Extreme Rules VI

[Greggulator]

What an incredibly weird, bizarre and somewhat insane show. Kudos, WWE, for really going for something completely different and beyond "A lot of matches with weapons shots."

1) The pre-show WeeLC match was a really fun garbage car wreck. That was the only thing they can really hope for with something like that.

2) The Triple Threat match was fun. I didn't know (and I don't thing anyone knew) it was an elimination 3-way. But there were a lot of fun spots in it. That's the only real way to use RVD at this point -- just to have him do his spots and somehow his opponents have to try and put the actual storyline behind it. But it was solid.

3) The BoLieve promo with the pregnancy test is a high-water mark for comedy.

4) The Rusev match was exactly what was predicted. The "slamming Xavier's face against the exposed steel" didn't look as crazy as they thought it probably should have. A little surprised it didn't involve a Double Accolade.

4A) BIG UPS to Lana giving a shout-out to Vladimir Putin. That is so friggin' hilarious cheap heat.

5) Barrett vs. Big E was a really good match between two guys who know what they're doing. They should turn Big E heel, though. Or put him back to NXT for a little bit and bring him back with something else. But solid match.

6) Shield vs. Evolution was straight up Memphis/ECW and awesome. I think it's a shade down from The Shield vs. Wyatts matches -- the Evolution heat segments got a bit tedious at times, whereas those matches were just crazy throughout. But this was still aces. Rollins taking that dive was awesome. I love Ambrose, so much.

7) I imagine Wyatt vs. Cena will be the most polarizing match in ages. I'll write about that separately because I thought that match was really friggin' epic and crazy and not like anything else, ever.

8) Paige and Tamina REALLY went out there trying to steal the show. Good on them. Tamina swinging Paige into the ring railing was awesome. Paige is so, so, so good.

9) The Main Event was an Attitude Era garbage match. That's not exactly something I thought I'd ever see Daniel Bryan in. I think it's the best possible format for a match with Kane, though. The very end, though, with Kane's music and flames was dumb. Bryan won and should have walked out victorious.

[ebbie]

Really, they could've had do a Brie missile dropkick death spot.

 

The main event was built around Stephanie and Brie and they should've gotten involve. But it wasn't the finale of the feud so idk.

[DougN]

DANIEL BRYAN PRESS CONFERENCE. SO GOOD!

[Greggulator]

This Daniel Brayn press conference that's on now is so, so, so great.

[JWLJN]

I'm fairly sure that "Little Johnny" was played by the young actor son of Jameson. They live in Brooklyn, so it's not a stretch.

-J\/\/

[SirSmUgly]

The match layout for Cena/Wyatt was ugly. I get the idea: Cena is reaching in the depths to prove that Hustle, Loyalty, Respect can beat three guys and their weird culty ideas, but when Cena is faced with a kid that has been turned to the dark side, he gets Sister Abigail'd. However, in execution, it was just Cena kicking the shit out of the Wyatts until a cheesy-yet-awesome spot that is the best of its kind since Papa Shango cursed Warrior to bleed goo from his head. 

 

Shield/Evolution picked up when it spilled into the crowd. Seth Rollins almost killed himself for my entertainment, which was super-cool. Fun match.

 

Right now, D-Bry doing a post-match press conference is AWESOME and gives legitimacy to the proceedings. That match was strong, but it went on ten minutes too long. I do think the forklift/headbutt was the perfect finish. I get that they wanted to show that Kane is back to Super-Zombie Kane from years ago, but again, it worked better in theory than in execution.

 

Poor Big E is a good wrestler and did a sweet spear to the outside, but Barrett has so much charisma and a cool gimmick and Big E is just presented as the boring champ dude who gets no mic time. The match was fun, though Big E had better stuff in his reign (like the Swagger match at RR maybe? EC?). 

 

I thought the triple threat was plodding, but Cesaro did a couple cool spots, so it was worth it. Paige did the Scorpion Crosslock! I was happy about that. 

 

Honestly, the pre-show match had some ridiculous bumps for a comedy match and was the most surprisingly pleasant thing on the show. 

[Greggulator]

Bryan explaining how he knows how to use a forklift!!! This is absolutely awesome.

[w. josh]

I just can't imagine anyone successfully defending either the booking or the work in the cage match. Just total garbage with a Black Scorpion-terrifies-Sting-with-magic-tricks ending. Awful, awful stuff.

[Tim Evans]

Can't believe the WeeLC match was the best match of the night. 3MB deserves a tag title reign after the bumps they took in that. Torito was outstanding. Six Man was good to. The main was fine by that cage match was vintage overbooked Cena. Bad storytelling and just too long. It was better than the Mania match though. I wish they would just let Wyatt wrestle without the bullshit. He's not awful and can go in the ring as the Bryan match proved.

[Raziel]

I would've been better with the Black Scorpion Kid if he was only the ending of the match, and they didn't cut the promo inturrupting Paige's post-match celebration to bring Black Scorpion Kid back out, with voice.

[ebbie]

Y'all loving the press conference and all, but I am more impressed with how fast that crowd left the show.

