What’s the story?
It has been confirmed that one of the highlights of the WWE pay-per-view calendar will be WWE Extreme Rules, a RAW exclusive event that will take place at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.
The date for the event is June 4, and tickets will go on sale this coming Sunday from Ticketmaster. The date of the event was already known but it wasn’t clear whether the show would be a RAW or SmackDown Live event, but WWE’s confirmation has put an end to that discussion.
In case you didn’t know...
The annual Extreme Rules pay-per-view came into being in 2009 but the seeds for the event were planted in the years previous with the initial ECW One Night Stand event and its subsequent follow-ups.
The show has become one of the highlights of the WWE calendar and has played host to many fantastic matches and shocking returns over the years, from Brock Lesnar and John Cena’s wild brawl in 2012 all the way up to Seth Rollins’ return at the climax of last year’s event.
The heart of the matter
The return of the brand split in the summer of 2016 left the status of many of the pay-per-views up in the air. Fans speculated that the more popular secondary events such as Extreme Rules and Money in the Bank could continue to be dual-brand shows but this news all but puts an end to that hope.
SmackDown Live will run the Money in the Bank pay-per-view two weeks after Extreme Rules on June 18th in St. Louis, Missouri, meaning that the blue show will have had both Money in the Bank and Elimination Chamber in 2017.
It remains to be seen whether this is going to change every year or whether Extreme Rules will be a red show until the end of the split, but what we do know is that in 2017, it will feature Reigns, Joe, Owens etc. in a variety of gimmick matches.
It will also be the second time that Extreme Rules will have taken place in Baltimore, seven years after the event was first held in the Maryland city on a night that saw John Cena defeat Batista in a Last Man Standing match.
What’s next?
Tickets go on sale for WWE Extreme Rules this Sunday and it remains to be seen whether the confirmation of it being a RAW event will have any impact on ticket sales.
The post-WrestleMania goodwill that WWE usually finds itself as the subject of will certainly help, however, prospective attendees will be hoping for Superstar returns and maybe even be a call up or two from NXT.
Sportskeeda’s take
Whilst it isn’t entirely surprising to see Extreme Rules go to RAW, it is somewhat fascinating that SmackDown Live gets both Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank. With RAW’s larger roster and bloated run time we assumed that the flagship show would get one of the big annual multi-man matches, but obviously that won’t be the case.
Despite this, Extreme Rules is always a fun pay-per-view and 2017 promises to continue that trend.
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