Numbers are always the first thing that we look into whenever we want to preview a wrestling pay-per-view. Thanks to the rich history that the World Wrestling Entertainment has, it is not so hard to come up with interesting facts and stats about a particular annual show. The 2016 edition of Extreme Rules will be no different from this trend.
With a stacked card in place, WWE seems destined to deliver the goods on Sunday night, but before that, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a look at some of the facts and stats that would improve one’s viewing experience. So with that said, here are some of those numbers and interesting facts you might’ve missed out.
John Cena record
The absence of John Cena will be a big blow for this year’s Extreme Rules. Not only does his star power contribute to the pay-per-view but he has been also one of the most standout performers since the inception of it. In fact, this will be the first Extreme Rules PPV that Cena will miss (or will he?). The pay-per-view first was introduced back in 2009 and Cena competed in all the show till 2015.
That is, in case you were having trouble with the numbers, seven matches. And out of those seven, Cena won five, which also makes him the superstar with most wins at Extreme Rules. During his run, Cena competed in two last man standing matches, 2 steel cage matches, and 3 main events.
Can Dean Ambrose continue his run?
Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho will face off in the first-ever Asylum match in WWE. The fans will be eager to know how WWE is going to plan out the same as the format is extremely new to the WWE Universe. While we are not clear about the booking decisions that WWE has in mind, one thing that we do know is the track record of Dean Ambrose in Extreme Rules.
He has taken part in three Extreme Rules pay-per-views and Ambrose went on to win in all three of them. His first win came against Kofi Kingston back in 2013 and it kick started his record-breaking United States title run. His second win came as part of the Shield when they defeated Evolution in 2014 and the last win came against Luke Harper. Hopefully, Ambrose will be able to continue his streak on Sunday.
Numbers prefer Roman Reigns
The WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight championship (Now, that both are unified) have been defended on 12 separate occasions at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view with the first title defense coming from Randy Orton in 2009 and the last by Seth Rollins in 2015.
In between these two, there has been a total of 12 and on seven occasions, the champion retained the championship. That is, nearly 70 percent of the numbers favor Reigns to retain the title. The list of champions who successfully defended the title include names like John Cena , Jack Swagger, Sheamus, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins. When the champions who lost the title include names like Edge, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, and the Miz, who we will look into next.
Bad Luck for The Miz
Just like the stat with the WWE Champions, the Intercontinental Champions haven’t had a good time at Extreme Rules as well. As Miz will be defending his title against Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and Cesaro at this year’s Extreme Rules, he will have to break a big trend if he is to walk out of the show with the title around his waist (or shoulder for that matter).
The Intercontinental title has been defended on three separate occasions at the show and all three champions dropped their title to the challenger. Rey Mysterio, Big Show and Big E were those unfortunate Intercontinental Champions and Miz could be added to this list if a new champion is crowned.
The Kevin Owens achievement
One of the most interesting stat about this year’s Extreme Rules involves Kevin Owens. Owens, who made his debut last year around this time, featured in all the major pay-per-views in his first year on the main roster. It is a rare achievement and the only other wrestler who holds the same is none other than the legendary Undertaker.
If we recall, Jim Cornette once took a shot at Owens and said that he can on wrestle in front of 200 people throughout his career. The rise of Owens has now silenced all of his critics like Cornette and hopefully, the road would be much greener for Owens going forward.
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