Reviewing the Review: Extreme Rules 2014
Extreme Rules was last night and over the course of a three and a half hour show, there’s really only one match that people seem to disagree with my take on.
We’ll start with the pre show where Torito beat Hornswoggle in the WeeLC match. I was dreading this one coming in but man alive was I wrong. This was the kind of parody that WWE can do really well when they’re given the chance and that’s what happened here. Between the mini commentators (PERFECT, all the way down to JBElf calling Michael “Mikkael” in a dead on imitation), the mini weapons and Drew McIntyre’s big old dive, this was about 4857 times better than it had any right to be. As I said though, I hope WWE doesn’t run this into the ground by having the same idea over and over until it loses its strength.
The three way elimination match was exactly what I expected. It wasn’t a great match but having Cesaro get a definitive win over two former World Champions on PPV is going to do nothing but good for him. The response I saw on the forums was mainly people complaining about the people looking uninspired, but it really wasn’t all that bad. The trashcan at the end didn’t need to be there though and felt like part of another match.
Rusev destroying Woods and Truth illustrated one thing: Lana has some gorgeous legs.
Barrett getting the title back was obvious but there’s nothing wrong with that. Big E. was being dragged down by the title and I’m sure that’s going to happen to Bad News at some point in the near future as well. The fans being way into Barrett everywhere he goes is a good sign though.
Evolution and Shield was exactly what I was expecting and it still rocked way harder than I thought it would. The fact that Shield is hanging in there with three all time greats like they were last night was a great sign for their future. I’d assume we’ll get singles matches for the next PPV.
Now we get to Cena vs. Bray Wyatt for the match that everyone questioned my take on. I can understand people complaining about it and it’s not the kind of match where I’m going to put up a huge argument for what I saw as I can easily see all of the criticisms people have for the match. That being said, at the end of the day Bray won and it’s not like he was cheating to win. Yeah the Family came in, but it’s not like there’s a rule saying they can’t. That being said, yeah it did go a bit too far with the interference but it didn’t get to the point where I didn’t buy it.
That brings us to the end, where a child with a demonic voice distracted Cena so Bray could lay him out for the win. Honestly, was this any more over the top than the choir on Monday which got nearly universal praise? It’s a nice followup on the Raw segment and I believe someone said it was the same kid that Cena hugged at Wrestlemania. If that’s the case, big points to WWE for pulling that out of their hat. It wasn’t as bad as Shockmaster and it definitely wasn’t as bad as Black Scorpion. The voice plays up Bray having some sort of power and taking Cena’s fans from him. What more do you need?
Paige and Tamina happened. That’s about all there is to say here.
Bryan vs. Kane was fine for a first defense and had me thinking back to In Your House 7 where Shawn beat Diesel in the no holds barred match or Austin vs. Dude Love from Over the Edge. It was designed to put Bryan in over his head but have him fight his way out like a champion should. No it wasn’t as good as either of those matches but it didn’t need to be after how awesome his Wrestlemania matches were. It did its job and Bryan can hopefully move away from Kane, though I doubt he will.
Overall the show was predictable but it was a case where there’s nothing wrong with that. The big matches were all good, nothing was bad, and we have a nice setup for the next PPV which will be rematches of rematches. I’m not sure where they’re heading for the summer but there are several possibilities. Good show this month.
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I was really impressed with what Bryan/Kane were able to do out there, really fun match. Evolution/Shield was probably the match of the night but it wasn’t the classic some fans were expecting to see. Wyatt/Cena was good, but the cheesy voice effect on the kid singing was terrible and brought the moment down a lot for me.
What is your take on the Batista situation? He seems like an ideal next opponent for Bryan but they look to be going with Kane again. Was that ending just to keep their options open? I actually hope Batista sticks around because he’s been doing all the right things since the actual heel turn.
I think he’ll be around a bit longer as they’ll find the money to pay him somewhere.
There’s a picture going around of one of the midget commentators with JBL playing with a tablet in the background. Then further back are John Cena and the Wyatts discussing something. Probably their match.
As for Bryan vs Kane, that’s somehow a formula they’ve done several times of a hot new face champ going up against a monster with personal history. I thought the match itself was loads of fun, but they messed up the end when we could see people holding fire extinguishers before Kane pulled out the table.