Tuesday, May 24, 2016

WWE Extreme Rules 2016


Look at that. Another May PPV from WWE. And it's EXTREME! I guess...

Anyway, some random thoughts and results.



Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows defeated the Usos in a Texas Tornado match. Yeah, the match was fine and I like what I see from the [Bullet] Club, but could we have them do something else besides buttfucking the Usos for once? It's starting to get boring.

Rusev defeated US champion Kalisto to win the title. And I'm pretty sure Rusev is going to keep the belt for a week before Cena wins back and the status quo is restored. What's that line about the more things change... Anyway, the match was alright, but given that Rusev winning was a sure thing even to the least knowledgeable of wrestling fans, I didn't care as much as I should.

The New Day retains their tag titles against the Vaudevillains. Too short for me to care. The Vaudevillains was interesting in NXT, but the appeal has been lost. And while I dug the New Day thing for a while, I'm just waiting for something interesting to happen to these guys. Also, their act is really starting to get stale... which means they'll be pushed for another five years before someone decides to split these guys up.

Intercontinental champion The Miz defeated Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn when Miz pinned Cesaro to retain the title. Take two ongoing feuds and stick them together in a big four-way match. It should've been a recipe for disaster, but this was far more entertaining than it had any business being. Seriously, as far as four-way matches go, this was pretty entertaining stuff and everyone got their shit in that needed to be in and thensome. Strangely, I'm alright with Miz retaining here as he's gotten somewhat more interesting to watch than usual... Maryse helps, I suppose, but it's something.

(Would be nice if Miz could've won his match the next night, but I guess I'm not cut out for creative like the monkeys at WWE.)

Dean Ambrose defeated Chris Jericho in an Asylum match, which is basically a black steel cage with a bunch of weapons and goofy gimmicks. Too long, too boring, a bit on the goofy side, and quite frankly, I didn't care. I was surprised that Jericho took a bump on the tacks at the end considering the current climate, but that was about the only real surprise here. This could've been a brutal fight with some rare instances of brutality on display and instead it was a sloth to sit through... a shame, really.

Woman's champion Baby Flair defeated Natalya with a distraction from Dana Brooke to retain the title. The big gimmick here was that if Ric Flair showed up at ringside, Baby Flair would lose the title. Clearly, that wasn't a factor here. As for the match... well, they can't all be winners here. Maybe it's just me, but there was no effort in trying to make Nattie a viable threat to the champion. At no point did I feel she had a chance and I was just waiting for the inevitable screwy finish to come into play. I'll tell you; the Women's matches have definitely seen a stark improvement on these PPVs and I'm pleased that they're trying to make the division seem important for once, but this match (and perhaps this entire feud) was teetering on the edge of designated piss-break, a zone once occupied by the company's embarrassing former Divas division.

(The next night, Baby Flair would kick old man Ric to the curb... so I guess I can call her Charlotte again now, right? Or is this just an elaborate ploy for Ric to turn on Sting again? Maybe Charlotte can start turning on Sting... it could be a family tradition.)

WWE World champion Roman Reigns defeated AJ Styles in an Extreme Rules match to retain the title. Predictable ending aside, this was a fun match to watch that actually had an intriguing backstory behind it designed to get the viewer guessing as to whether AJ Styles would win with the Clubs' help or would Roman Reigns retain with the aid of the Usos? (Of course, it's the latter, but that's besides the point.) It's not often we get to see a brawl in the crowd as well as two sweet table spots and even a ripping of the floor mat. And yeah, AJ Styles didn't win the match - not a surprise and quite frankly, it irritated the FUCK out of me when the Styles Clash DIDN'T finish... why bother calling them finishers if they don't FINISH THE FUCKING MATCH?!! - but he didn't go down without a fight and hopefully, he'll get another shot in the main event spot sooner or later. Even Roman showed signs of being interesting here that I'm sure will be completely forgotten the night after.

The only peculiar thing they're going with Roman Reigns here is that they're trying to push the notion that people are passionate about Roman Reigns... but the problem is that they're not. At this point, the crowd is just a large group of background extras who will going into their rehearsed chants at the appropriate time. There's a difference between being passionate and just chanting for the sake of chant. People don't boo Roman Reigns because they hate him; they boo him because it's the cool thing to do. It gets to a point where it went from something that people were passionate about to people just going through with the motions. It's pretty much the way I'd describe the post-Wrestlemania episode of RAW; it was funny the first time when the crowd hijacked the show and not gave two shits about the product in the ring, but then it became a regular thing and you're just like "eh." And also, not to get into the numbers here because that's not my deal, but if people were really passionate about Roman in any way, more people would be watching the show and that is clearly not the case.

Also, what's the point of all the Club teasing if Roman was going to win clean anyway? Given the choice between the two, I much prefer the Payback match over this, but this wasn't too bad, either.

And that was Extreme Rules; an adequate three hour showing with a couple really good matches and a whole bunch of "take it or leave it" ones.

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