WWE Extreme Rules 2015 PPV Review
Introduction: Going into this show I was expecting a fairly
solid show but nothing special and that’s just about exactly
what we got. I wouldn’t say there was anything bad on this
show, not one specific bad match or one specific bad piece
of booking but this show wasn’t much to ride home about.
It wasn’t the sort of show you’d go back and re-watch,
nothing stood out that much as something you’d want to
see again. The main event under delivered and I think Seth
and Orton were very restricted by the cage stipulation but I
was pleased with how the match was booked. Ambrose and
Harper was crazy and I like how that match went down plus
we got some solid undercard matches with Sheamus versus
Ziggler and the tag title match. Cena and Rusev did about as
well as they could with the chain stipulation, the Divas Title
match was pretty good for diva standard and Reigns versus
Big Show wasn’t the absolute snooze fest everyone was
expecting. So there’s nothing to criticize really on this show
but it was hardly memorable stuff either.
Kickoff: Bad News Barrett
vs. Neville: Daniel Bryan
was unable to compete and
defend the Intercontinental
Title against Bad News
Barrett therefore as a
substitute we got Barrett
taking on Neville on the kickoff. This was a fun match for
what it was but I think it had the time and should’ve been
on the main card. Neville got the win here and they made
out that it was a PPV winning debut but it wasn’t actually
on the PPV so I think they should’ve made space for this on
the main show. Although the guy who was supposed to be
challenging for the Intercontinental Title losing to the
replacement for the champion doesn’t sound good booking
on paper I definitely think putting Neville over was the right
idea and it was a fun kickoff to the show.
Match Rating: **1/2
Chicago Street Fight: Dean
Ambrose vs. Luke Harper:
To open the PPV we got
the Chicago Street Fight
between Ambrose and
Harper. I really liked the
way this match was down,
it was different and entertaining stuff. I liked the stuff they
did before they ended up jumping in a motor vehicle and
driving away. Shades of Goldust and Piper at WrestleMania
12 the match continued as the show progressed. They got
back into the arena and continued the brawl before
Ambrose won off dirty deeds. I would have maybe liked to
have seen them go missing again continuing the match but I
can’t really complain as this was a nice creative way to book
a match. It made sense too with the characters Ambrose
and Harper both portray in that they’re two crazed lunatics
going to extreme measures just to beat each other up. I
hope this feud continues as I’d definitely like to see more of
this and although it’s a difficult match to rate because of
how it panned out I certainly enjoyed it.
Match Rating: ***
Kiss Me Arse Match:
Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler:
Next up was the Sheamus
versus Ziggler Kiss Me Arse
Match. Going into this
match I was fully expecting
Dolph to kiss Sheamus’ arse
but at least knew we would get a pretty good match. And
we did get that and one better, Ziggler won. Sheamus didn’t
actually kiss any arse though, delaying before eventually
turning round and laying Dolph out. I thought this was well
booked, Dolph’s credibility was not crushed by having to
kiss the heel’s arse and Sheamus looks like the jerk of a heel
who didn’t abide by the rules and didn’t hold up his end of
the bargain. We could’ve done without seeing Dolph’s head
rubbed into Sheamus’ backside though but nevertheless
this was a good match well booked in my opinion.
Match Rating: ***
WWE Tag Team
Championship Match:
Cesaro & Tyson Kidd © vs.
The New Day (Big E & Kofi
Kingston): Moved from
the kickoff to the main
card we got Cesaro and
Kidd defending the tag titles against the New Day. This was
a very fun tag team match, these two teams clicked really
well and had good chemistry. Cesaro was on fire in this
match showcasing his amazing strength catching Big E in
mid-air and those succession of uppercuts to Kofi in the
corners practically killed the New Day member. The match
did very well to establish New Day as heels and also
establish Cesaro and Kidd as babyfaces. They have a natural
connection with the crowd so they could easily be faces. I
was initially unhappy to see New Day win the titles but if
WWE book this right they could make a really good tag
team feud for the titles after it. This match established New
Day as obvious heels and with Cesaro and Kidd now on the
chase to win the titles back as faces we could finally get a
good feud for the tag titles. So hopefully they make
something out of this and in my opinion this ended up being
the match of the night.
