter what these guys busted out - and they busted out some seriously cool moves - the audience was fairly indifferent to the action. Aries tweaked his knee and then suffered an injury to his left arm, Neville going after both limbs and, between strikes, working hard to get the crowd to hate on him (though only rousing up slight jeers). Neville went for a dropkick but Aries was able to counter it into a figure four and, for the second time tonight, we had both guys selling knee damage. After missing a big dropkick from the top rope, Neville locked in the Rings of Saturn, but Aries was able to get his foot to the ropes as the crowd...booed? I'm not sure if the Baltimore audience was being purposefully contrarian with their treatment of Bayley and Aries, but at least it was somewhat of a reaction. Moments later, Aries applied the Rings himself and the crowd didn't bite at all. Move-for-move, hold-for-hold, this was no worse than average, but the crowd never exploded - even when Aries scored an excellent visual win by applying the Last Chancery on the outside of the ring, a moment that would've and should've got a much bigger reaction. Neville fought off Aries' attempt to pull him back in the ring but ate a huge discus forearm for his troubles. Aries seemed like he was in control, but Neville dodged a bullet when Aries crashed to the floor on an ill-conceived dive. Neville connected with his Red Arrow and tapped Aries out with the Rings to cement his status as the King of the Cruisers. A dead crowd dropped this one into below average range for me and it didn't help that the finish was so definitive that I'm not sure Aries has an in-ring WWE career left. (2/5)

Great Balls of Fire is coming in July. I did not want to believe the WWE would call one of their Network Specials this until I saw it officially on TV, but here we are. It is real and it is real stupid. 

Main event time - Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins for a shot at Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship. In terms of entrances, Balor got the biggest reaction while Reigns got the most boos, everyone else earning somewhat mixed or lukewarm responses regardless of their heel/face role. In a brilliant move to start the match, Reigns stood in the center of the ring simply standing around and drawing heat before he finally went at it with Wyatt, who got cheered for the little bit of offense he was able to hit Reigns with. A number of great spots early - Balor taking out four men at once by taking to the air, Joe cutting off Reigns' drive-by attempt - weren't enough to silence a loud "We Want Tables" chant by minute 5. Wyatt and Joe teamed up for a brief spell, taking out Reigns to the delight of the crowd before targeting Balor. Graves pointed out the inevitability of a split, but that didn't necessarily explain Seth Rollins, for the second time in the match, breaking up a beatdown by Wyatt and Joe. After eating a DDT on the steps, Rollins was back incapacitated, and Balor, who had mounted a bit of a comeback against Joe was put down too by a Bray Wyatt chair shot. Wyatt teased hitting Joe with the chair too, but opted to inflict more punishment on Balor instead (with even more help from Joe). Reigns, who had also taken a chair shot earlier, broke back into the match like a house afire, hitting Wyatt with a drive-by, powerbombing Balor, and then taking out Joe with a big boot. Reigns' dominance was short-lived, though, as Wyatt hit him with a chokeslam into the edge of the announce table, a spot that looks way, way nastier when the table doesn't break. It was now Rollins turn to take on the heavies, hitting them with a double blockbuster. When Rollins tried to follow with a suicide dive on both men, Wyatt shoved Joe into harm's way, signalling the end of their alliance and segueing into a Wyatt/Rollins stretch that culminated with Wyatt hitting the Sister Abigail but prevented from the win by an angry Samoa Joe. This is when the match really got great - first, Finn Balor took everyone out (save Rollins) with chair shots, drop kicks, and, in the case of Roman Reigns, a punt kick that looked like it rearranged his face. Joe locked in a kokina clutch to slow him down, but Reigns came out of nowhere to tackle both men through a wall for a "Holy Shit" chant. Meanwhile, Rollins came flying through the air with a frog splash onto Wyatt through a table. This was the carnage that the crowd wanted. Back in the ring, Reigns hit his Superman Punch on Rollins for 2, unable to put him out. Minutes later, Wyatt would enter the picture for a nifty Sister Abigail-teasing sequence as Reigns went on a rampage, taking out just about everyone in succession until Finn Balor was able to connect with a Slingblade and then a Coup De Gras. Before he could make the count, though, Joe locked on the Kokina Crutch and choked him out for the win. Very good match and easily the Match of the Night but not necessarily must watch. (3.5/5)


Extreme Rules 2017 was an unsubstantial show in terms of delivering great matches, but was undoubtedly significant in laying out the WWE landscape for the summer. Samoa Joe will challenge (and I'm going to go out on a limb and say  lose to) Brock Lesnar on July 9th. I'm predicting a Finn Balor/Bray Wyatt feud in the works, a pairing they've been teasing for a little bit now (though, on RAW it looked like Wyatt was going to feud with Seth Rollins). Bayley doesn't look like she'll be contending for the RAW Women's Championship again anytime soon, so by SummerSlam I'm guessing we'll be seeing Banks/Bliss. The IC and Tag Title divisions are somewhat wide open with acts like The Drifter and Enzo and Cass on their periphery. On the plus side, the Hardys could be gearing up to re-enact their #Broken storyline and, with all three members back on the same brand, I wouldn't toss out a Shield Reunion as a potential angle for the summer. All of these pieces and parts were, to varying degrees, alluded to, but to get there, Extreme Rules didn't offer a single match worth seeking out - which is disappointing because storyline development and well-executed, well-conceived matches aren't mutually exclusive. With a Kwang Score of 2.5 out of 5...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver