The Horror Show at Extreme Rules had some memorable moments. There were title changes, major film productions and controversial endings, to say the least.
This will certainly be one of the yearly spectaculars that is either maligned or enjoyed in the future.
It was filmed at the Performance Center in Orlando, FL, as we continue through the COVID crisis on 7/19/20 and we’ll briefly recap the broadcast for you below.
Kevin Owens defeated Murphy via pin fall with a stunner.
The pre-show gave us another display of the dominance of Kevin Owens, who certainly has to be a player as we move into the latter stages of the year.
He indirectly continues his feud with Seth Rollins via Murphy, coming off the top rope with a picture perfect moonsault before issuing him a stunner, free of charge, for the pin fall and the victory.
Shinsuke Nakamura/Cesaro defeat the New Day in a tables match to become the new Smackdown tag team champions.
This was terrific. Considering all four of the men involved in this spectacle, this delivered. What I mean is that generally when a match is a “tables” match, the excitement level isn’t very high.
Kingston and Big E. were absolutely off the charts, firing on all cylinders as they do on a nightly occasions and Nakamura was Nakamura, which is all you need to say.
The true star here was Cesaro. Cesaro has been an overlooked talent for years, something I’m sure we’d all agree on, and tonight, the end of the match saw a souble tables spot where he used his incredible strength to put Kingston through the tables after hoisting him to the top rope and powerbombing him through them to capture the titles.
This should be some entertaining television as we get rematches and new challengers moving forward.
Bayley defeated Nikki Cross via pin fall after a brass knuckles shot to retain the Smackdown Women’s title.
This was a fine match given the time, but the story here was the outside interference.
This was truly the first time in quite a while that we’d had the opportunity to see Cross as a singles star and she was incredible, hitting many of her signature spots for several near falls.
Bayley almost had the match won after a super plex, but after some back and forth, Sasha Banks distracted the ref and tossed her brass knuckles to Bayley who took advantage od the distraction to strike true and get the pin fall. Bayley retains and moves on to new challengers.
We find out that due to a failed physical, we will not be getting Apollo Crews and MVP for the US Title.
MVP declares himself the new US Champ, because allegedly, the failed physical was a result of the beatdown that he and Lashley put on Crews on Raw. Um, okay? How about you time out your shows better? I have no idea what to say here. I expect a match on Raw.
Seth Rollins defeats Rey Mysterio in an “Eye For An Eye” match with a Blackout Stomp.
I can’t even lie to you here folks. I have absolutely no idea how type what happened here into an article.
These ring generals had a great match before things took a turn for the “Mae Young worst”. What did you expect heading into a match where you literally had to take an eye for the victory?
In pro wrestling, we have to suspend belief on many occasions and this was one of those moments.
Mysterio and Rollins went after it and where it ended was when Rollins had Mysterio on the outside, he was raking Rey’s eye into the ring steps like he did with the initial injury.
Rollins backed up, issued a Blackout Stomp and then proceeded to throw up after he realized what he’d done. The medical team was quick to react and they literally said, “it’s out”. We literally heard a team of professionals tell us that a man’s eye was taken from his head in a match on pay per view.
The “crowd” booed as the “Monday Night Messiah” himself was sickened at what he’d done and Mysterio was whisked away from ringside like a thief in the night. Is Rey retiring? Is Dominic to become a fulltime wrestler with a half blind father managing him? The match itself was just fine, but the end? Yikes.
Sasha Banks and Bayley are backstage and we get the “serious voices” as it relates it what happened to Rey Mysterio. The jokes follow about not seeing double and Banks and Asuka will do business next.
Sasha Banks defeats Asuka via “referee decision” to become the new Raw Women’s champion.
There’s a lot to unpack here, so we’ll do it quickly.
Asuka and Banks tore into each other, I don’t think that come as any great surprise.
At the end of the match, Sasha Banks gets into a shouting match with the referee after trying to hit Asuka with the Women’s title.
Asuka proceeds to blow the green mist into the referee’s face and while the ref is out, Bayley, at ringside, proceeds to strip off the referee’s shirt after taking Asuka out and as Banks capitalizes and covers Asuka, Bayley counts to three and declares Banks the champion.
So at the moment, Sasha Banks is the “new” Raw Women’s champion, but we should expect this feud to continue, probably as early as tomorrow’s Raw.
Given the fact that this wasn’t Summerslam and the two Women involved work beautifully together inside the squared circle, I don’t hate it. We’ll let this simmer for a short time.
Drew McIntyre defeats Dolph Ziggler in an “Extreme Rules” Match via pin fall with the Claymore Kick.
The stipulation was announced via Ziggler that this would be an Extreme Rules match, but only for Ziggler, so sort of a one-sided sort of stipulation.
These two gave it their all and quite frankly, this is a match that definitely needs to happen again down the line.
Rumor and Innuendo has Randy Orton taking on McIntyre at Summerslam and that is totally the right call, but this was terrific.
The end came when Ziggler had McIntyre down and was “tuning up the band” in the vein of the great Shawn Michaels, looking to strike pay dirt with a superkick.
McIntyre evaded and struck quick and fast with a Claymore Kick, covering McIntyre and retaining the Raw World title.
We know as I just mentioned what is next for McIntyre, but this was a quick look for Ziggler as he looks to reestablish himself as a title contender.
Braun Strowman defeats Bray Wyatt in a Wyatt Swamp Fight.
No pin fall, no submission, this was a cinematic experience.
There were giant snakes, unseen foes and some of the tremendous Bray Wyatt cult leader that we’ve all known and loved.
This is something you definitely have to see for yourself as we got an incredibly vicious Braun Strowman who fought off a giant snake, set fire to a stranger and dealt with a teased affair of the heart made manifest.
The latter reference was the true high point of the match.
Alexa Bliss appeared during the cinematic, talking about how she and Strowman could have led a life together, but we actually saw her as “Sister Abigail” at one point, which was absolutely tremendous.
After haunting Strowman, he and Wyatt did battle once again before Strowman tossed Wyatt into the swamp, signaling that it was over, so I suppose declaring himself the winner.
“The Fiend” would emerge from the swamp and quite frankly, we have what should obviously be our Summerslam match, which should see a title change.
This was fun and well produced and a very interesting way to end the night. We had some great action, some tremendous title changes and a truly controversial ending as it relates to a first ballot “hall of famer” losing an eye. That was the Horror Show at Extreme Rules and overall, it wasn’t anything special.
Summerslam needs to truly fire on all cylinders, because this is the time to truly get eyes back on the product, instead of phoning it in.
