WWE Extreme Rules 2014
WWE Extreme Rules 2014 (5/4/2014)- East Rutherford, NJ
PRE-SHOW:
WeeLC MATCH: El Torito (w/Los Matadores) vs. Hornswoggle (w/3MB)- 6.25/10
WWE went out of their way to make this special. They got a midget referee, a midget ring announcer, and midget commentators (named J-B-Elf, Micro Cole, and Jerry Smaller). Their names were the only good things about them, though, because they all stunk at their jobs aside from the referee. They did have one good line, though. One of them said that Torito was â€"the biggest bull ever since Michael Shorten.â€
Announcer problems aside, I really, really enjoyed this. Everyone involved, both regular-sized and not, took some crazy bumps, and it was a great moment for Hornswoggle and Torito.
ZEB COULTER PROMO- awesome!
MAIN SHOW:
PAUL HEYMAN PROMO- he referred to the IZOD Center as the â€"Synagogue of Hardcore.†I chuckled. He also made reference to the â€"Eleventh Commandment of Extreme.†I want to know what the first ten are.
TRIPLE THREAT ELIMINATION MATCH: Rob Van Dam vs. Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Coulter) vs. Cesaro (w/Paul Heyman)- 7/10
The babyface grabbing a weapon in the middle of a non-weapons match really annoyed me. I absolutely HATE this idea that there are no DQs in a three way. The match was still great, though.
DRAGON & STEPH BACKSTAGE- very good.
Steph, using the pretense of false concern, tried to get Dragon to just forfeit tonight’s WWE World Heavyweight Title match. Dragon says he won’t do it. Steph says she thinks that Dragon will wind up being â€"Kane’s bitch.â€
LANA PROMO- she dedicates tonight’s match to Vladimir Putin. This had the desired effect on the crowd (prompting loud â€"USA!†chants). Rusev is now apparently living in Russia.
HANDICAP MATCH: R-Truth & Xavier Woods vs. Alexander Rusev (w/Lana)- 3.75/10
They had Rusev take Woods out right away before the bell, which annoyed me. If you are going to build this up as a handicap match and you want Rusev to look impressive by beating two guys, let him beat two guys. Don’t have him jump someone before the bell and then win a one-on-one match that we’ve already seen a bunch of times on TV.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Big E. Langston(c) vs. Bad News Barrett- 6/10
Big E. worked over Barrett’s mid-section, but Wade still managed to pick up the win. They took one really sick bump here, too, which I don’t want to spoil.
THE SHIELD vs. EVOLUTION- 9.25/10
Why the hell is this not the main event?
A fantastic match, with tons of crazy sh*t going on, while still having every individual thing feel important. A fantastic performance by all six men.
STEEL CAGE MATCH: John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt (w/the Wyatt Family)- DUD!
If, for whatever unexplained reason, Cena believes that keeping Bray in the cage will prevent Bray’s message from spreading, why would Cena try to win by escaping the cage? How does that help him? And what is the purpose of this cage? The interference of the Wyatt Family didn’t help Bray beat Cena last month, and even if it had, this cage did absolutely nothing to prevent Harper and Rowan from affecting the outcome of this match!
Anyway, Cena then beat up all three Wyatts all by himself and he was about to win… but then the Wyatts used their unexplained magical powers to make the lights go out and transport a small child to ringside right by the entrance to the cage. They then had the kid sing â€"He’s Got the Whole World in his Hand†in a creepy voice, which scared Cena enough to make Cena not want to win the match. Even the strongly pro-Wyatt crowd booed this. Bray then hit Sister Abigail and won.
In a different situation with different build this match would have worked very well (aside from the idiotic finish, obviously), but it made no sense here, and it really just killed the feud for me. If Bray wasn’t so charismatic, getting their asses kicked like this would probably kill wind up killing all interest in the Wyatt Family, too.
WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. Tamina- 4/10
WYATT FAMILY PROMO- dull. This child still sounds possessed. I now officially cannot stand this angle.
EXTREME RULES MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE: Daniel Bryan(c) vs. Kane- 8.25/10
I can see some people hating this match, but I am not one of them. A lot of crazy stuff I never thought I would see in WWE again.
A very up and down show from WWE, though if you ignore the huge DUD that was the Cena-Wyatt match, it gets a lot better. Shield vs. Evolution is now my WWE MOTY, and second place overall for this year, and getting to see my two all-time favorites duke it out in a crazy main event made this show special for me.
