BRM Reviews WWE Extreme Rules 2015 (disappointing)

[Big Red Machine]

WWE Extreme Rules 2015 (4/26/2015)- Chicago, IL

PRE-SHOW:
NAOMI PROMO- good

DEAN AMBROSE PROMO- great

LOUD “CM PUNK!” chants in the building.

BRAY WYATT PROMO- more cryptic crap. If he isn’t going to actually do something on this PPV, then this is a waste of time. You know what? Even if he does actually do something, it will still be a waste of time, because there is no reason not wait until Raw to do it.

Booker T called Bray Wyatt a hypocrite. I’m not sure how Booker came to this conclusion if he can’t even figure out who Bray is talking about. Then again, based on what Booked said here, I’m not quite sure he knows what the word “hypocrite” means. That or he doesn’t know what the word “reckoning” means. Or maybe even both. It’s Booker T.

WADE BARRETT PROMO- good heel stuff. He claims Daniel Bryan isn’t really injured, but is just faking it so that Barrett won’t kick his ass and take his title. Hopefully this means that they’ll be leaving the belt on Bryan rather than vacating it.

ADRIAN NEVILLE vs. WADE BARRETT- 6.75/10
I defy anyone from WWE to explain to me why it is a good idea to put commercials for the WWE Network IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PRE-SHOW MATCH. I probably would have given this a 7/10 if I had been able to see the stuff that happened during the commercial.

MAIN SHOW:
STREET FIGHT: Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose- DUD!
They do some stuff, then drive away in a car, so we get NO FINISH! THIS WAS SOOOOOO F*CKING STUPID!

TRIPLE H WANTS ROLLINS AND KANE TO GET ON THE SAME PAGE- THIS IS A F*CKING PAY-PER-VIEW! You just spent weeks building the dissent between these guys up. You don’t need to waste PPV time on it. Now the “CM PUNK!” chants have turned into well-deserved “BORING!” chants.

KISS ME ARSE MATCH: Dolph Ziggler vs. Sheamus- 6.75/10
Good small babyface vs. big mean heel match. That roll-up out of the cloverleaf was awesome.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- instead of kissing Dolph’s arse, Sheamus hit him in the testicles and then gave him a Brogue Kick and rubbed Dolph’s unconscious face in his (meaning Sheamus’) arse. I’m fine with this, provided that Sheamus actually is forced to kiss Dolph’s ass at some point, to uphold the integrity of the stipulation.

WHOA! Did Cole just say King of the Ring is coming back?! NO! I needed that for my fantasy booking! Damn you, WWE!

WWE TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Upper-Cats (w/Natalya) vs. The New Day (w/Xavier Woods)- 8/10
SH*T! F*cking New Day stealing the titles! GGGRRRRRRR! I’m so glad they gave this time to live up to its potential. And speaking of potential, how great was Xavier Woods on the outside?

RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS THE NEW DAY- great stuff!

HARPER AND AMBROSE COME BACK- so what exactly was happening for the last hour? How the hell did they not crash that car?

STREET FIGHT, PART 2: Luke Harper vs. Dean Ambrose- 1/10
I’m rating this as two matches, because that’s what it felt like it was. This was such a f*cking stupid idea. I mean… what did they think they would gain by doing this? That people would think they were clever? Well they’re not? Why? Because they took what would have been a great match and made is suck by not televising most of it, and pissed of the crowd with the non-finish to open the show.

RUSSIAN CHAIN MATCH FOR THE WWE UNITED STATES TITLE: John Cena(c) vs. Rusev (w/Lana)- 7.25/10
They did a good job with a decently lame gimmick match. Whoever came up with this idea to split up Rusev and Lana is an idiot.
RENEE YOUNG INTERVIEWS ROMAN REIGNS- Roman comes off a guy who is trying really hard to be charismatic rather than someone who actually is charismatic, which is a shame because it’s not his fault. He is charismatic… but he has a silent charisma, so doing these sorts of promos just made come off as phony.

WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Nikki Bella(c) (w/Brie Bella) vs. Naomi- 4/10
Nikki Bella is apparently going to prove that “girls run the world” by beating another girl in a match for the girls title on the undercard of a wrestling show that will be main evented by men. Good luck with that, Nikki.
Naomi brought shoes that change colors. I guess she figured this would be a dark match (*rimshot*). There was no heat for this at all. I guess that’s what happens when you do a heel vs. heel match without giving the fans a reason to care about the outcome.

LANA SENDS RUSEV TO GO TALK TO THE AUTHORTIY- well done. Lana is sad.

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH: Roman Reigns vs. Big Show- 8/10
They made the best use of what they had, and it was pretty awesome. I would have given this an 8.25/10 if the finish had been that last big spear. The “trap the guy underneath” something feels like a cheap finish to me. The point of the match is to beat the other guy until he can’t stand up, not to see who can keep the other guy on the ground for a ten count through whatever means you want.

RANDY ORTON & KANE BACKSTAGE- pointless. You’ve already built up this whole “what will Kane do?” angle. You don’t need to build it up even more.

BO DALLAS PROMO- oh look. A set-up for a Ryback squash. On a f*cking PAY-PER-VIEW!

Apparently, they are doing KING OF THE RING LIVE on the WWE Network on Tuesday night!

BYRON SAXTON INTERVIEWS RUSEV & LANA- Rusev cut a good promo. Also, Cen and Rusev will face off at Payback in an I Quit match, which seems a lot lamer now that Rusev has lost to Cena twice. IMHO, the way I got to this in my fantasy booking was a lot better (http://54.88.31.224/thewrestlingrevolut ... 48&t=15133).

STEEL CAGE MATCH FOR THE WWE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE IN WHICH THE RKO IS BANNED AND KANE IS THE DOORKEEPER: Seth Rollins(c) vs. Randy Orton- 6.75/10
Poor Michael Cole had to jump through quite a few verbal hoops to avoid outright saying that if Randy used the RKO, he would be disqualified here in this steel cage match. The finish was over-booked, as we knew it would be, but we didn’t even get a conclusion to the “will Kane turn” angle. Rollins hits an RKO and escapes the cage for the win, but as Lawler pointed, if the stips of the match were that “the RKO is banned,” not that “the RKO is banned for Orton,” so he should be DQed. A stupid finish.

Very disappointing show from WWE. I won’t say it was a bad show because of the Last Man Standing match and the tag title match, but it was certainly a disappointing show, and that’s not good for a PPV, especially the one coming right after Mania, and when the product itself hasn’t been very good for the past few months.

[NWK2000]

I thought that the Harper/Ambrose was booked as such to fill up time that was supposed to go to Bryan vs Barrett, and that was the way to do it, book it so that it's a part of something already advertised, instead of a random match. That's only speculation of course.

[Big Red Machine]

I thought that the Harper/Ambrose was booked as such to fill up time that was supposed to go to Bryan vs Barrett, and that was the way to do it, book it so that it's a part of something already advertised, instead of a random match. That's only speculation of course.

But they didn't actually take much time. They were only on the screen for a combined total of about ten minutes (unless I'm guessing wrong). I assumed that Bryan vs. Barrett's time was just given to the tag title match.

[Chris Everlast]

The PPV was alright until after Rusev vs Cena where it was just sorta boring. I always get this sinking feeling when I realize Cena's going to win - this odd sense of dread that my favorite European wrestler in WWE is going to end up like Kozlov.