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WWE Extreme Rules is now in the history books and one thing is certain: with one monumental Money In The Bank cash-in, WWE's creative landscape has been drastically altered. In what may be the understatement of 2019, the annual homage to ECW and other extreme traditions was certainly eventful.
By the time the evening ended the WWE Universe were treated to no less than four championships changing hands including "The Beast" Brock Lesnar triumphantly closing the show as the new Universal Champion.
Extreme Rules featured a homage to scripted violence as "The Almighty" Bobby Lashley clashed with "The Monster Among Men" Braun Strowman in a brutal Last Man Standing Match. The legendary Undertaker made his memorable return to the ring alongside Roman Reigns. By the time it was all over, AJ Styles reasserted his dominance over the United States Championship, The New Day held three world championships, and Shinsuke Nakamura made sure the WWE Universe didn't forget about him.
There was something for everyone at tonight's WWE Extreme Rules, so sit back, relax, and enjoy, as we present a very special Extreme Rules edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good #1 - The resurrection of The Undertaker
Many wrestling fans made the mistake of counting The Phenom out after an atypical performance at Super ShowDown. Those same fans forgot that The Undertaker's match against Goldberg occurred in 100 plus degree Saudi Arabian desert heat. Furthermore, The Dead Man received a very limited amount of in-ring cooperation from the ageing Goldberg, who knocked himself out in a contest where he often appeared gassed and overmatched.
Anyone who has followed The Undertaker's career knew the match was unlikely to sit well and despite his advanced age, could very well return better than ever. For those with such expectations, The Phenom did not disappoint alongside Roman Reigns in a victorious tag team effort against Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre.
In the much more hospitable and temperate climate of the indoor Wells Fargo Center, The Undertaker looked like a man half his age. He moved quickly and with great precision, as he executed the awe-inspiring Old School manoeuvre against the self-proclaimed "Best in the World." With the agility of a cat, the 54-year-old landed a devastating forearm against the back of McMahon's head. The Undertaker then landed hard on his legs but showed no worse for wear.
The future WWE Hall of Famer looked the part as he executed a jaw-dropping leg drop on the apron against one of WWE's most promising big men in Drew McIntyre. The Undertaker moved faster than he has in years and showed no sign of slowing down.
Ultimately, The Undertaker hit Shane McMahon with his patented chokeslam, and then the legendary Tombstone to seal the victory and accomplish his mission: to show the world that The Dead Man still has a lot left in the proverbial tank.
See WWE Extreme Rules Results, Highlights of event, & more on WWE Extreme Rules Results page
The Good #2 - It's Shinsuke time
In one of wrestling's most puzzling mysteries, many have forgotten Shinsuke Nakamura and the fanfare he brought to WWE in his debut NXT match against Sami Zayn in 2016. Since then, Nakamura went on to win the NXT Championship, the 2018 Royal Rumble, the United States Championship, and now the Intercontinental Championship.
In what many considered an upset, Nakamura defeated Finn Balor in a great Extreme Rules Kickoff Show bout. Nakamura is now Intercontinental Champion and hopefully, will finally be given the benefit of another push.
It wasn't long ago that Shinsuke won the Royal Rumble, only to fall short against then WWE Champion A.J. Styles in a WrestleMania 34 dream match. Since then, Nakamura has floundered on the main roster with a forgettable United States Championship run and an inexplicable tag team pairing with Rusev. While Nakamura fought in one of the most eagerly anticipated WrestleMania 34 matches, by the time the big event rolled around one year later, he was relegated to a very forgettable Fatal 4-Way tag team bout.
Perhaps tonight's victory is redemption for Nakamura, a move away from WWE's mid-card hell, and a long-awaited return to championship glory where he can once again prove to be one of the very finest in-ring competitors in the world of professional wrestling. If that's the case, Nakamura is certainly more seasoned and more apt to make the most of his opportunities.
Earlier in the week, Nakamura declared that the WWE Universe had forgotten who Shinsuke was and judging by the reaction to his Intercontinental victory, he was correct. After his Intercontinental Championship clinching victory over Balor, Nakamura promised to be a better champion than Balor ever was and sent a warning to the WWE Universe, "People won't forget me anymore."
The Good #3 - Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley
The Monster Among Men reasserted his dominance in what was one of WWE's most physically demanding matches in recent memory. Battling "The Almighty" Bobby Lashley, both Strowman and his equally physically imposing opponent clearly gave all they had in tonight's Last Man Standing bout, but it was Strowman who edged out the victory.
The ring wasn't large enough to contain the two behemoths and the action quickly spilt out into the arena and among the fans near souvenir stands at the Wells Fargo Center. Strowman destroyed the WWE souvenir stand after hitting Lashley with a devastating suplex off the unforgiving wall. Lashley's body hit the cold floor with a sickening thud, but both men would endure much more before the evening was through.
Lashley was hit with two sensational Braun Strowman shoulder tackles, but neither was enough to defeat The Almighty, who picked up the 350-pound Strowman with relative ease before running through a barricade.
