Extreme Rules 2018 took place on Sunday 15th July at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Money in the Bank was pretty good so will Extreme Rules continue in that vein? Let's take a look.
There were two matches on the Kick Off Show and the first was Sin Cara 2.0 taking on Andrade "Cien" Almas. Almas deals with Cara's offence by throwing him into the crowd barrier. Almas keeps Cara down with moves such as an arm lock. Cara makes a comeback and hits a frog splash. However, Zelina Vega distracts the referee, which gives Almas the chance to hit a dropkick, which is followed by the knees in the corner and the Hammerlock DDT to get the win. The match was pretty good.
Winner: Andrade "Cien" Almas (1 for 1)
The other match on the Kick Off Show is a Tables Match between The New Day and Sanity. The match descends into chaos, leaving Eric Young and Alexander Wolff beating down on Big E. Everyone else recovers and the match goes back and forth, including both teams coming very close to winning. In the end, Young, with the help of Wolff, sends Kofi through a table with a top rope elbow drop to get the win. This match was fun to watch.
Winners: Sanity (2 for 2)
The first match of the show is for the RAW Tag Team Championship as The B Team challenge The Deleter of Worlds. A cheap shot by Bo Dallas on Matt Hardy gives his team the advantage. Hardy hits a side effect on Curtis Axel , and it enables him to tag in Bray Wyatt. Hardy tags back in but that turns out to be a bad idea as Dallas hits him with a hangman's neckbreaker to get the win. I was surprised that The B Team won but it was a good yet short match.
Winners: The B Team (2 for 3)
Next is Finn Balor taking on Constable Baron Corbin. Corbin is dominant early on, hitting brutal clotheslines and keeping him down with chinlocks. Balor gets out of a powerbomb and hits a dropkick. Corbin goes for The End of Days but Balor manages to stop it and put Corbin in a small package to get the win. This was a pretty decent match.
Winner: Finn Balor (2 for 4)
We now get Asuka challenging Carmella for the Smackdown Women's Championship with James Ellsworth suspended above the ring in a shark tank. Someone didn't think to search Ellsworth as he keeps interfering in the match. Then he manages to escape but gets caught and ends up hanging upside down. Asuka decides to forget about Carmella and start kicking Ellsworth. Carmella then slams Asuka's head against the cage then hits her shitty finishing move to get the win. This match was a fucking abomination and definitely the worst match of the year so far.
Winner: Carmella (3 for 5)
Our third Championship match is Shinsuke Nakamura challenging Jeff Hardy. When the referee gives his belt to the timekeeper, Nakamura gives Hardy a low blow. Hardy insists that he is ok but when the bell rings, Nakamura hits a Kinshasa to get the win. Afterwards, Randy Orton makes his return and attacks Hardy, turning heel. Ok, what the fuck was that? I understand if Hardy was injured, but he wrestled on the following Smackdown, so what was the point? As for Orton returning, I don't really care.
Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura (4 for 6)
We now get a steel cage match between Kevin Owens and Braun Strowman. Owens tries to escape at every opportunity but Strowman keeps stopping him. Owens gets his best chance when he handcuffs Strowman to the turnbuckle. Unfortunately, it's next to the door so Owens starts to climb the cage. Strowman breaks the handcuffs and climbs after him. Strowman then proceeds to throw Owens off the top of the cage through the announce table. This technically means that Owens wins. Afterwards, Owens is taken away on a stretcher. I quite enjoyed the match but I found it hard to support Strowman in this feud. He's been treating Owens like shit and when Owens goes to Kurt Angle about it, he gets put into a steel cage match. I was also surprised at the ending, as it took place in the same city where Mick Foley got seriously injured when Undertaker threw him off the top of the cell.
