[2019-07-14-WWE-Extreme Rules] Aleister Black vs Cesaro

[KawadaSmile]

Fucking absurd. MOTY shit right here.

Black and Cesaro looked like a million bucks and working a match around inside leg kicks rocked. 

[Superstar Sleeze]

Cesaro vs Aleister Black - Extreme Rules 2019

I wouldnt say this was Match of the Year level, but I thought this was a total banger. What really stood out to me about this was the level of effort and motivation. This felt like 2013 all over again. Everything felt very urgent and explosive. Aleister Black looked really good during Halftime Heat, but felt like just another guy during his run with Ricochet. This was a great coming out party. I love the return of a Dutch Kickboxer. I loved the attrition of working over Cesaro's leg with those inside kicks. Black comes off as a slightly more kickboxer-oriented Kota Ibushi with all the moonsaults. Black looked ferocious. Cesaro looked like 2013 Cesaro. Those European Uppercuts were awesome. That finish was absolutely awesome. Explosive and out of nowhere in a good way. Some selling issues (people over sell initially, if they used a register instead of the annoying  "oversell then don't sell" that would be better) and some psychology issues (head rocking spots puts Cesaro in a bad spot where he has to sell, but get back up. Put the head rocking spots in the back end and have Black miss a couple at the beginning to create that tension and blow off the head rocking spots at the back end) hold this back. But I dont want to bitch about this too much. I am nitpicking. We need more matches that bang. More matches that feel urgent. There are too many plodding walkthrough matches where the wrestlers are just sleepwalking through their matches. This reminds me of Rey vs Psychosis at Bash at the Beach 1996 as a way to get people over in the debut match. ****1/4

[SmartMark15]

This was awesome. Just a hard-hitting, tightly packed, and concise match to put both guys over. Simple stuff like how urgent every move felt and how each wrestler seemed to really struggle to be able to get into an advantageous position made this really stand out. There's honestly so much to love about this match but I think Sleave pretty much covered all the best points above. I popped particularly hard for Cesaro popping Black off his shoulders for the Uppercut. 

****

[ShittyLittleBoots]

A very enjoyable sub-10 minute strikefest with good psychology around Aleister's kicks & his attack on Cesaro's leg. The finishing sequence was pretty amazing. ***1/4

[Tenese Sarwieh]

A tremendous sprint of excellent striking, submissions and logic. You could totally see this being in a G1 and one of the top WWE matches of the year for me. 
 

[Makai Club #1]

Not sure what was with the crowd, this was Philly, right? They made little noise until the big moments of the match. Everything in-between was met with utter silence, and that's a shame because I think this match was pretty good. Glad we got to see Black show off his kicks though, with Black using them to zero in on Cesaro's leg. Cesaro sold is fairly well I though. There was also a few nice counters like the Cesaro springboard attempt into a running knee by Black and Black attempting something only to get a nasty uppercut. The match had a nice finish. Flash KOs are the best but it didn't help the match in the sense that it felt incomplete. ***1/2

[Boss Rock]

Excellent match and worked at much more of a breakneck speed than you normally see in WWE. Tremendous chemistry between these two and wouldn't mind seeing more from them.

****1/4