I enjoyed this show a lot more than I was expecting. It definitely wasnt great, but it was a step up from some of the atrocious Raws we’ve had to sit through recently. The WWE Title match and Roman/Lashley both delivered to me. I thought Strowman/Owens was fun and the finish was a good way for Owens to get a cheap win and Strowman to look strong. I do question the booking of an Iron Man match in this era though. I dont think that the WWE Universe has the maturity to see through a match, where they know how long it is going to be, as evidence by their obnoxious Royal Rumble style countdown every minute of the match almost.
The match did not pick up until the final 10 minutes really, because it doesnt matter how many falls there are early on, you know the match is going to be close by the time it gets to a few minutes left. I also feel like its stupid to show these guys, getting pinned multiple times in 1 match. It just doesnt feel all that believable to me. Also, whats up with Sin Cara using a version of the Destroyer? Is WWE going to be loosening up on piledrivers now? It would be a little strange if they allowed it just for this nothing preshow match.
If there were a popular three letter word that doesn’t exist in the dictionary to describe this show it would be “meh”.
All in all nothing was necessarily wrong with this show, but everything was most definitely “paint by the colors”. Very predictable and by the book.
My biggest compaint is the Hardy/Nakamura match. That was the one match I wanted to see. I don’t care if the ending was shitty, just give me five minutes of good wrestling between the two.
Anyways, I finished season 2 of GLOW tonight so that was definitely the highlight of my day. The WWE could stand to learn from GLOW when it comes to story structure and structuring a payoff.
As someone who watched the World Cup Final until 3am local time this was hardly worth getting up early for live.
The one match I was really looking forward to, Hardy-Nakamura, only lasted 6 seconds. Is Shinsuke possibly more injured then first thought?
Also I know a lot of fans complain about the New Japan referees, but after seeing McIntyre attack Rollins in ring to result in a DQ fall. But then McIntyre tosses Rollins outside ramming his back into the apron, before tossing him back inside and hitting a claymore kick, and the referee counts a Ziggler pinfall.
Topped all off by a good Iron Man match ending in a tie, for only 14 seconds of sudden death overtime with interface… Why even bother.
Remember if you by a front row ticket during a Extreme Rules match you can do run-ins.
This is the definition of a B show. My friends left with an hour to go in the show so they missed the beat 3 matches. Well we got a great stand with the big bump from Kevin Owens, Into good wrestling matches the end thanks to Styles versus Rusev and the Zigler versus Rollins matches, The early part of the show was weird and a lot of unusual finishes. There are some news coming out of the show but it just feels like this was a really good television show rather than a special. A solid 6 out of ten show.
Questions
Any word on Kevin Owens is he alright? What is the Kane injury an angle or is he actually hurt too?
Good luck guys with all of the wrestling watching over the next couple days your hard work is appreciated.
First time poster! Joined the Patreon yesterday… Happy to support!
I think this was a decent show: nothing super special but I didn’t mind watching it.
MOTN for me was Lashley-Reigns. Very physical with an unexpected finish that popped me pretty hard. This match made me excited for Lesnar-Lashley match, which I never would have expected.
Jeff Hardy getting hit in the dick twice had me laughing pretty hard.
Crashpad or not, the Owens bump was absolutely insane. He needs to slow it down a bit with these insane bumps.
The main event was good but weirdly booked. No way it need 7 falls halfway through. Also the restart shouldn’t have been used… it made Rollins looks like a geek. Would’ve preferred if the show ended with Rollins running out of time.
B Team winning the title warmed my heart even though I would be shocked if they are anything but transitional champions.
Everything else varied from passable to not worth mentioning.
This show was not very good. Paige is suddenly becoming the Kurt Angle of Smackdown. Her Tag Team Championship match was ruined an hour before the match. Her United States Championship was ruined seconds before the match. Her stipulation in the Women’s Championship Match proved completely ineffective and also ruined that match. She looked useless. Of course, Kurt looked like a goof by pumping up the crowd and restarting the match only to have it ruined seconds later. This show felt very 2000 WCW.
The crowd sucked the energy out of that Iron Man Match. At least Styles/Rusev was really good.
By the way, what happened to Corey Graves? Two years ago, he was a godsend to WWE announcing and now he’s one of the worst.
As for Hogan…if the Boys and Girls Club of America can put him in their Hall of Fame, I guess WWE felt they could him back in theirs.
I hope everyone is ready for a 3-year-long Roman Reigns title run, because this crowd did not make a strong case for putting fresh guys in the main event. The first couple times that they did the countdown was amusing, but it quickly became a huge distraction. Minus the crowd, I enjoyed the main event. I like the heel strategy of sacrificing a fall to completely incapacitate the opponent. You could argue that maybe they should have started off that way and had Rollins try to climb out of a huge hole, but I don’t think it hurt the match that much as Rollins was chasing Ziggler for more than half the match.
As an event, the first half was pretty forgettable, and was much more angle-driven than focused on the in-ring. Everything from Roman-Bob on was enjoyable and they set up a lot of potential feuds for SummerSlam. I would give this event a 5.5 out of 10, which I believe on the Tim Horton’s scale equates to a medium with milk and sugar, but feel free to correct me as I’m still figuring out the conversion rates.
Extreme rules was a pay-per-view. But there is no way it can be considered great with multiple injury non-matches, screwy finishes, and botches. New day/Sanity and Kevin Owens bump were the highlights. Ellsworth’s hanging suit being visible under his shirt really ruined the suspension of disbelief. It was great that a true wrestling match and IC title got the main event slot, but I was disappointed they felt the need to have so many falls.
