Extreme Rules

[goodhelmet]

Miz vs. Santino

- I didn't watch this but I think opening in the equivalent spot of a HEAT match is the right place for the Miz. I think he should be used to put over any babyface they want to give a win to including Ryback, Brodus Clay and whoever else you can think of.

 

 

Randy Orton vs. Kane

- I enjoyed this more than the Mania match. I think it went on a little too long but it was ok.

[goodhelmet]

Brodus Clay vs. Dolph Ziggler

- The crowd let out some huge "Lets go Ziggler" chants and booed Clay. This lasted a little longer than your typical Clay match with Ziggler controlling early but this felt more like a NXT match. Damn, if Ziggler got this kind of support, Sheamus has no shot working babyface tonight. I also have to say that they have really killed Vickie off. She used ot get nuclear heat when she was "Sleeping" with the guys she was managing. Now, no one gives a shit.

[goodhelmet]

Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes

- I thought Show abusing Cody was pretty fun while it lasted. Crap finish and the heel crowd is shitting on Show.

[goodhelmet]

Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus

1st Fall - Fucking awesome. Big power moves by Sheamus and Daniel Bryan being a master of the ring. The mat work was sweet, splitting the fingers, the cool twisitng pin combo where he stepped on Sheamus's arm while he was tied up like a pretzel. The focus on the shoulder by Bryan later in the fall. When the ref was giving the five count, I was praying DB would give the old " I have until 5". Just this first fall at Mania would have been awesome.

 

2nd Fall - Right into the Yes Lock and DB forces Sheamus to pass out. Pretty freaking great so far. If Sheamus wrestles with his arm dangling the rest of the match, it would be the greatest performance of his career.

 

3rd Fall - Awesome beginning with Bryan charging the corner again to start the fall but met with a Brogue Kick. Sheamus sells the arm most of the fall but the crowd boos him when he stands alone to set up the final Brogue Kick.

 

This is the best match of Sheamus's career. I was sort of wishing for an AJ run-in and heel turn to give DB the belt but I'll take an awesome amtch anyday of the week.

[Kostka]

Sheamus/Bryan was excellent. The way each fall built to the next felt almost like an old school NWA title match or something. Beautiful pacing and Bryan came off as the fucking smart wrestling machine that he needed to. Bryan worked an 06 ROH title match on WWE PPV. I loved Sheamus' selling the arm through his whole comeback of the third fall. The crowd booed because Bryan is untouchable right now, but they really built to that comeback like a motherfucker. Awesome polish hammers. I agree that the lack of AJ in some capacity knocks this down from being the true MOTY for me, if only because her involvement in this storyline was too heavy to not include... which seems like a weird complaint, but truly great matches tie together important story points. Sheamus just....won. Which was awesome though, anyway you slice it. Great match.

[goodhelmet]

Ryback vs. Two Jobbers

- I like the way they are inroducing Ryback but the crowd chanting Goldberg just kills the guy's aura.

[Ricky Jackson]

Awesome match between Sheamus and Bryan.

 

Oh Chicago and your "Goldberg" chants at Ryback.

 

Pretty good so far.

[rovert]

Tickled by the fact Punk watched the Smokey set going by his WWE Youtube profile while watching the street fight.

[goodhelmet]

Huh?

[goodhelmet]

CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho

- About as good as a street fight without blood can be. Jericho's chest looked like it was abused by Kobashi midway through the match. Some huge spots and it fle tlike a war when all was said and done. Hopefully this feud can end and Punk can go on to something more significant.

[anarchistxx]

Didn't even notice this was on until I saw stuff trending on Twitter. Gutted to have missed Bryan/Sheamus, sounds awesome.

 

Just caught most of Punk/Jericho and by fuck was it awesome. Crowd was super hot, solidly behind Punk and the match itself delivered. Love the fact they wrestled in kind of street gear, really added something to the feel of the match. The table spot was great, everything was really crisp in execution and looked brutal. There were cool ideas like the fire extinguisher counter to the Walls of Jericho, some of the nearfalls sucked me in, especially the Anaconda Vice. Easily the best match I've seen since Punk/Cena last year. Brilliant stuff, had me marking out in a room on my own at 3AM watching a pixellated stream.

 

I don't really get the dynamic of this main event; is Lesnar meant to be heel, face or in the middle? Cena seems full on tweener at this point, they spent a lot of time before the match picking up the dueling chants in the crowd. Lesnar doesn't look anywhere near as ripped as he has been.

 

EDIT: Man, a helpless Cena being towelled of blood while Lesnar laughs in the background is the best image in the WWE in years, this is awesome.

[goodhelmet]

Lesnar vs. Cena

- As a match, this was nothing. As a spectacle, it was so different from anything that WWE has presented in the last ten years that it was worth watching, especially the first 5 minutes or so. After that, it dragged as an extended squash which is the vibe I think they were going for. Lesnar tying Cena up by his own chain was pretty fucking cool. I have to say though, when Lesnar busts your head open in the first 30 seconds and you come back with those weak ass worked punches, it just fucks everything up. The first ref bump looked like the first legitimate ref bump they have ever done. The second one was hokey as hell. Holy fuck ,what the fuck was Brock Lesnar thinking with that tumble over the ropes.

 

And what the fuck were they thinking with that result???

[anarchistxx]

So the main event was superb as well. Lesnar was just insanely good in this. His grin of delight and arms raise celebration after he flew out of the ring. Lifting the referee with one hand and tossing him back in the ring. Wiping Cena’s blood down his body. You totally bought him as a vicious badass who actively enjoys causing pain. Understated too, not like your typical WWE monster heel. Not sure it did much for WWEs involvement in anti-bullying campaingns but highly enjoyable to watch.

