Written by: Kevin Berge (All Images Courtesy of: WWE.com)
This feud has just become a symbol for WWE vs. its fans.
Maybe it's because I'm sleep-deprived. Maybe it's because I'm just feeling sick. Perhaps it has something to do with me skipping out on watching much of WWE Extreme Rules 2017 live in order to see Wonder Woman in theaters on opening week (review coming in a few days) which I'd much rather have watched again than watch this show.
However, I just have no desire to break this pay-per-view down match by match. Monday Night Raw has broken me. Whoever is booking this brand has lost all sense of direction and purpose which is starting to grow tiring. I still watch the product, but each week it grows harder trusting them.
Extreme Rules was poorly built, but, as with all WWE pay-per-views, you trust the talent to deliver. This show though did everything in its power to actively handicap the wrestlers with convoluted rules and stipulations that confused fans and made it harder to invest in the talent.
However, I just have no desire to break this pay-per-view down match by match. Monday Night Raw has broken me. Whoever is booking this brand has lost all sense of direction and purpose which is starting to grow tiring. I still watch the product, but each week it grows harder trusting them.
Extreme Rules was poorly built, but, as with all WWE pay-per-views, you trust the talent to deliver. This show though did everything in its power to actively handicap the wrestlers with convoluted rules and stipulations that confused fans and made it harder to invest in the talent.
WWE should not be asking fans to immerse themselves in an atmosphere of confusion. Wrestling is meant to be simple. Let your wrestlers tell their stories of good and evil. Extreme Rules was always about brutality and the culmination of violence not how to make every match tame and convoluted.
Before I go any further, I suppose I should simply give the results for this show as well as a quick review of each contest as is fair to the talent who are largely not at fault for this mess. There will not be ratings as this show put me in too foul a mood to properly organize my thoughts to simple numbers for now.
Before I go any further, I suppose I should simply give the results for this show as well as a quick review of each contest as is fair to the talent who are largely not at fault for this mess. There will not be ratings as this show put me in too foul a mood to properly organize my thoughts to simple numbers for now.
It took Neville a while, but he figured out the way to win... present the crazy eyes. The referee called it right there.
Kalisto def. Apollo Crews on the Kickoff Following Titus O'Neil Distracting Crews with His Coaching
If this was always going to be the Kickoff match, why not announce it ahead of time? This match was as quick and forgettable as you would expect despite Kalisto and Apollo Crews throwing him some nice shots along the way. This feud lost steam the moment Titus O'Neil defeated Kalisto in 15 seconds.
The Miz def. Dean Ambrose to Become the New WWE Intercontinental Champion with the Skull Crushing Finale After a Maryse Distracted the Referee to Cause Confusion That Miz Capitalized On
With the way SmackDown Live has worked, most guys have flourished more on that roster. Dean Ambrose has been the opposite. A change of scenery has pushed him to improve his game, and he and The Miz suddenly have chemistry. Once again these two were fantastic together with Miz truly working at another level.
Sasha Banks and Rich Swann def. Alicia Fox and Noam Dar with Swann Pinning Dar After a Phoenix Splash
Why wasn't this just the Kickoff match? I suppose it just comes down to filling time as Raw can't manage to put together a complete card for Raw despite having the larger roster. This match was a fine filler that would have been better served as a TV bout.
Alexa Bliss def. Bayley to Retain the Raw Women's Championship By Destroying Bayley with the Kendo Stick
Bayley has the potential to be the biggest star the women's division has ever seen. With Charlotte now on SmackDown and Bayley's crowning win at WrestleMania, Bayley should be on the rise. Instead she is getting slaughtered in these matches and promos with Bliss. This match was not fair to either woman and made Bayley look horrible.
Sheamus and Cesaro def. The Hardy Boyz to Become the New Raw Tag Team Champions with the Heels Escaping Together Before The Hardys
This match immediately was hampered by WWE's decision to have it be escape-only with both members needing to leave to win. This led to odd scenarios with Jeff out early and returning just to have to escape again. Ultimately, these teams are great together with fantastic chemistry, but they were handicapped.