Both men were pushed beyond their physical limitations when Strowman decided to powerslam Lashley from a distance of approximately 15 feet onto the Wells Fargo Center arena floor. The two men crashed into an insulated room below and as the referee began his ten-count, Strowman, powered through the room like a juggernaut and came crashing through the wall like a seven-foot bat out of hell. Strowman stood victorious as the man who answered the ten-count, despite suffering the beating of a lifetime.
The Bad #1 - The show was exhaustingly long
We now live in the era of near constant professional wrestling content. In a weekend that saw WWE air EVOLVE's 10th-anniversary show on the WWE Network and AEW also air Fyter Fest, fans were exhausted heading into this event.
In an era where attention spans are at an all-time low, the last thing wrestling fans needed was an additional five hours of content to close an already long-winded weekend. Not to mention this all comes just before having to endure a three-hour RAW on Monday and a two-hour SmackDown this Tuesday.
WWE Extreme Rules suffered from a lack of brevity. The company would do better to return to its old format of three-hour pay-per-view shows with a one-hour Kickoff Show. Four total hours is plenty of time to tell a story when WWE already has an additional five hours of main roster television every week. More than that is simply overkill.
Extreme Rules' pace was off from the get-go. The show took forever just to get started. What is the point of a Kickoff Show other than to have a match or two that won't make the main card and to set up the main show by offering match by match analysis? Extreme Rules opened, as if there was no Kickoff Show, with a long-winded eerily whispered rehashing of what fans already saw on the Kickoff Show. This rehashing also took place (in a more limited fashion) before each and every match.
The opening of the pay-per-view was so exhaustingly long that it took 20 minutes just to see two wrestlers touch in the opening bout. Did WWE really need to take more than 8% of its time just for a re-hashing and entrances?
Such long pay-per-views do a disservice to the main event matches which are obviously the matches that most excite fans. In the era of the 5-hour pay-per-view, many fans are simply too tired to show interest in the matches that matter most. This is evidenced by increasingly quiet and disinterested live crowds.
WWE likely won't ever go back to its original format because the extra content (no matter how redundant) equals advertising revenue. It's just a shame that we all have to suffer for it.
The Bad #2 - Dolph Ziggler's career trajectory
It wasn't all that long ago. The year was 2014 and with the help of the debuting Sting, Dolph Ziggler was the lone survivor, the last man standing at WWE's annual fall tradition. Outlasting the seemingly insurmountable and unscrupulous Authority, Ziggler overcame overwhelming odds to outlast everyone else, including WWE's golden goose, John Cena. It seemed like the company may be doubling down on the obviously talented Ziggler, but then there was nothing for half a decade.
Sure, Ziggler had minor title runs and always showed up to put some of WWE's most compelling Superstars over (see Kingston, Kofi), but he hasn't been a major player in the WWE since Big E and A.J. Lee were at his side. That seems like a lifetime ago.
Tonight, Ziggler's role was simply to put Kevin Owens over. Owens is riding a wave right now as a "Stone Cold" Steve Austin-esque babyface. Formerly, one of the best heels in the business, the role is unfamiliar to Owens, but thus far he is excelling and tonight that climb up the proverbial ladder came once again at Dolph Ziggler's expense.
The bout opened with a disrespectful slap to Owens' face. That was all the offense Ziggler would get in. Owens, now carrying the mantle of every man, kicked Ziggler in his abdominal region and then immediately hit a Stone Cold Stunner for a pinfall victory. The match lasted all of 17 seconds and just like that Ziggler's evening was over.
Both Owens' entrance and post-match speech were longer than the actual match and once again one of WWE's most talented Superstars was a mere afterthought with little to no explanation why.
Perhaps Ziggler summed it up best last summer when he appeared on Lilian Garcia's Chasing Glory podcast,
"I’ve done everything I can….If you’ve done everything you can and creative has nothing for you sometimes they have nothing for you. Sometimes it’s personal. Sometimes it’s not."
The Ugly - One big "Extreme" lie
While WWE Extreme Rules was a good pay-per-view, it simply has to go, especially in the era of Google and YouTube. Most wrestling fans aren't mindless drones and know how to Google.
Smart fans will type in the word extreme and Cactus Jack might pop up in a Texas Death Match against none other than the legendary Terry Funk. The two will dismantle each other and tear each other to shreds among broken glass, thumbtacks, and exploding rings.
The word extreme doesn't go well with a publicly traded company hell-bent on catering to its PG audience. Things went further south when Paul Heyman, a walking talking reminder of Extreme Championship Wrestling, was introduced to the Philadelphia, PA faithful.
Brock Lesnar's Advocate then reminded everyone in attendance and at home watching on the WWE Network, "I am the entire concept of extreme." Wrestling fans, especially those in attendance in Philadelphia, remember the blood-soaked feuds between Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, Taz, The Sandman, and the actual purveyors of extreme.
Sure, Extreme Rules certainly featured its share of violence, but not much more than any ordinary pay-per-view. Would it really be so difficult to imagine Seth Rollins reacting to Baron Corbin assaulting Becky Lynch any differently at any other pay-per-view? Even Strowman vs. Lashley (the evening's most "extreme" bout) could have taken place at any other event.
So, instead of calling it Extreme Rules, WWE should consider renaming the pay-per-view entirely before the WWE Universe gets really smart and googles CZW.
