WWE Extreme Rules 4/29/12

Extreme Rules - April 29th, 2012

Instead of just running down the play by play action, today we'll take a bit of a look at results, reactions and what (if any) impact this show had on the WWE landscape.  As an initial reaction, I'm confident enough to call this the most solid PPV since Money in the Bank last year.


Match 1 - Santino (c) vs The Miz, United States Championship
Winner: Santino via pinfall

The Youtube preshow seems to be a direction WWE is sticking with, and it's not necessarily a bad one, if we continue to get solid matches as part of the deal.  This was pretty standard fare for a Santino match, with a bit of a twist at the end:  The Miz boots away the Cobra, only to hang himself in the ropes and get caught by it anyway.  While it is in character for The Miz to complain about being on a Youtube preshow, some kind of prestige has to be brought to this; what used to be the "dark" match is now being presented to far more fans, which is entirely a good thing.  Not much of an affect on the WWE landscape, since Santino is a 'fun' champion.  These types of runs usually only last so long, but I can't see Miz falling back to a  US title run anytime soon.


Match 2 - Kane vs Randy Orton, Falls Count Anywhere
Winner: Randy Orton via pinfall

Ok, onto the actual show.  The action in this match was far more entertaining than the match at Wrestlemania, and the ability to roam the floor and use weapons is very much to thank for that.  Zack Ryder made a PPV cameo, attacking Kane while they fought in a back room but I can't imagine they push that feud much farther.  I would take that over a continued Kane/Orton feud, though.  Kudos to the camera man, who wiped out mid-match and managed to keep the camera trained right on the action.  For a falls count anywhere, between a monster and a guy who always talks about being unhinged, this wasn't very "extreme", especially considering they finished up right in the middle of the ring.  With any luck, this is the last of this feud and Orton can begin to move on to a higher profile feud for the summer, and with the events of the night, they may need the viper to shine.


Match 3 - Brodus Clay vs Dolph Ziggler
Winner: Brodus Clay via pinfall

Since this continued on an angle from the past couple of weeks, I'm ok with it, but I absolutely think Ziggler deserves better treatment in the PPV environment.  The "smart" Chicago crowd was extremely pro-Ziggler in this match.  It's an indication that the Clay act needs to change it up a bit.  The match went about four minutes, which is much longer than a normal Clay match.  At the very least, this shows Ziggler able to hang with a 'monster' opponent.  If this is a sign of more 'normalized' Brodus Clay matches, it would be very appreciated.  Much like Orton, Ziggler needs to move on to something bigger and better for the summer.  Special thanks to Vickie Guerrero, who has made "extinct" a verb.  For Clay, no real change is made here; for Ziggler, we can only hope for it.

Match 4 - Cody Rhodes vs Big Show (c), Tables Match for the Intercontinental Championship
Winner: Cody Rhodes via tablefall

When the wheel spun on the preshow and a Tables Match came up, I had a feeling we'd see an ending like this.  Odds don't typically get stacked in the favor of a face without some kind of back fire.  One of the best spots of the night was Rhodes whipped at a table propped in the corner and hitting a Beautiful Disaster off of it; good thing the table didn't break.  The ending of this match was great:  Cody simply dropkicks Show's leg, sending him off balance.  Show steps back, right through a table on the floor with an immediate look of Oh god I hope nobody saw that".  But we did.  Show is less than thrilled and proceeds to destroy Rhodes, culminating in a gorilla press out of the ring through a table.

Rhodes leaves on his own power, so safe to say we won't see an injury angle here, which is good - Rhodes is a great champion, both as a character and wrestler and is one of those things that everyone should look forward to on any show.  This makes one a piece at PPV's:  We'll likely see a rubber match between the two, hopefully somehow introducing the next opponent for Rhodes to move forward.  For Show, he's become a bit of a 'utility' guy:  He gets inserted where needed or as a 'punishment' to a heel who's being a particular jerk on a given night.  Not a bad place for an older wrestler to be in.

Before the next match, Bryan has a quick interview and AJ is creeper-stalking him from behind boxes.  This is the last we see of AJ for the night, which seems like an odd choice.  Keeping her on TV is altogether a good thing; she fits well into this storyline and is one of the better Diva wrestlers.


Match 5 - Daniel Bryan vs Sheamus (c), Two out of Three Falls for the World Heavyweight Championship
Fall 1: Sheamus via disqualification; Fall 2: Daniel Bryan via referee stoppage, Fall 3: Sheamus via pinfall

Bryan receives a huge ovation from the Chicago crowd and Sheamus gets a less than warm welcome.  Michael Cole was his usual self in this match, especially in the first fall:  He calls a rolling fireman's carry a "senton" and when Sheamus locks in a Cloverleaf, Cole tells us we've never seen this from Sheamus before; problem is, we have.  He won via submission with a Cloverleaf around a year ago in a TV match.  Bryan draws a DQ in the first fall, delivering non-stop kicks in the corner.

This works for some heels, but Bryan is portrayed as a mat technician with great ring knowledge; it doesn't really make sense for him to get himself disqualified and not seem to give a crap about it, especially after reminding the ref that he has until five for rope breaks (For those that stick to WWE only, this was classic Bryan Danielson as a heel on the indie circuit).  The match continues and is really quite good; then it just kind of ended with a Brough Kick in the third fall.

For such a fun, even, competitive match, this was a really anti-climactic ending.  This is a program I sincerely hope WWE sticks with, since the contrasting styles make for entertaining matches.  I can't imagine a Sheamus title reign gets cut too short, but I'd hate to see Bryan fall to the wayside and not be used to his fullest potential.

