Extreme Rules 2015 As It Happens...

[...TG]

Is Rollins also banned from using the RKO? Because Orton trying to escape out the door, Kane knocking him back into a Rollins RKO and Rollins escaping would be interesting to me.

 

Good call!

[CodySave]

OK, that was like 75% of my proposed finish.

[goodhelmet]

Seth Rollins vs. Randy Orton (WWE World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match)

- This was ok but I have been teased this past month with blood and there has been no blood on this PPV.

- Randy getting a Yes chant for the punt was amusing as was the Pedigree.

- The Kane stuff at the end was over but it was stupid and did nothing for me. When Kane is the centerpiece of your championship program, count me out.

[hammerva]

I will give credit for Rollins actually doing something to get the win. I was sure that after the Rollins choke slam and the cover he would beat Orton

[Exposer]

Orton vs. Rollins (Cage WWE Title Match/RKO Banned) - The match was boring. I liked the pedigree spot though. The finish was shitty. The RKO was banned and Rollins wins the stupid match with it.

[The Chief]

Flat ending to what was a pretty fun show overall.

[C.S.]

I didn't mind the match or the ending. I just hope this non-controversial "controversy" the announcers were erroneously hyping up - Rollins using the RKO even though it was banned for Orton - doesn't mean we're getting a Rollins/Orton rematch.

[Parties]

Bad main event which spoke to them not knowing what to do with Orton right now. He's in a weird spot where they feel obliged to push him when what he needs is a blood feud in the midcard. Pair him with Wyatt, get him out of the title picture. Rollins vs. random midcarder would be better than this. The Kane focus is that Vince loves him and he's a model company man, yes?

[Seej]

Better show than I expected it to be. Actually, the only match I wasn't really into was Orton-Seth, but I liked the chaos at the end.

[Matt D]

What was the deal with the ref checking the guys' hands during the last man standing match. At one point, I thought that he passed a long a blood pellet to Reigns like at Mania.

[jcmmnx]

Tag title match was an easy motn for me.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I liked the show pretty much alright as a fun excuse to shoot the shit with my brother, but nothing mind-blowing. There really was not anything bad on the show, but there was not anything great. I think I may be underrating Reigns/Show because I was enjoying talking to my brother and I was not paying attention as closely as normal. I thought it was the second best match. I actually thought Cena/Rusve was the best match, but now I am thinking I may have been distracted also during this. I really enjoy matches built around actually winning so seeing them constantly trying to win the match was refreshing, but I see the points about the lack of violence. It was the worst of their three matches no doubt.

I have loved the Kane angles the past two weeks. The main event feud has seen some of their best writing in ages in terms of building compelling segments and episode-length storylines like the old days. The way they ended the segment in London was such dogshit. It is not their best comprehensive writing more just in building to a finish, but they still fuck up the finish. I liked the finish of the cage match. i am by no means a purist about respecting stips to a fault. If you have a good reason internally, then I am cool. Rollins dropkicked the cage door into the Gatekeeper Kane and Gatekeeper Kane said fuck that. Perfectly fine wrestling logic. We were swearing at the TV thinking Kane chokeslam was going to get Rollins the win, I liked Rollins winning via RKO. I hope he says it he used a Diamond Cutter tomorrow night.

 

Nikki Bella had another good match, but that's like saying the sun will come up tomorrow. I am really tempted to do a career retrospective to see if she was secretly this good her whole career and no one noticed. What the fuck hat was Brie wearing tonight was she hunting Wabbits?

[Dylan Waco]

They killed every heel with a chance to hit the next level. Some not permanently, but Rusev is finished.

 

On the plus side Reigns is getting over despite their efforts to kill him and is at minimum a very good wrestler at this point.

 

I enjoyed the show as a whole despite some comically stupid booking decisions, the ridiculousness of the main event, and bad even by WWE standards commentary. In large part this is because I thought every match was at least decent, I loved heel Sheamus' post-match antics, I really enjoyed the tag title match with Cesaro look like 2/14 level Cesaro and the LMS being so good made me smile.

[Jimmy Redman]

Nikki Bella had another good match, but that's like saying the sun will come up tomorrow. I am really tempted to do a career retrospective to see if she was secretly this good her whole career and no one noticed. What the fuck hat was Brie wearing tonight was she hunting Wabbits?

 

For what it's worth, when the Bellas got their first big in-ring push in 2011 I was impressed with them, they were good at working the bitchy twins gimmick even then, and Nikki was always the better and more committed heel of the two. I don't remember her ring work (or Brie's for that matter, although Brie was the better match worker during their first run) really being of the standard that it is now though. You can clearly see their improvement, and the influence of their respective partners on their work, with Brie flying around with dropkicks and stuff, while Nikki added strength and the Cena power spots. They're both better than they used to be. But they were already good before they left the company.

[KrisZ]

This was a total conflict for me because there was some really good wrestling on this show especially the Sheamus/Dolph, Reigns/Show, and New Day/Cesaro & Kidd matches with the latter being the MOTN but damn the booking was horrible in the matches that counted the most.

 

That main event was total fucking bullshit from the work to the whole Kane being pushed like 1984 Hulk Hogan at the end and then you had Cena/Rusev which Rusev totally should've won and Cena didn't even have to get pinned so there was a perfect out but no they had to do a bullshit finish then go full force with their Lana separation deal which was obviously going to happen but it doesn't make it right.