Winner: Kevin Owens (4 for 7)
Next is Team Hell No challenging The Bludgeon Brothers for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship. Earlier in the night, Harper and Rowan attacked Bryan and Kane backstage. Kane didn't recover in time so Bryan had to take on The Bludgeon Brothers himself. Bryan uses his quickness to Harper and Rowan at bay but it doesn't last long. Harper and Rowan accidentally take each other out and Kane comes out with a leg cast and gets tagged in. Unfortuantely, Harper and Rowan manage to hit a powerbomb/diving clothesline combo on Bryan to get the win. The match wasn't bad but it was hampered by Kane's real life injury. A lot of people were looking forward to seeing the return of Team Hell No but, depending on Glen Jacobs' bod for Mayor of Knox County, there's a chance that we will never get to see it.
Winners: The Bludgeon Brothers (4 for 8)
We now get Roman Reigns taking on Bobby Lashley. Yay...? Anyway, Reigns acts a little more aggressively during the match and is quite dominant in the early going. Lashley stops getting hit
by some steel steps and hits a clothesline to start a comeback. Both guys have a chance to win it but in the end, Reigns goes for a spear but Lashley hits a spear of his own to get the win. The match was actually pretty decent with a couple of nice spots. I just found it hard to get into am match where I have very little interest in the guys involved.
Winner: Bobby Lashley (5 for 9)
Next is Nia Jax, with Natalya, challenging Alexa Bliss, with Mickie James, in an Extreme Rules match for the RAW Women's Championship. An added factor is Ronda Rousey. She had been banned from RAW but she got a ticket to watch the show because...loophole? Mickie gives Alexa a fuck ton of weapons but Nia just grabs them and chucks them into the ring. After Nia press slams Alexa ontop a trash can, Alexa uses a trash can lid to get the advantage. When Mickie and Alexa start attacking Natalya, Ronda gets involved. After Mickie takes out Ronda with a kendo stick, Alexa goes on to hit Nia with a DDT on to a steel chair to get the win. Ignoring the fact that, due to the stipulations, Ronda could have got involved at any time, it was a fun match.
Winner: Alexa Bliss (6 for 10)
The penultimate match is for the WWE Championship as Rusev challenges AJ Styles on Rusev Day. Rusev uses power moves before focusing on the lower back. However, Styles injures Rusev's left leg, slowing him down. The match goes back and forth with both guys going for submission moves. Rusev tries to put on the Accolade but is unable to due his leg. Aiden English exposes a turnbuckle but Rusev accidentally runs into it and Styles hits a springboard 450 followed by a Phenomenal Forearm to get the win. This was a really good match and hopefully, Rusev gets another Championship opportunity in the near future.
Winner: AJ Styles (7 for 11)
The main event is a 30-minute Iron Man match for the Intercontinental Championship as Seth Rollins challenges Dolph Ziggler. Rollins takes the lead after 4 minutes with a buckle bomb followed by a inside cradle. Rollins hits a Curb Stomp to make it 2-0. Drew McIntyre then interferes and beats the fuck out of Rollins, resulting in the referee ejecting him. Even though McIntyre's actions gave Rollins a 3-0 lead, it was negated when Ziggler pins a fucked up Rollins to make 3-1. he then hits a super kick followed soon after by a Zig Zag to tie the macth at 3-3. A minute before the half way point, Ziggler hits a forearm and pins Rollins, using his feet on the ropes for leverage. This gives Ziggler the lead. With 3 minutes to go, Rollins bounces Ziggler's head off the ring post and pins him to tit the match at 4-4. Despite Rollins' best efforts, the match ends at 4-4. Normally, this means Ziggler retains the title. However, Kur Angle comes out and takes the match into overtime. When the bell rings, Rollins gets distracted by a returning McIntyre and Ziggler hits a Zig Zag to get the win. This was a generally good match but I hated the ending. I don't see the point of taking a match into overtime and then it ends 10 seconds later. Also, some of Rollins' logic was questionable, esecially when he stopped Ziggler from leaving. If he left him, Ziggler would have been counted out and Rollins would have won.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler (8 for 12)
I thought that Extreme Rules was an average event. There were some good matches but there were some that were really shit. Hopefully, at Summerslam, we will get more of the good and less of the bad.
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