 Match 6 - Aaron Relic and Jason Hatton vs Ryback, Handicap Match
Winner: Ryback via pinfall

Ryback suffers the wrath of the Chicago crowd with a resounding "Goldberg" chant, which seemed to stop the moment he landed a backpack chinbreaker.  There's really no change in anything here, as Ryback continues to railroad his opponents, who never seem to get out of the station.  Much like Brodus Clay, the squashes can only continue for so long before the fans decide they want nothing to do with Ryback.  Not sure what, if anything, they have planned for him moving forward.



Match 7 - Chris Jericho vs CM Punk (c), Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship
Winner: CM Punk via pinfall

And this is when the night got brutal.  Both men came out in jeans and pads/boots, ready for a fight.  As soon as the kendo stick made an appearance, an "ECW" chant cropped up.  Some of the front row fans were obviously ROH fans, as they slapped the barrier; this doesn't really work on pads, versus ROH's metal coverings.  The back and forth fighting was pretty standard no-DQ fare until Punk's sister slapped Jericho and he made a lunge at her; at that point, Punk went ballistic.  Jericho used half of the logo announce table cover on Punk's back and it absolutely exploded; never seen that before.  Punk slips on a springboard attempt and Jeircho immediately covered by going for kendo stick shots; it's hard to tell if this was an 'intentional botch' or if Punk actually slipped, but it didn't detract from the match at all.  Punk uses a fire extinguisher (conveniently placed) to escape the Walls of Jericho and ends up hitting a Macho Man elbow through the Spanish announce table from the top rope.  Punk almost fell back into the ring before he hit the elbow, which of course made everyone scared he wouldn't reach, but the impact looked excellent.

Jericho lands a Codebreaker with a chair back in the ring, and at that moment they had me convinced that Punk lost.  That's the kind of reaction I WANT to have:  "What's going to happen next??" Punk does just what he said he would; lands the GTS and pins Jericho 1, 2, 3.  Punk celebrates in the crowd.

Moving forward, Punk continues to be a strong WWE Champion and Jericho is free to do a bit of work with Fozzy while he licks his wounds.  I'd expect him back pretty quickly, but after two PPV losses in a row, it's time for a new contender for Punk.  The Rock has said he wants to be WWE Champion, but I can't see Punk dropping it to him any time soon.  Perhaps a loss for Punk via nefarious means followed by whoever beats him dropping it to Rock, maybe even leading to Rock vs Brock.

Eve informs Beth Phoenix that she is not medically cleared, so Nikki Bella's opponent will be a mystery.  Nikki is less than thrilled, but Eve assures her that it's not Kharma (So Kharma will be back soon).

Match 8 - Layla vs Nikki Bella (c), Divas Championship
Winner: Layla via pinfall

I'm happy to see Layla back; she's solid in the ring and really seems to love being in it.  I'm not happy to see someone back after a year of injury get a title shot.  You should deserve a title shot, so going by records, AJ should probably be up next, if not (please no) Kelly Kelly or Alicia Fox.  Regardless, it means the belt is on a Diva that can actually put together a decent match.  I'll ignore the odd number one contendership if this leads to some decent more-than-one-minute matches for the women and/or it leads to Kharma's return.  If AJ finishes the Bryan storyline any time soon, she should be placed in the mix as well; maybe she can try to impress Bryan by becoming the Divas Champ via submissions or something...


Match 9 - John Cena vs Brock Lesnar, Extreme Rules Match
Winner: John Cena via pinfall

Well...that was unexpected.  Every bit of logic said that Lesnar should not only win his first match back, but should 'break' Cena to set up some character development.  Lesnar absolutely dominated the match, busting Cena open with an early elbow, and continually beating him up throughout.  Lesnar landed rolling German suplexes, as well as a kimura with a body scissors.  Lesnar tied Cena up in his own chain around his ankles.  He continually worked the arm and the cut throughout, and used his entire body as a weapon:  Lesnar leaped off the stairs in the middle of the ring and basically gave Cena a Poetry in Motion, falling out of the ring in the process.  That looked like it hurt both of them a ton.  Even after whiffing the top rope leg drop, Cena eventually dead lifts Lesnar (which was impressive, without a doubt) and drops him on the steel stairs.  Cena punches Lesnar with the chain and padlock then gives him an Attitude Adjustment on the stairs for the win.

 The 'official' shots are all black and white where blood was involved; pictured is Cena lifting Lesnar while in the midst of a kimura lock.

Multiple ref stoppages to try to clean Cena, being hogtied by his own chain, having his bicep torn (either during the kimura or that tumble out of the ring with Lesnar); still not enough to put Cena down.  Super Cena shows up once again, but for once it's not a bad thing, as Lesnar got the visual pin on Cena after F5'ing him into the ref, not to mention Lesnar dominated him.  Lesnar left on his own power, while Cena has a left arm he could barely move.  Cena didn't seem at all happy to win; in fact, he grabs a mic and tells us that he'll be gone for a while and that he expects to be fired Monday night for speaking out of turn.

Even though the match ending was different than expected, we still seem to be moving toward a period of Cena being out of the eye of the WWE universe.  This is good, since you can't miss someone who's always there.  Lesnar can run roughshod over the entire WWE and lead to someone coming back to stop him.  Cena taking time off is a bit odd after ruffling Rock's feathers for doing the same thing "when it mattered".  Cena has basically unchained a monster unto the WWE and now he needs to leave and nurse his wounds.

For once, I don't find myself trying to figure out what Raw will hold for the fans; I'm far more interested in just sitting back and enjoying the ride.  Extreme Rules proves to be an excellent show, and now WWE must continue down this path; one good PPV every four isn't good enough.