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The last stop of the summer before SummerSlam was Extreme Rules. Several titles changed hands and both Money in the Bank briefcases have now been cashed in. WWE might have wanted to switch things up now that both Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman would be in charge of SmackDown and RAW respectively.
Some of the matches were basically ones that seemed like they were from an episode of RAW or SmackDown. A few of the less-touted matches, like Aleister Black vs. Cesaro, delivered due to who was in the match.
When the night was over, there were four new champions as both SmackDown and RAW received two new champions each. The New Day became six-time champions while Shinsuke Nakamura picked up his first Intercontinental Championship in WWE. AJ Styles was US Champion once again while Brock Lesnar won the Universal Championship for a third time.
Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin allegedly had their last shots at Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins respectively, but with Rollins no longer the Universal Champion, that might change. Every show has its share of mistakes and things that were done right. Here are five things that WWE did wrong at the 2019 Extreme Rules PPV.
#5 Samoa Joe loses again
While it was a little strange for SmackDown to have two of its main champions (WWE Champion, Women's Champion) challenged by RAW stars at Extreme Rules, it worked with Samoa Joe targeting Kofi Kingston. Joe is supposed to be on of the most dangerous men in the WWE, but like all of his matches for main titles in WWE, he was on the losing end.
Joe challenged AJ Styles for the WWE Championship three times last year and lost each time. He also failed in his bids to win the Universal Champion during Brock Lesnar's first reign with the big red belt.
In order to give Joe some credibility as a threat and give us fans a reason to invest in one of his major title matches, he needed to win one of them. Instead, now some of us won't take him seriously in the future if he gets any more WWE or Universal Championship matches.
Why should we care if they will always book him to lose those matches? He's deserving of a WWE or Universal Championship reign due to both his in-ring work and his mic work. Instead, he's just been the usual jagged rock that champions are always able to avoid by jumping over or around the rock.
#4 The Intercontinental Match is on the pre-show instead of Owens/Ziggler
Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura's match for the Intercontinental Championship was hinted at during last week's SmackDown. The title is rarely defended on the pre-show, but was chosen to be one of the two matches not to be on the main show.
The title was made more prestigious last summer as Seth Rollins basically represented RAW as its top champion. Lesnar rarely appeared and defended the Universal Championship, so Rollins was the default top champion on RAW most of the time.
During the Superstar Shake Up, the Intercontinental Champion, Balor, was moved to the blue brand. He won the title back from Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania, and it was thought that being on SmackDown would give "the Demon" a fresh start.
Putting not only Balor but also the title on the pre-show, instead of a match with no title implications like Owens vs. Ziggler was a mistake. Balor and Nakamura are both former NXT Champs and title challengers.
Owens and Ziggler were former title challengers as well, but their match was literally added to the show a day or two before the PPV. I get that they need to have a few matches on the pre-show, but a match for the prestigious title with two of the top performers in WWE shouldn't have been.
#3 Brock Lesnar wins the Universal Championship, not the WWE Championship
When Brock Lesnar won the Money in the Bank briefcase, it was something that a lot of fans didn't want to see. He put in minimal effort for maximum gain. It felt like a disservice to all of the participants of the actual match, but he is who management chose to win for some reason, so we have to deal with it.
Even though we probably aren't happy with Lesnar getting yet another title opportunity/win, it could have at least been freshened up had he pursued the WWE Championship and not the same old big red belt. We've been there, done that regarding Lesnar's disappearing act on RAW over the last seven years.
It was a huge blow to RAW last year during his reign and led to record-lows in the ratings. Having Seth Rollins win the title gave the show a full-time champion, but with Baron Corbin getting all of the title shots recently, it has bogged the show down. Fans would rather see other stars get a title shot instead of "the Lone Wolf".
Had they sent Lesnar after Kofi Kingston and the WWE Championship, not only would it have been a different storyline but it would have also provided a big boost for the blue brand. It could have also been a big deal if he was to hold the title until SmackDown moves to Fox.
How huge would it have been if he won the title at Extreme Rules but lost it on the debut episode on Fox? The ratings would certainly have popped. But instead, we're in for a story we've all watched and loathed twice before.
#2 Doing the same thing and expecting a different result
Lesnar has held the Universal Championship now three times, and the two prior times have proven to be mistakes. So what did WWE think would change regarding giving "the Beast" another reign with the Universal Title?
How were the ratings late last year and leading up to WrestleMania while he was the champion? They were some of the worst ever. While they've struggled to maintain a rise in the ratings, having someone other than Lesnar as champion was a step in the right direction. Fans wanted to see the title defended routinely like the rest of the belts in the company.
But instead of trying something new or freshening up the same old storyline, WWE wants us to drink the same stale cup of coffee that no one wanted to drink the other two times. Lesnar isn't known to have short reigns, but if he loses at SummerSlam, all can be forgiven.
The point is that resorting to something that didn't help the WWE out in the first place leads me to think that things are still astray with booking. There were some rumors coming out of Extreme Rules that the reason for the change is that they don't have any real challengers for Rollins and the title at SummerSlam. Instead of constantly handing shots to someone that didn't click with the audience (Baron Corbin), they could have been building up some other people.
They couldn't have had someone jump from SmackDown like Samoa Joe did to challenge Kofi Kingston? You don't have faith in any heels like Daniel Bryan, Drew McIntyre, or even a face Braun Strowman? Heck, Andrade had great chemistry with Rollins and would have at least provided him with a fantastic match.
Since WWE resorted to this again, it only shows that they don't have faith in many stars in which they should believe. The one whom they constantly give the title to is not the solution to all of the problems that have ailed the WWE.
#1 Extreme Rules No More
I actually think that having both TLC and Extreme Rules is redundant even though they are held at different times of the year. WWE has tried to tout this as a PPV that is different than others because it has "extreme rules" or involves matches with "extreme stipulations".
The main point is that throughout the PG Era, this PPV has simply been a normal PPV with some matches that have stipulations. With a card of 12 matches (13 if you count Lesnar's cash in), only three had stipulations.
The opening match of the card was touted as a "No Holds Barred" match but didn't utilize that at all. Shane McMahon did his usual "Coast to Coast" move, albeit with a trash can, and he also did his trademark jump from the ring to the announce table.
Outside of those two things and Elias hitting the Undertaker with his guitar, it was a RAW match with regular moves. "No Holds Barred" matches need to use weapons and tables and more dangerous spots.
The match between Strowman and Lashley actually utilized the name of the PPV the best because Strowman is a monster and does things that normal men can't do. And the main event was an "Extreme Rules" match, but other than that, every other bout was simply a match.
There was little to set this apart from any other PPV on the schedule. If you looked at a blind list of the matches and had to choose which show it was, you would have had trouble picking this out as Extreme Rules. For a show that was in Philadelphia, the home of ECW, and one that had Paul Heyman, the "King of ECW", Extreme Rules seemed more like "Tame Rules" or "Basic Rules".