PRE-SHOW:
WeeLC MATCH: El Torito (w/Los Matadores) vs. Hornswoggle (w/3MB)- 6.25/10
WWE went out of their way to make this special. They got a midget referee, a midget ring announcer, and midget commentators (named J-B-Elf, Micro Cole, and Jerry Smaller). Their names were the only good things about them, though, because they all stunk at their jobs aside from the referee. They did have one good line, though. One of them said that Torito was â€"the biggest bull ever since Michael Shorten.â€
Announcer problems aside, I really, really enjoyed this. Everyone involved, both regular-sized and not, took some crazy bumps, and it was a great moment for Hornswoggle and Torito.
ZEB COULTER PROMO- awesome!
MAIN SHOW:
PAUL HEYMAN PROMO- he referred to the IZOD Center as the â€"Synagogue of Hardcore.†I chuckled. He also made reference to the â€"Eleventh Commandment of Extreme.†I want to know what the first ten are.
TRIPLE THREAT ELIMINATION MATCH: Rob Van Dam vs. Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Coulter) vs. Cesaro (w/Paul Heyman)- 7/10
The babyface grabbing a weapon in the middle of a non-weapons match really annoyed me. I absolutely HATE this idea that there are no DQs in a three way. The match was still great, though.
DRAGON & STEPH BACKSTAGE- very good.
Steph, using the pretense of false concern, tried to get Dragon to just forfeit tonight’s WWE World Heavyweight Title match. Dragon says he won’t do it. Steph says she thinks that Dragon will wind up being â€"Kane’s bitch.â€
LANA PROMO- she dedicates tonight’s match to Vladimir Putin. This had the desired effect on the crowd (prompting loud â€"USA!†chants). Rusev is now apparently living in Russia.
HANDICAP MATCH: R-Truth & Xavier Woods vs. Alexander Rusev (w/Lana)- 3.75/10
They had Rusev take Woods out right away before the bell, which annoyed me. If you are going to build this up as a handicap match and you want Rusev to look impressive by beating two guys, let him beat two guys. Don’t have him jump someone before the bell and then win a one-on-one match that we’ve already seen a bunch of times on TV.
WWE INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Big E. Langston(c) vs. Bad News Barrett- 6/10
Big E. worked over Barrett’s mid-section, but Wade still managed to pick up the win. They took one really sick bump here, too, which I don’t want to spoil.
THE SHIELD vs. EVOLUTION- 9.25/10
Why the hell is this not the main event?
A fantastic match, with tons of crazy sh*t going on, while still having every individual thing feel important. A fantastic performance by all six men.
STEEL CAGE MATCH: John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt (w/the Wyatt Family)- DUD!
If, for whatever unexplained reason, Cena believes that keeping Bray in the cage will prevent Bray’s message from spreading, why would Cena try to win by escaping the cage? How does that help him? And what is the purpose of this cage? The interference of the Wyatt Family didn’t help Bray beat Cena last month, and even if it had, this cage did absolutely nothing to prevent Harper and Rowan from affecting the outcome of this match!
Anyway, Cena then beat up all three Wyatts all by himself and he was about to win… but then the Wyatts used their unexplained magical powers to make the lights go out and transport a small child to ringside right by the entrance to the cage. They then had the kid sing â€"He’s Got the Whole World in his Hand†in a creepy voice, which scared Cena enough to make Cena not want to win the match. Even the strongly pro-Wyatt crowd booed this. Bray then hit Sister Abigail and won.
In a different situation with different build this match would have worked very well (aside from the idiotic finish, obviously), but it made no sense here, and it really just killed the feud for me. If Bray wasn’t so charismatic, getting their asses kicked like this would probably kill wind up killing all interest in the Wyatt Family, too.
WWE DIVAS TITLE MATCH: Paige(c) vs. Tamina- 4/10
WYATT FAMILY PROMO- dull. This child still sounds possessed. I now officially cannot stand this angle.
EXTREME RULES MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE: Daniel Bryan(c) vs. Kane- 8.25/10
I can see some people hating this match, but I am not one of them. A lot of crazy stuff I never thought I would see in WWE again.
A very up and down show from WWE, though if you ignore the huge DUD that was the Cena-Wyatt match, it gets a lot better. Shield vs. Evolution is now my WWE MOTY, and second place overall for this year, and getting to see my two all-time favorites duke it out in a crazy main event made this show special for me.