Rewind-A-Wai #157 will be released this Thursday on the POST Wrestling Café.
This week’s review will focus on WWE Extreme Rules 2012 from Chicago, as chosen by Espresso Executive Producer @davidporges.
Watch WWE Extreme Rules (WWE Network account required):
Leave us your feedback, memories, or questions in the thread.
WWE Extreme Rules
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Chicago, Illinois at Allstate Arena
*Extreme Rules Match: Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena
*WWE Divas Championship: Nikki Bella (c) vs. Layla
*WWE Heavyweight Championship - Chicago Street Fight: CM Punk (c) vs. Chris Jericho
*Ryback vs. Aaron Relic & Jay Hatton
*World Heavyweight Champion - Two-of-Three-Falls: Sheamus (c) vs. Daniel Bryan
*Intercontinental Championship - Tables Match: Big Show (c) vs. Cody Rhodes
*Dolph Ziggler vs. Brodus Clay
*Falls Count Anywhere: Randy Orton vs. Kane
Plenty to like about this show in Chicago. Bryan/Sheamus 2/3 falls was, at one point, the best match of Sheamus’ career. It was a helluva make-good for the 18 second debacle that served as the catalyst to make Bryan for life and he got to showcase his best in the world skillset in a lengthy match. The Punk/Jericho street fight was far better than the WM match they’ve had as it bolstered his title run and credibility.
Lesnar/Cena pushed the boundaries of the PG era. It was a choice at the time to have Brock lose his first match in 8 years post-UFC run. This is way, way before WWE and UFC were under the same umbrella. My, my, have times changed.
There was filler sprinkled throughout Extreme Rules but those three matches carried it.
An all time memorable show from my fandom, the return of Brock Lesnar to the WWE felt mind blowing and exciting at a time where professional wrestling was mainly unexciting. Brock-Cena was a very unique match in presentation and execution, one that felt genuinely different to the tired main event style of the time. As a 13 year old watching, I remember having arguments with kids in school on whether or not this match was ‘real’. It honestly felt that the tide was shifting and we were geared for a new era that was sports based and MMA inspired. Obviously things would go back to normal and Brock himself would go back to working a regular main event style but this match is still a very strong and striking return. I think it would have been considered to be more of a landmark match in company history if not overshadowed by a shitty finish and an extremely weird out of place post match Cena promo.
Canonically this show is very important in my personal history.
I go to this show with my then girlfriend and prior to the show I go get us custom T shirts
(you can see us on screen in the 3rd row) made at One Hour Tees and develop a relationship with the owner Ryan there.
I also meet Marty DeRosa at the show who’s gone on to become a mentor in my life and years later helps me get hired at said One Hour Tees.
I had driven down to Miami with my family the previous month to attend that WrestleMania and enjoyed the show, but this one personally felt like more of a WrestleMania caliber show to me.
Bryan and Sheamus was a hard hitting match and lasted more than 10 seconds which was great.
Punk vs Jericho just never seemed to have good chemistry in the ring. This feud reminded me of the AJ Styles/Kevin Owens feud where none of the matches were “bad” but they also never had one that stuck out.
The true main event was seeing Brock come back and destroy Cena.
I didn’t get into Wrestling until WM20 so I only ever saw best of complications after he’d been gone but now he was back as this UFC killer, which made it even more head scratching why he would lose in his first match back.
I forget how it came off on screen but I remember the energy being sucked out of the arena as it didn’t make any sense and having to explain on the ride home how at that time, Cena just always won and not even Brock was immune.
Extreme Rules was an excellent show, enhanced by a passionate Chicago crowd that elevated every moment. It would have been my show of the year if not for King of Pro Wrestling. The matches featuring Sheamus/Bryan, Punk/Jericho, and Cena/Lesnar were outstanding, with the rest of the card being solid. However, the finish with Cena winning remains puzzling to this day. Bringing in Brock as an unstoppable MMA star only to have him lose flukily in his first match back was a strange choice. Despite this, my enjoyment of the show remains undiminished.
The Cena / Brock match was unlike anything I’d ever seen presented in the company. The fact they had a lot of people questioning if things were a work within the first several minutes of the match, once you saw Cena absolutely gushing blood, is one of the reasons this match stands out to this day.
The outcome of the match will never not be strange. Brock losing combined with Cena’s bizarre post-match promo, is something I’ve still never heard reasonably explained.