[Hooks]

I thought that the idea that Bryan beat someone who is so hard to keep down made him look strong. 

 

However the post show press conference they just did with Daniel Bryan was nothing short of goofy and awkward and felt weirdly like something you'd see on a low budget show.

 

Edit: And Bray Wyatt, as a character, should not be available to do a press conference. 

[Raziel]

You ain't never been to anything in the IZOD Center, have you?  One of the easiest Arena's to empty actually.   And considering how shitty the lots and train stations at the Meadowlands are, if you don't run out, you're not getting out of there for another 2 hours.

[Libs]

It's frustrating how much better the promos (or press conference in this case) Bryan cuts on WWENETWORK post shows tend to be than the ones on Raw or SD.

From content to charisma, it's almost like a different guy most of the time.

[mco543]

This show was The Lady From Shanghai of pro wrestling events. Maybe not the greatest weird show or weirdest great show ever but it was plain damn weird. I'm amazed at the people who disliked the pre-show match. That was one of the most amazing spectacles of professional wrestling I've ever seen, it was absurdly violent, these big guys were bumping like pinballs for midgets, and it was a midget ladder match played totally 100% straight. I mean come on if you didn't like that you may need to find something else to watch because that was the very definition of what pro wrestling should be.

 

Evolution vs Shield was incredible. Just fucking amazing, Reigns got the win and the shine and Ambrose and Rollins got to do all the cool shit we remember. It's amazing to see Triple H pinball around for Ambrose and Rollins, damn near surreal.

 

Wyatt vs Cena IS going to be the most polarizing match in ages, probably since Hunter/Taker at WM27. I have no idea what to think about it right now, I need to rewatch it. I loved the finish and the addition of the kid because I dig that kinda shit but I have no clue where to even start on the actual match. I don't think any of this hurts Wyatt though because wins and losses really don't (nor shouldn't) matter to his character. Wins and losses matter to wrestlers like Bret Hart, Daniel Bryan, or John Cena whereas Wyatt seems like he just wants to cause anarchy.

 

I know I shouldn't be surprised but I am surprised at how many people think Bryan looks weak and is being buried still.

[Fallacy!]

I've lost count of the number of times I've said "OK, this guy is going to make the Intercontinental Title important again" over the last seven or eight years, but I seriously feel like Bad News Barrett is going to do just that.

[Greggulator]

Okay, here is my review on Wyatt/Cena --

This match wasn't structured like a traditional wrestling match, obviously. This was a classic story format than anything else. It had an introduction, rising action (the villain can't beat Cena on his own so his goons get involved slowly over the match), the superhero who has overcome everything before fighting for his legacy like never before digging down deep, only to get me with the physical manifestation of everything he is fighting for turned against him, leading to his downfall. Then there's the denoument afterwards with the Little Johnny sheep mask promo.

[Raziel]

I've lost count of the number of times I've said "OK, this guy is going to make the Intercontinental Title important again" over the last seven or eight years, but I seriously feel like Bad News Barrett is going to do just that.

Until he gets hurt again.

[JRGoldman]

I thought everything on this PPV was great except for the cage match which was awful. Gregg and I are already fighting about it on twitter. Both guys look worse than they did before the match, and the story they told was mind numbing.

Really? I think Cena looks great coming out of this match. There was about 10 different times where he overcame two of the three Wyatts and basically had the match won.

Bray on the other hand, yeah, he looks like a chump.

Cena looks like a moron who didn't expect interference or have a plan to combat it. He overcomes the odds every week so that doesn't stand out. It looked as though he was terrified of a small child.

[Cristobal]

So...uh....that Shield match was pretty good.

Seriously, when did Russo get hired back?

[S.K.o.S.]

Next month at Payback, Cena vs. Little Johnny.  "Cena is literally beating sense into this child!"

[ebbie]

You ain't never been to anything in the IZOD Center, have you?  One of the easiest Arena's to empty actually.   And considering how shitty the lots and train stations at the Meadowlands are, if you don't run out, you're not getting out of there for another 2 hours.

 

 

Why would I want to go to New Jersey?

 

 

And Barrett doesn't have injury problems. He just can't get a visa that is worth a shit.

[Matt D]

I'm not going to DEFEND the cage match and how it was worked, but it does sort of show how the Wyatt family is one mind, one unit. There's no distance between Bray and his followers, so the fact that they were basically extensions of his will worked for me. Also, the fact that the fans voted against Cena a few weeks ago seemed to open the door for this, to me. I don't know that Wyatt looked weak so much as the Wyatt family looked strong. Yeah, Cena overcame the odds at the end, but that's what he does. He's Cena. It's part of his narrative. The whole match they basically dominated him and then they broke the Cena narrative with a cunning plan.

 

Works for me.

[Cristobal]

I'd like to imagine that Little Johnny is Little Jimmy's visible, possessed cousin.

[Greggulator]

For the "Cena always overcomes the odds" criticism -- So does Spiderman, Superman, etc. So did Hogan. He's the WWE's superhero. He's there to overcome the odds. But this time, it was one too many.