 

The whole match was stiff as fuck, two hardway cuts. And then Cena goes and wins. What an anticlimax. They build Brock up, both before and during the match as an unstoppable monster, and then he loses clean to the guy who jobbed to Albert two weeks ago. Unbelievably stupid. What a downer to end on. Presumably Lesnar gets the win back at the next event; if not they've just destroyed their biggest draw in one night.

 

EDIT: But damn, this closing promo Cena is giving with blood running down his face turned the crowd, probably the best he's done in years. Still doesn't change the fact that very much the wrong man won.

 

The more I think of it the Tensai job the other night was probably Cena's punishment/compromise for refusing to job tonight. Perhaps that's why he's off for a while, suspension/dispute over tonight's result, from the sound of his promo he's taking a lot of time off.

 

The sensible result was Lesnar destroying him tonight and Cena getting his win back at Wrestlemania.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

That main event was awesome until the finish. It was just so different and I was pretty stoked on the prospect of Brock bringing his unique style to WWE main events but him jobbing took a lot of the wind out of that sail. They must really think he's gonna flake on them soon.

 

Uh, is Cena retiring? What the fuck is this speech?

[Kostka]

Lesnar was fucking God in that match. What an amazing ass beating, what a fucking dick. Felt like Rocky vs Ivan Drago or some shit. I loved it, even though Cena winning seemed premature.

[Victator]

And what the fuck were they thinking with that result???

Trusting the franchise of the company more than a guy who might flake out in a month.

 

This was a great match and Brock's expressions made it. His look of shock when Cena nearly decapitated him was great. Then post match his look of shock. Being all "Only in America" was great. I can't wait to see his rampage tomorrow. F5 for Hornswoggle.

[Ricky Jackson]

Pretty crazy main event. Did the right guy go over? I don't know. But I don't think Brock was hurt any by losing the way he did. Wonder if Cena legit hurt his arm. Brock almost pulled a Mania 19 level crazy botch with the dive spot.

[Strummer]

I didn't mention it for fear of being scoffed at but I had a feeling with the way Cena had been booked the last few weeks that he was going over Lesnar. It's just the way WWE does business. He had done 2 clean jobs in a couple weeks and there was no way he was losing another big match

[KrisZ]

I'm thinking that the story is that Cena won a shoot and he thinks he will be fired by Big Johnny because he wasn't supposed to win but won anyway.

[Kostka]

I thought Brock gave one of the best heel performances I've ever seen. He was such an overwhelming wrecking machine, a scary asshole...truly unstoppable... his expressions were perfect...stiffing the piss out of Cena, throwing him around, ripping his arm off, tying his feet together with his own fucking chain...that insane spot where he fell on his head, got up and laughed about it... wiping Cenas blood on his chest and licking it off. Lesnar definitely should've won this shit clean, but awesome fucking match.

[Ricky Jackson]

Based on Meltz's reaction, I sense five snowflakes for the main event. It was pretty great. The comparison to Rocky IV is spot on.

[Strummer]

lost in all this is that Punk is headed towards 6 months with the title. Yeah the title doesn't mean as much but they seem to be invested in him as a top guy.

 

Hopefully that is the blowoff to Punk/Jericho as I can't think of any reason after losing at 2 straight PPVs they could rematch Jericho again

[NintendoLogic]

Cross-posted from DVDVR.

 

Orton/Kane was pretty bad. Lots of pointless walk-and-brawl with a your turn-my turn finishing stretch. And Zack Ryder came across as even more of a chump, which I didn't think was possible.

 

It almost seemed like they were going for a double turn with Show being a sore loser and Rhodes leaving under his own power. Has there ever been a good tables match?

 

Sheamus/Bryan was fucking great. It's easily the WWE MOTY and probably the overall one as well. Not only that , Bryan looked like a total boss. He won his loss by submission (albeit Austin/Dusty style with the face passing out), and he lost the first fall by disqualification by kicking Sheamus' ass too badly. I love it when heels get intentionally DQed to set up a fall.

 

I was disappointed that the jobbers from St. Louis didn't heel on the Chicago crowd by mentioning the Cardinals.

 

Punk/Jericho is a match that would have been ten times better with blood. It was dull in spots, but it really picked up from the fire extinguisher spot on. I especially liked them pointing out how stupid it is to observe a rope break in a no-DQ match. Punk kicking out of a Codebreaker on a steel chair was a bit much, though. And shouldn't Jericho have been disqualified for drinking within 12 hours of a WWE event?

 

No Kharma was a letdown, but it's good to see Layla again. It seemed to me like Nikki was going into business for herself by kicking out at one on everything. I guess they're going to save Kharma killing the Bellas for Raw Starring Brock Lesnar.

 

Cena/Lesnar was an awesome spectacle. Lesnar came across like the biggest prick ever. And Cena spent most of the match bleeding and selling, which are two things he's really good at. Finish was shit, but what are you going to do?

 

Really good show overall.

[Jingus]

Has there ever been a good tables match?

The Dudleys/Hardys match from Rumble 2000 seemed like it invented the formula which pretty much every tables match since then has copied. It still holds up, even though in hindsight it kinda looks like they were trying to do a TLC match sans ladders.

[shoe]

I'm pretty shocked with the result of the main event. I thought Lesnar was going to get the Hogan in WCW push from 1994. Though the WWE is weird. I hope they don't pull an Invasion on Lesnar.