Brock Lesnar’s Great Balls of Fire opponent revealed, someone actually won in their hometown,
and who needs shovels?
Bayley just got buried with a kendo stick.
I’m Oli Davis, and this Extreme Rules 2017...in about 4 minutes.
Kalisto beat Apollo Crews Apollo Crews and Kalisto actually had a pretty
exciting match on the kickoff show.
It’s crazy what happens when you give very talented wrestlers more than three minutes.
Kalisto beat Crews yet again because of Titus O’Neil’s over-managing at ringside.
The Miz beat Dean Ambrose There’s no better way to telegraph Dean
Ambrose no longer being champion than Michael Cole saying ‘Dean Ambrose is currently WWE’s
longest running champion’ on commentary before the match.
With the title being able to change hands on a DQ, Miz made attempt after attempt to
get Ambrose disqualified.
In the end, though, it was a relatively clean finish with Miz hitting the Skull Crushing
Finale on a distracted Ambrose.
This was a fun match, despite often tripping up over its own stipulation, with an excellent
performance from referee John Cone.
Rich Swann & Sasha Banks vs Noam Dar & Alicia Fox
Sasha Banks and Baltimore-born Rich Swann beat Noam Dar and Alicia Fox in a fun throwaway
bout.
Yes, you heard that correctly.
Someone won in their hometown!
I hope you enjoyed that, Baltimore...
Elias Samson Performance ...because now you’re going to get three
minutes of Elias Samson insulting your city through the medium of douchebag acoustic guitar.
This segment was purely to get heat on The Drifter, as no babyfaces came to the city’s
rescue.
Because, as this night made clear, WWE doesn’t care about good guys.
Alexa Bliss beat Bayley Before her match, Bayley buried Alexa Bliss’s
This Is Your Life segment to Generic Backstage Interviewer No. 4.
Unfortunately, she followed this up by winning the ‘Most Awkward Pop Culture Reference
of the Show’ award, boasting that she’s seen Wonder Woman, and that it’s empowered
her to overcome a bully.
Bayley might want to rewatch that movie, as Alexa Bliss crushed her in just over five
minutes, with The Hugger not once getting to use the kendo stick, despite promising
to get extreme every week of their build.
Bayley has been very poorly handled on the main roster, but the Bliss feud - losing the
title in her hometown, the awful This Is Your Life segment and now being dominated in a
match stipulation she called for - has put her character on life support.
It’s going to take a long time to build her up again.
Sheamaro beat Hardy Boyz The tag team title match started awkwardly,
with the four men failing to find their groove.
Midway through, though, they artificially created a hot tag scenario, having Jeff escape
the cage first and leaving Matt to fight off both Sheamus and Cesaro.
Brother Nero eventually hit a Whisper in the Wind off the top of the cage.
But that was their downfall, as Sheamaro climbed up and over before Matt and Jeff made it through
the door.
The Hardys pick up their first loss since their WWE return in what ended up as a really
fun match.
Neville beat Austin Aries Neville vs Austin Aries was the perfect match
to follow the tag team cage fight - just as entertaining, but from a more ground-based
style.
And after their anti-climactic showings at Wrestlemania and Payback, they finally had
the match the two men deserved.
Aries sold his knee, Neville tapped - but outside the ring - and, finally, Aries submitted
in the Rings of Saturn after a brutal Red Arrow.
This makes Neville look incredibly strong, still coming out on top of a three match programme.
Aries seems set for a character revamp.
Samoa Joe beat Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt & Finn Balor
The Fatal 5-Way main event really was excellent.
From the opening foreplay of Roman Reigns standing in the middle of the ring stretching
while the other four fought amongst themselves, to the heel alliance between Samoa Joe and
Bray Wyatt.
Bray, in particular, looked incredible - tensely outsmarting Joe, first introducing the chair
and hyping the crowd.
The final five minutes were great, Reigns spearing Joe and Finn Balor into the timekeeper’s
area, and Seth Rollins hitting a Frog Splash off the top rope on Bray through an announcer’s
table - leaving the former Shield brothers standing tall to fight each other.
Stories and character arcs were told through the action, the match itself having an intriguing
narrative, ending when Joe choked out Balor in the Coquina Clutch.
Given how well Balor has been put over on Raw recently - especially considering Paul
Heyman’s endorsement promo - I would’ve preferred he didn’t take the fall.
So that was Extreme Rules in about four minutes.
Here’s Raw’s usual ratings recap, from top to bottom - In Awe, Cor, AVRAWGE, Poor
and Bore.
I’ll reveal my rating very shortly, but first, vote in the poll above my head to give
yours.
I’ll announce the results in tomorrow’s WrestleTalk News.
Only one babyface act won on the main Extreme Rules card, with the heels going over in every
other match.
Neville and Alexa retained, while Miz and Sheamaro won belts.
And the main event effectively set up heel Brock Lesnar vs heel Samoa Joe.
All five champions on Raw are now held by bad guys.
And of the 13 belts across Raw, Smackdown and NXT, 12 are with heels.
Naomi is the only face champion in WWE right now.
Good guys always work better when they’re chasing the belts, but this still shows how
poor WWE are at booking and building babyfaces right now.
That’s not to say Extreme Rules wasn’t an enjoyable show, though, with only the Women’s
match being below average, and the last three bouts - particularly the main event - being
very, very fun.
Extreme Rules 2017 was Cor.
Does Randy Orton have a point with the ...Dive debate?
Find out in the latest episode of WrestleRamble.
And WWE have their sights on yet another top Ring of Honor wrestler.
Find out who by clicking the videos to the left, press subscribe and support WrestleTalk
on Patreon.
I’ve been Oli Davis and that was wrestling.