 

Fuck I am more pissed now that the PTBN Reaction Show fell apart tonight due to technical difficulties....

[cm funk]

MOTN: tag team titles

 

Very close runner up: LMS

 

Worst match: Russian Chain Match. Terrible.

 

That's 3 strong PPV singles matches in a row from Roman, all very different, and the backlash to him not being Bryan seems to have finally subsided. The buildup to WM once they got their shit together and the match itself with Brock went a long way to rehab him. A match like this just cements it. Kudos to Big Show. I know a lot of people here don't like him and/or are sick of him, but you have to give him props for his effort here.

 

Sheamus/Ziggler was really good and I liked the flash pin rollup, but I thought it needed more time as someone earlier noted. Not like the show was pressed for time. The whole 'Kiss Me Arse' stip was dumb, but at least Sheamus comes out of it looking like a real bastard

 

rest of the card was just kind of there. nothing too bad, nothing too great.

 

re: the bottles of H2O and stuff under the ring, it's always there, in a tub of ice. It's for the ring crew/production people/ringside people etc. who shuffle around during the backstage stuff and video packages (example tonight the long Cena/Rusev package crew was down setting up the corner lights). It's just one of those things they always have there and have had for years. They also have a tub back behind the time keeper/ring announcer. Sometimes in hardcore type matches you'll see someone grab a water bottle from under the ring, loosen the cap, and whack someone in the head with it

 

a more interesting question on a related topic, I always wonder about the announcers having to piss during a show. I'm sure they're able to sneak to the designated nearest bathroom if they need to, but I wonder if they don't sometimes piss in a bottle under the desk when the lights are dimmed.

[UKWildcat]

 

 

 

a more interesting question on a related topic, I always wonder about the announcers having to piss during a show. I'm sure they're able to sneak to the designated nearest bathroom if they need to, but I wonder if they don't sometimes piss in a bottle under the desk when the lights are dimmed.

Jim Ross was harping on this on his podcast before the New Japan PPV with people saying wear dark pants and just piss yourself.

 

 

 

[El-P]

It's a little bit more than three hours. Just contain yourself. It's like those people in trains and airplanes who just have to go to the bathroom and bother you every hour or so. Fuck those people.

[goc]

This was a weird reverse of my usual WWE PPV watching habits where I skip most of the undercard and then watch the main event. I watched every match except Rollins/Orton because well, I just knew better. I didn't care about it going in and I figured there was no way they were going to outdo the LMS match.

 

I expected Reigns/Show to be decent but they really blew away that expectation. I think the only problem with the match is that they went too long and they should have just finished on that huge Spear through the Spanish announce table. Flipping the table over on top of him was overkill especially since it didn't look like it was holding him down at all. I kind of think they need to start working towards getting the title onto Reigns at SummerSlam. I don't know if that means a triple threat Brock/Reigns/Rollins match though.

 

My earlier thoughts questioning the match placement turned out to be totally wrong on my part. I thought Rusev/Cena was going to be much better than it was, and it's a good thing they DIDN'T save it until right before the main event because they would have left the PPV feeling even flatter than it did.

[Strummer]

of course they've booked themselves into a corner with Cena/Rusev. If Cena wins it kills Rusev but even if it's a swerve and Lana is playing Cena and helps Rusev win then they still have to continue the feud, right? There is no way there are going to blow of a feud with Cena looking like an a total imbecile.

[WingedEagle]

2 good things about the main event: 1) It didn't run long like a Raw main event so despite not being a good match and a shit finish, I got to bed at a more respectable time. 2) Tonight's Monday so we can start over.

[goc]

I don't know what they are gonna do for Payback's main event. I assume some weak 4 way with Rollins/Orton/Kane/Reigns.

 

As far as the chain match goes, since they actually did give a finish to Ambrose/Harper they should have gone the non-finish route for Cena/Rusev. They should have just had them both wind up touching the 4th corner at the same time. Then they could have done some long drawn out brawl afterwards that required a ton of people to break them up. They needed the time filler anyway.

[The Chief]

They've kind of briefly alluded to Reigns retiring Big Show sometime in the near future. If they want to, they can go the same route with Rollins and Kane.

 

One can dream.

[El-P]

That Russian chain match was pretty awful. And got no heat to boot. The chain was ridiculously long, which made the whole "touch the four corner" gimmick a joke. Not that's it's a really good gimmick anyway, but still, when you can just walk around the ring it makes for really stupid and awkward spots. And that Lana spot… ugh… Staight out of Sable/Debra playbook, and totally out of character. Rusev has lost so much of his appeal since Mania. It was to be expected, but still. I guess Lana turns face at some point. Blah...

 

The tag team match was a lot of fun. The New Day gimmick has basically been saved just by turning heel. Cesaro was awesome here (well, "as usual"). Gotta love Natalya's funky outfit too. I can live with Kidd/Cesaro chasing the New Day and getting the belts back eventually. Of course they'll probably get split up because how dare they get over without Vince's benediction…

[Coffey]

Why do people hate the Lana spot? That was the only part of the entire match that I actually enjoyed.