Match Rating: ***1/4
Russian Chain Match for the
United States
Championship: John Cena
© vs. Rusev: Up next was
the US Title Russian Chain
Match with Cena defending
against Rusev. This match
was about as good as it could have been given the
stipulation. I think these two would’ve been much better
suited in a Last Man Standing Match or such because this
stipulation slightly restrained how good a match they could
have had. Cena retained the title as both guys got to three
corners and Cena touched the fourth for the win. I was fine
with this because Cena continues his title reign which I’m
enjoying and Rusev isn’t really hurt losing a match like this
where he wasn’t pinned or submitted. However later in the
show it was announced that these two will have one final
match at Payback with the I Quit stipulation. I’m not into
that because I’m over this feud and I think stretching it out
for a fourth match is overkill. Plus given the stipulation Cena
inevitably wins and Rusev will look like any other heel Cena
makes quit in a match like this so that will hurt him. There’s
no need to have Cena beat Rusev for a third time and it
defeats the point of this match as they should’ve just done
the I Quit match here to end the feud. This was their worst
match out of the three they’ve had but they did as well as
they could’ve done with the chain stipulation.
Match Rating: **3/4
Divas Championship Match:
Nikki Bella © vs. Naomi: Up
next Nikki Bella defended
her Divas Title against
Naomi. First thing to say
about this match was what
on earth was Naomi’s
entrance all about? I like the fact she’s changed her attire
and theme music as I can take her more seriously as a heel
now. But seriously she looked like she was having an
epileptic fit with those glasses on! Nevertheless once the
match started in the ring they actually pulled off a good
match. I liked the majority of what they did, they’re two of
the better workers in the division and this was better than
what you’d expect from your standard Divas match. One
thing I didn’t get though was that it would appear the
Bella’s have turned babyface what with the pandering to
the crowd they were doing. Yet Nikki won off a heel tactic
when Brie kicked Naomi in the head with the referees back
turned allowing Nikki to hit the rack attack and win. So that
didn’t make a lot of sense to me but this was good stuff
from these two.
Match Rating: **1/4
Last Man Standing Match:
Roman Reigns vs. Big Show:
Next up was Roman Reigns
facing Big Show in a Last
Man Standing Match. Going
into this match just about
everybody was expecting a
sleeper but I hoped they would take advantage of the
stipulation and make something good out of it and they did.
Don’t get me wrong this still certainly had its lulls but
definitely had its highlights and the big spots in this match
made for a better contest than people were expecting. The
opening stages of the match were pretty slow but then it
kicked into gear when Show chokeslammed Reigns through
two tables on the outside. This led to Reigns picking up a
head of steam before spearing Show through the barricade
and then the real highlight came when he ran off the steel
steps onto one announce table spearing Show through the
other one. Some weren’t a fan of the finish as we’ve seen
the loser being buried under something by the winner
endless amount of times in Last Man Standing matches. I do
wish they would’ve come up with a different finish to a
match with this stipulation but it wasn’t a big deal. People
should start giving Reigns credit, he had great matches with
Bryan and Brock on the last two shows and this match
certainly had its moments so the guy should be cut some
slack and credit should be given where it’s due. So like I said
good stuff, better than what I expected from it.
Match Rating: ***
Steel Cage Match for the
WWE World Heavyweight
Championship: Seth Rollins
© vs. Randy Orton: In the
main event we got the steel
cage match for the WWE
World Title with Rollins
defending against Orton. This match wasn’t bad but the
steel cage stipulation really did hurt the match. These two
really should’ve been given a stipulation where they
would’ve had much more creative freedom, this confined
them to the ring and as I feared had a really bad effect on
the match. There were some cool moments such as Orton
suplexing Rollins from the outside of the cage up and over
to the mat but aside from that nothing really stands out. I
did however almost have a heart attack when Orton hit
Rollins with the pedigree, Rollins kicked out but man that
was a long near fall where I thought Randy had it. Obviously
it was only going to be a matter of time before Kane ripped
off the suit jacket and tie and got in the ring. He
chokeslammed both guys and for a while was the focal
point which was very frustrating but he didn’t have too
much of an impact on the match which I’ll take because the
last thing I wanted was this main event becoming all about
him. Despite the match being disappointing I did think it
was a smart finish with Rollins using the apparently banned
RKO to escape the cage and retain. It caused controversy as
the heel used the ‘banned move’ to win the match and
gives the face the excuse to demand a rematch therefore it
was a logical way to book the finish. Orton will probably get
another shot at Payback maybe with Reigns thrown in the
mix for the rumoured triple threat. Like I said this match
wasn’t bad but felt like a Raw main event and with a better
stipulation it could have been so much more.
Match Rating: **3/4
Overall Thoughts: This wasn’t a bad show from WWE but
not that good of one either and all in all was a standard so
and so B-Level WWE pay-per-view.
Overall Rating: 6.5/10