This is.... extreme? I dunno, hard to believe this event has the same lineage as the One Night Stand PPVs as years past. But let's see what we've got!
It's weird to me that the WWE Champion's first PPV appearance as champion is announced on the pre-show instead of, you know, on Raw the week before. Especially for such a high-profile match. Having said that, at least Big E is on the pay-per-view now....
Remember when Liv Morgan was being groomed for the big push, almost two years ago now? Clearly that hasn't happened yet, but her match against Carmella (albeit on the pre-show) was a good start in that direction. She has a Lita-like vibe to her at times (which the announcers kept referring to being "relatable") yet the persona seriously needs some work. A decent match, nonetheless.
The New Day vs. Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles and Omos was a fun (yet lengthy) opener that really did showcase the best work of all six men. In fact, I'd almost suggest it was the last time we'd see The New Day together for a while with the split coming up... if the announcers hadn't telegraphed that idea so many damn times during the match. Oh well. A nice win for Big E, who really does need to keep the momentum going right now.
The biggest takeaway (for me) from The Street Profits vs. The Usos is that they probably need to pull the trigger on a Montez Ford solo run. When motivated, he's awesome. This match was very good as well. Perhaps it should have been the opener instead? Regardless, I wouldn't mind seeing this match a few more times (similar to New Day-Usos from years past, actually).
I actually really liked Bobby Lashley's post-match promo there. A ton of fire (and not just the cursing) and I'm looking forward to the Big E rematch.
Fun game: Watch how many times your Alexa lights up blue every time WWE announcers reference Alexa Bliss. And speaking of Alexa (ugh, there it goes again!), her match with Charlotte was actually quite good. By focusing very little on the dolls and supernatural ga-ga, it made for a really enjoyable back-and-forth that brought out the strengths of both competitors. I was hoping that Alexa would win in her hometown, but perhaps I'm giving WWE way too much credit thinking that was an option. It does seem like their issue isn't over, though - which isn't a bad thing.
Hot take: Kayla Braxton vs. Paul Heyman may be the best feud in WWE right now.
Damien Priest vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus was okay and certain PPV-worthy. While I'm personally glad Hardy was in the mix here (and he certainly he had a few exciting moments) it just looked like he was a step behind/clunky at times. They've invested a ton in Priest this past year - one of the few "new" guys WWE has done that with recently.
Hmmm.... No title changes yet. Does this mean that the title changes hands in Bianca vs. Becky?
Even though there wasn’t a title change, I thought Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch was phenomenal. Great effort from both of them, with tons of twists and turns. And whole is normally hate a screwy interference finish… Saaha Banks made it work. Everyone legitimately hated her ruining it, and that was powerful. Plus it sets up for Belair/Lynch III down the road.
Not sure why it took me over an hour to add the main event to this blog post (site troubles), but I thought the main event was decent. Not “best ever” but okay. What I did really dig is how by the end of the match, The Demon was positioned as a legit threat to Reigns’ Universal Title (which I definitely didn’t see going into this). Yes, the ending was screwy… but that does open WWE to a bunch of options to make the storyline more interesting if they choose to go there.
Well… this years Extreme Rules was better than last years event (remember the Swamp battle?) but that’s not saying a ton. Decent show but not top echelon or anything.