5 Things that shouldn't happen at WWE Extreme Rules 2019

The 2019 WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view takes place at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Sunday, July 14.

A total of 10 matches have been announced for the event, including Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans (‘Winners Take All’ Extreme Rules match for the Universal Championship and Raw Women’s Championship).

The Undertaker will also return to action as Roman Reigns’ tag team partner in a No Holds Barred match against Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre, while Samoa Joe is set to challenge Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship.

The rest of the title matches are as follows: Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross (SmackDown Women’s Championship), Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese (Cruiserweight Championship), Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs. The New Day vs. Heavy Machinery (SmackDown Tag Team titles), The Revival vs. The Usos (Raw Tag Team titles), Ricochet vs. AJ Styles (United States Championship).

Elsewhere, Aleister Black will face the man who knocked on his door on SmackDown Live, Cesaro, and Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman are going to collide in a Last Man Standing match.

In this article, let’s take a look at five things that should not happen at the PPV.

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#5 The Bobby Lashley vs. Braun Strowman match

Cody Rhodes revealed before AEW Fyter Fest that he was advised not to compete in a one-on-one match against Darby Allin because fans were still talking about his previous one-on-one match against Dustin Rhodes at Double or Nothing.

Well, the announcement that Bobby Lashley and Braun Strowman will face each other in a Last Man Standing match at Extreme Rules fits into the same category.

Following a relatively underwhelming month-long storyline, Strowman sent Lashley crashing through the Raw stage last week, causing multiple explosions, and it looked as though “The Monster Among Men” had been written off television after WWE reported that he suffered a possible ruptured spleen and separated pelvis.

The next match between Lashley and Strowman will be must-see and Last Man Standing is the perfect stipulation, but is it not a little too soon after the Raw explosion for these two to meet again?

#4 Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese on the main show

This might be an unpopular opinion, given that the Cruiserweight Championship matches are often among the best of the night at PPVs, but Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese is the perfect match to take place on the Extreme Rules kickoff show.

In 2018, the kickoff shows for the majority of WWE events felt like they could be skipped, not only because the video packages for the important matches were repeated during the main show, but also because the kickoff show match often had nothing riding on it.

This year, especially over the last three months, WWE seems to have taken a new approach regarding the kickoff show, with meaningful matches including Gulak vs. Nese vs. Akira Tozawa (Stomping Grounds), The Usos vs. Daniel Bryan & Rowan (Money In The Bank) and Nese vs. Buddy Murphy (WrestleMania 35) taking place before the main PPV.

If the aim of the free-to-air kickoff show is to give casual fans a reason to watch the full PPV, then Gulak vs. Nese is well-suited to that spot.

#3 Shenanigans in the Aleister Black vs. Cesaro match

Aleister Black formed a two-month tag team partnership with Ricochet in February 2019, leading to them unsuccessfully challenging for the Raw, SmackDown and NXT Tag Team titles in a six-day span during WrestleMania week.

Since their post-Mania split, Ricochet has achieved success by winning the United States Championship as a member of the Raw roster, while Black has shown a darker side to his character on SmackDown Live by encouraging somebody to knock on his door and challenge him to a fight.

It was revealed on Tuesday that Cesaro knocked on Black’s door last week, setting up a match between the two men at Extreme Rules.

Given that this is the first time that “The Dutch Destroyer” has competed in a televised match in three months, this feels like the perfect opportunity for both him and Cesaro to showcase their incredible talents in a Match of the Night contender which has a clear winner.

With nine other matches scheduled for Extreme Rules, there are plenty of other disqualification, countout and shenanigan-filled finishes that could happen throughout the night, but Black vs. Cesaro should not be one of them.

#2 Sasha Banks helps Bayley

In WWE’s storylines, Sasha Banks faced members of The Riott Squad in 17 televised matches from April 2018 to December 2018, despite the fact that Women’s Tag Team titles did not exist at the time and the majority of their matches were largely meaningless.

In reality, The Revival’s Scott Dawson revealed in a ‘WWE Now’ interview before WrestleMania 35 that he watched Banks and her tag team partner, Bayley, wait outside Vince McMahon’s door on a weekly basis in 2018 in an attempt to convince him to introduce Women’s Tag Team titles.

That wish finally came to fruition for The Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection in February 2019 when they won the titles at Elimination Chamber. However, their reign abruptly ended after 49 days when they lost to The IIconics in a Fatal 4-Way match at WrestleMania 35, and Banks has been missing from WWE television ever since.

The current story between Bayley and Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross appears as though it is all set up for Banks to return and align with “The Hugger” again, but wouldn’t it be much better if we saw “The Boss” attack her best friend to kick-start a SmackDown Women’s Championship rivalry instead?

#1 Brock Lesnar wins the Universal Championship

Let’s be realistic, Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans are not going to defeat Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch to become the new Universal and Raw Women’s champions.

On-screen and off-screen, Rollins and Lynch are being portrayed as WWE’s newest power couple, while Corbin and Evans are doing better-than-expected jobs as heels on Raw but they do not feel worthy of being in PPV main events at this stage, let alone being the top two champions on WWE’s flagship show.

With that being said, if the Universal Championship does change hands at Extreme Rules, then Money In The Bank holder Brock Lesnar seems a more probable winner of the title than Corbin, especially after Paul Heyman's 'spoiler' that his client will cash-in on either Rollins or Kofi Kingston on Sunday.

Needless to say, following two part-time Universal Championship reigns which totalled 660 days, the WWE Universe would be very unhappy if “The Beast” reclaimed Raw’s main male title from Rollins.