Extreme Rules Recap

• Dolph Ziggler vs Baron Corbin (No DQ) – This was on the pre-show.  Decent match, although they didn’t use the no-DQ stipulation to the fullest.  Corbin should be moving on to some other opponent now.  As for Ziggler….no idea.  I imagine he’ll get into some program with someone that will make for good house show openers over the next few months and win enough to stay relevant while he’s not putting new risers over.

• The Usos vs Anderson & Gallows (Tornado Tag Match) – Decent match, ended like I expected.  Both teams got in some good spots.  They work pretty well together and would definitely make for some good house show matches against each other over the next few months (which they probably will if they aren’t already).

• US Title: Kallisto (c) vs Rusev – I had this pegged as a possible skip worthy match, but it surpassed that.  Kallisto did some good bumping around and Rusev did his part.  Good to see the big man getting another crack at the US title and some relevance.  I’d like to see them replicate the US title challenge with Rusev as the guy to beat instead of John Cena.

• WWE Tag Team Title Match: New Day (c) vs The Vaudevillans – Like he US title match I had this pegged as skip worthy and it exceeded my expectations.  New Day was entertaining as always and the Vaudevillains are good workers.  The match was pretty good and they kept it as long as it needed to be.

• Intercontinental Title Fatal 4 Way: The Miz (c) vs Cesaro vs Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn – Great match here.  Three great workers doing their thing and Miz (who isn’t bad) playing the cowardly heel made for an excellent time.  Great spots by all involved, the crowd was into it, and plenty of good almost finishes.  Miz escaping through exploiting the others’ work plays right into his character.  I’d take Cesaro, Sami, and Owens, throw them in Money in the Bank next month and add in a few other guys.

• Dean Ambrose vs Chris Jericho (Asylum Match) – Good match, went a little long (26 minutes), crowd seemed pretty quiet throughout but woke up towards the end.  Major kudos to Jericho and Dean for going through with the thumb tack bit at the end.  A guy like Jericho has nothing to prove, so agreeing to go along with it gets him major respect from me.  Other than the running time my only other gripe was with the barbed wire bat.  Can we please stop using it?  If the guys aren’t going to bleed, and I’m not asking them to, then introducing a barbed wire bat to a match is kind of silly.

• WWE Women’s Title Submission Match: Charlotte (c) vs Natalya – They could have shaved a few minutes off the asylum match and added them to this one.  I thought the match was good but I hated the finish.  Dana Brooke impersonating Ric Flair and distracting Natalya is really contrived and doing too much.  To me this match was the prefect time to have Charlotte either win clean or at least cheat on her own.  If you eventually want to transition her away from her Dad, then here’s where you start.  She’s a good enough worker to not have to play the coward every time out.

• WWE Title Extreme Rules Match: Roman Reigns (c) vs AJ Styles – Great main event.  Both guys landed all kinds of crazy stuff on each other – multiple table spots, chair shots, big moves, you name it.  Their respective team mates go involved as expected.  Nothing to complain about here unless………..wait for it……..you know what’s coming.  Nothing to complain about here unless you don’t like Roman Reigns.  And now I will devote some space to hashing out the Roman Reigns situation yet again…….

You don’t have to be a fan of Reigns.  That’s perfectly fine.  But chanting ‘you can’t wrestle!’ at this point in his career is dumb.  And chanting ‘you still suck!’ after he does something cool because you have to stand by all those social media comments you’ve spit out over the last year is pretty desperate, don’t you think?  And yeah I know all the arguments….push wasn’t organic (none of them are, ok?)………I don’t hate Roman, I just hate how he’s booking (then why are you booing him an chanting that he sucks?)……….they need to turn him heel (why, so you can start cheering for him?).  Cool stories, bro.  OK now back to our regularly scheduled program.

• The Aftermath – The Reigns-haters all got their pound of flesh last night as Seth Rollins returned after the match to attack Roman and hit him with a pedigree, much to the delight of many.  Obviously there’s some kind of Seth vs Roman confrontation ahead, likely at Summerslam.  As for AJ Styles and the Bullet Club (or ‘The Club’ as they’re being called now), I honestly don’t know what comes next. What I’d really like for them to do is give us a women’s Money in the Bank match, but I don’t think that’s in the cards.  As far as this show goes, I chalk it up as a good one.