After watching G1 this weekend I had zero expectations for the show. So I guess you can say this exceeded expectations. Instead of giving in depth analysis I’ll just give quick observations. At least the crowd reacts to the B Team act. Carmella doesn’t deserve to even be in the ring. Hopefully the crowd takes the Orton as a heel because he’s way better as a heel. I hope Lashley keeps the spear as a finisher because the delayed vertical is lame. I laughed the first 2 times the crowd counted down but then it really took away from the match. Suzuki vs Makabe will be a stiff brawl and is what I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I give tonight’s show a 6/10.
The show was just okay for me. The crowd really hurt what I thought were the 2 best matches, Lashley/Reigns and Ziggler/Rollins. It was an average show. I expect things to start to heat up with Summer Slam approaching. I may have enjoyed this show more if I hadn’t just watched Suzuki/Tanahashi, Sabre Jr/Ibushi and Omega/Naito put on absolute clinics this weekend!
As far as the Hogan thing goes, I really struggled with the poll you posted on Twitter. Ultimately, I voted yes to your question. I believe if his apology is heartfelt and he is truly contrite that he deserves a second chance. Professional wrestling has an ugly history and so many of the people that fans or The WWE hold on pedistal have done such egregious things(i.e. Ultimate Warrior and Jimmy Snuka). Those 2 men went to their graves w/o paying any pentence. In my eyes, Hogan has tried to right this wrong and in doing so deserves this 2nd chance. Let’s hope he doesn’t disappoint us again.
I missed the kick off due to the early 8am start in Australia. But everything I saw was just filler.
Braun and Owens was fine, nothing special but I did enjoy the end spot a lot, very dangerous but a great throwback.
Both women’s matches reminded me of the divas era and I feel bad for Asuka being stuck in a comedy angle. Hopefully come Summerslam we get some changes in the women’s division.
Lots of head scratching with the US title and both Tag matches. Did you see Matt’s tweet after the match? He said ‘maybe it’s time for US to move on…’
Fuck Bob was sweating a lot.
At least they got it right with the hottest talent on the roster in Seth Rollins main eventing the card, shame the last 20 minutes of the match was dog shit and the crowd destroyed any ‘momentum’ of it moving forward
2/10
Hogan unfortunately returning makes me think that in the WWE’s eyes the Andre doc was more about rehabbing him than Andre’s life.
I really didn’t like tonight’s show apart from KO winning because that means Shania Twain will sing his favourite song. Whether he’s alive to see it is another matter.
Thankfully I’m on such high from the G1 and the World Cup that I don’t regret staying up till 4am to watch the lacklustre PPV.
I really enjoyed the back to back Nakamura/Orton angle and Braun KO match, Nakamura’s facials and Ortons heel work were extremely well done and I thought the bump KO took was a great way to book the finish as it protected both guys.
The women’s division felt more like the Divas division tonight and sadly I think they have killed the Asuka character we all knew and loved. Glad Lashley won; it’s sad but no matter who they pair with Roman the crowd seemingly doesn’t care.
The iron man match felt like a waste - I would have preferred a classic lengthy singles match between two guys who can go. It’s not like it’s G1 season or anything
I give the show a medium with one milk for some good moments and unexpected outcomes that are interesting but the show is just too long and has too much that isn’t classified as good to be overly enthused about.
I enjoyed the show. The biggest hope I have coming out of this show has nothing to do with WWE, but I hope that Evil shows up in his upcoming G1 matches with the words “Dolph Ziggler” on his singlet. The show was certainly interesting in some of the implications. Is Roman Reigns out of the main event picture? Has WWE created the problem of hijacking their own shows, or is it just the crowd wanting to hijack the show to get famous? Where does Seth Rollins go from here? The show was a good set up for SummerSlam. 6 spray tans out of 10. In regards to Hogan, considering Hogan is known for his tall tales and dishonesty, no, he hasn’t changed and it’s basically WWE trying to get some publicity with a redemption story. I’d believe Hulk Hogan shit a live chicken in the parking lot before I believed anything he said.
i hate braun. kevin owens is wheelchair bound.
i enjoyed the women’s title match. they haven’t fucked up ronda yet and mickie is an amazing seller.
aj styles vs rusev was amazing. rusev’s selling of his leg was great especially early in the match. however, i don’t want to see the english/ rusev breakup.
the main event was probably good, but i couldn’t get into it because i was distracted by the crowd countdowns and that zoom in shot while rollins and ziggler were having a conversation. if wwe is going to treat people like idiots they’re going to chant like idiots. i just wish it wasn’t during this match because those two guys especially rollins deserved better.
I was not disappointed as I thought the show might suck and it did. Both women’s matches were terrible and why would you pin DB and not Kane?
The main even made me so glad for the G1. No beer drinking moron fans and no overbooked garbage. Can you imagine if Okada and Omega had quick falls like crap? It’s sad that the first two days of G1 have like 4 matches better than anything we saw tonight
When I get mad about the state of WWE and the crap they give us as fans. I watch the main event for this show and I realize that alot of these fans are getting exactly the product they deserve. What a terrible crowd. They definitely deserved this travesty of a show. Reigns and Lashley was probably the high point for me, but after a weekend of incredible wrestling at the G1…I am left wondering why I even bothered watching this.