Neville def. Austin Aries to Retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship After Submitting to Aries Behind the Ref's Back Then Forcing AA to Tap Out to the Rings of Saturn
Once more, WWE simply did not address well the rules of a simple match. The referee many times tried to count out or disqualify the cruiserweights which should not be possible. Still, Aries and Neville were at their best yet together in an energetic technical bout that nearly stole the show.
Samoa Joe def. Finn Balor, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Bray Wyatt to Become the New Number One Contender to the WWE Universal Championship By Knocking Out Balor with the Coquina Clutch
It's hard to beat this much talent in the ring at the same time. Everyone came out looking strong by the end. This was slow building though which led to an excellent home stretch but a weak build up. Still, WWE rarely see action as fast and intense as the home stretch of this bout.
Matt should just let Sheamus escape and fight Cesaro 1-on-1, but he probably thinks he'll lose if he does the smart thing.
What made this show so bad? Take the Monday night show as part of the problem. WWE has no clear message. On Monday, Bliss spent minutes on end berating Bayley for being a fan and enjoying wrestling then she was propped up on Sunday by a dominant victory that further killed a potential star in Bayley.
At no point on the go-home show was any time taken to clearly state the rules of each match because that would be boring. Come Sunday, the rules are not even clearly understood by the referee with the talent hardly sure how to organize their match around the myriad of bullet points.
At Backlash, SmackDown Live took a simple approach: let the wrestlers work and do just enough to surprise people. Here, the swerves were that WWE simply went off typical script. The dominant build of the Hardys was squashed a month in. Bayley was belittled and given no comeuppance.
I cannot say what WWE is attempting to accomplish with Raw. They belittle their audience and force their wrestlers to work down to the common denominator. If SmackDown is not a good enough example of the right direction, why not just check out NXT which has not even been that great but rises to the higher spotlights with strong character-building?
Don't even get me started on WWE deciding to make fun of fans at such an extreme level that the next Raw PPV is called Great Balls of Fire. It's almost as if WWE doesn't want the Raw events to be watched.
Here I am crying at WWE for being terrible, yet I'll tune in again on Monday. I'll probably even be excited for it. Hey, we did get Samoa Joe winning in the main event. Who doesn't want to see monsters collide with Brock Lesnar vs. Joe? That's a dream match. I do worry it will just be a squash though because Lesnar can't work more than ten minutes.
Ultimately, Extreme Rules failed because it proved the bookers want to be the stars of the show. Let the talent be the ones who get people talking because whoever is behind the curtain will never get over with work like this. I'm sorry for not giving readers more than this for this show, but it just didn't deserve it.
At no point on the go-home show was any time taken to clearly state the rules of each match because that would be boring. Come Sunday, the rules are not even clearly understood by the referee with the talent hardly sure how to organize their match around the myriad of bullet points.
At Backlash, SmackDown Live took a simple approach: let the wrestlers work and do just enough to surprise people. Here, the swerves were that WWE simply went off typical script. The dominant build of the Hardys was squashed a month in. Bayley was belittled and given no comeuppance.
I cannot say what WWE is attempting to accomplish with Raw. They belittle their audience and force their wrestlers to work down to the common denominator. If SmackDown is not a good enough example of the right direction, why not just check out NXT which has not even been that great but rises to the higher spotlights with strong character-building?
Don't even get me started on WWE deciding to make fun of fans at such an extreme level that the next Raw PPV is called Great Balls of Fire. It's almost as if WWE doesn't want the Raw events to be watched.
Here I am crying at WWE for being terrible, yet I'll tune in again on Monday. I'll probably even be excited for it. Hey, we did get Samoa Joe winning in the main event. Who doesn't want to see monsters collide with Brock Lesnar vs. Joe? That's a dream match. I do worry it will just be a squash though because Lesnar can't work more than ten minutes.
Ultimately, Extreme Rules failed because it proved the bookers want to be the stars of the show. Let the talent be the ones who get people talking because whoever is behind the curtain will never get over with work like this. I'm sorry for not giving readers more than this for this show, but it just didn't deserve it.