Something Extreme Happened, But It Wasn't in the Ring

Photo courtesy: WWE.com

By Chad Smart

While watching WWE’s Extreme Rules pay per view, I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. Then something major did happen. News broke that Osama Bin Laden was dead. While this news is good to hear as it hopefully means the ongoing war in Afghanistan will soon come to an end and all the troops will be on their way home, there was a pay per view that needs some trivial opinions spoken about it.

Extreme Rules was a show with good action and lame finishes. Outside of the tag team title match, I don’t think there was really any bad match. My dislike for the show comes more from the guys whom I thought should win ending up with their shoulders on the mat.

CM Punk vs. Randy Orton’s Last Man Standing match opened the show with the shocking announcement from the RAW GM banning the New Nexus from ringside. Giving how inept the New Nexus has been presented over the last few months would it matter if they were at ringside? Randy Orton has dominated this feud so I was hoping Punk would pick up a victory. That didn’t happen. I still don’t understand the fans fascination with Orton and will continue to change the channel every time he’s on screen. I’m just one fan though, so the cheers of thousands override the disdain of one.

Rumors proved true as Sheamus defended the US Title against Kofi Kingston in a bonus match. When Sheamus got drafted to Smackdown, Smackdown had both the US and Intercontinental titles. Kofi being drafted to Raw foreshadowed his winning and taking the US title with him so each show has one supporting title. Again, good action nullified by an outcome which was never in doubt throughout the match.

Layla defeated Michelle McCool in a loser leaves WWE match. Word got out a day or two ago about McCool leaving WWE to spend time with Undertaker while he rehabs so the beat continues with a foregone conclusion in place. The shocking moment came after the match when Kharma (formerly Awesome Kong) debuted giving McCool the Implant Buster for good measure. Afterwards the rest of the Divas were shown backstage watching a monitor. I’m guessing they were supposed to be shocked and awed at Kharma’s appearance. Instead they all looked bored.

Cody Rhodes and Rey Mysterio had the rubber match of their feud. While I feel Cody should have won the match to help move him up the rungs of the heel ladder on Smackdown, WWE felt Rey should win to cap off their feud now that they’re on different shows. I sound like a broken record, good match bad outcome.

Much like the Sheamus/Kofi match, after the draft the outcome of the ladder match between Christian and Alberto Del Rio was only in doubt if WWE wanted to really throw a curveball at the fans. Thought this was a good ladder match with some psychology and innovative spots. I had some technical problems toward the end of the match and missed Christian actually winning. Glad to see Christian get his first WWE World title and hope he has a successful reign.

I don’t know if the Tag Team Title match was announced before the show or added during the show. For some reason it was a lumberjack match with Wade Barrett/Big Zeke taking the place of Heath Slater/Justin Gabriel as sacrificial lambs from the Corre to face Big Show/Kane. As I said earlier, this was the only bad match on the show. Looks like there will be more dissention within the Corre while Big Show/Kane will keep the titles while waiting on the next round of makeshift challengers.

During the main event was when news of Osama Bin Laden so excuse me if I watching John Cena win another title wasn’t my primary focus. I will admit during the match I had some thoughts John Morrison was actually going to win. I’ll give WWE credit for creating that suspense. On the other hand, I never felt like Miz was going to win. Even when he had the upper hand, I felt it was only a matter of time until he was beaten. I understand John Cena is the face of WWE, but his being champion is beyond played out. WWE needs to elevate new talent. Cena doesn’t need the title to have the fans cheer for him. Though with The Rock being on Raw tonight, Cena being champ will give them something to add to the ongoing feud.

Overall Extreme Rules was the epitome of a B level show. If you watched it you got some good action. If you missed it, you didn’t miss anything monumental. John Cena winning a title isn’t meaningful it’s boring. That’s just my opinion. I could be bias.

UPDATED: After I submitted this for posting, I realized I forgot to mention the Country Whipping match between Michael Cole/Jack Swagger and Jerry Lawler/Jim Ross. I’m not going to give any thoughts on the match. Just saying I realized I forgot about it and hope my memory won’t let me down by replaying any part of the match.