WWE needs to stop doing this to itself – and its talent.
The wrestlers again gave us some superb and entertaining in-ring work during the Extreme Rules pay-per-view from Nationwide Area, only to be overshadowed by an epic dud finish in the main event.
“The Demon” Finn Balor and Universal champion Roman Reigns – even with some expected silliness – were having one of the night’s better matches. The crowd was completely believing Balor had a chance to win the title as his music and “heartbeat” sounded under the red lights to jolt him back to life after Reigns had speared him through the barricade. It ended an action packed few minutes that also saw Balor power bomb Jey Uso through the announce table after The Usos thwarted a pin attempt.
Balor had all the momentum and the fans on their feet as he headed to the top rope looking for a second Coup de Gras finisher. Then it happened. The top rope, by design, just broke. The rigged turnbuckle dropped down and Balor fell to the mat and “hurt” his knee. You could see Balor, hidden in red light and smoke, making sure he got his balance in preparation for the fall. After Michael Cole and Pat McAfee did as good a job as you could sell it as a random accident, Reigns capitalized with a spear for the win to retain the belt. It left a very sour taste at the end of a strange, but entertaining show.
Are we just supposed to assume the ring broke without any logical explanation? At least when WWE has had its ring collapse in the past, it was under the weight of to two super heavyweight wrestlers. Balor weighs 190 pounds. Maybe we will get an explanation on “SmackDown,” but in the moment it was flat and confusing.
Some people will make the argument that the goofy finish is acceptable because it protected The Demon. However, that’s only because WWE needed to do so by booking itself into a corner. It brought back The Demon, which hasn’t been seen on the main roster since June 2019, to feed a champion that doesn’t need the rub and it’s not ready to beat for the only extreme rules match on the pay-per-view.
But did it really protect him? So in The Demon’s first main roster loss in seven matches he was defeated by a “defective” turnbuckle, bad luck? You have a character like “The Demon” beat people and have his losses mean something. Having the silly heartbeat gimmick eliminates the option of The Demon being delivered a beating he can’t initially get up and be pinned after. While it’s great for Balor to tangle with Reigns in a main event, The Demon should be the ender of Reigns not a stepping stone this early in his return.
Despite how bad, confusing and lackluster this finish was, there could be a possible reason for doing it with regards to Reigns. We’ve seen “The Tribal Chief” beat people clean like he did at WrestleMania 37, cheat on his own with low blows and win with help from The Usos. This is the first time we’ve see him earn a victory via dumb luck.
You could make the case it further raises the question of how can Reigns ever lose? He’s either stronger than you, smarter than you, has more friends than you and is now luckier than you. Maybe this win adds a dose of divine right to the Universal title into the story ahead of his match with Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel. The overconfidence could eventually play into Reigns’ downfall.
It was the biggest head scratcher on a show that at times made you question how much long-term planning went into it. A show named Extreme Rules had one extreme rules match, the finish to the Raw women’s championship match included a doll, the announced match between Liv Morgan and Carmella was moved to the kickoff show to make room for the previously unannounced (but super entertaining) six-man tag match with New Day against Bobby Lashley, A.J. Styles and Omos all to set up a WWE championship match between Big E and Lashley on “Monday Night Raw.” On top of that, the Peacock stream was playing both the English and Spanish commentary simultaneously during the Morgan-Carmella match.
Got all that?
It was part of a bad night for wrestlers with supernatural gimmicks. Bliss lost her Raw women’s championship match to Charlotte Flair. It happened thanks to The Queen taking Lilly hostage before throwing the doll in Bliss’ face for the distraction she needed to finally win. Flair, who has talked about wanting to see the old Alexa, got her on Sunday and the two put on an excellent match. Alexa wrestled without using her “powers” – including mind control.
Still after it was over, Flair proceeded to rip Lilly to shreds. It prompted Bliss to wail in anger and heartbreak and she should be commended for the amount of emotion she poured in it as the crowd chanted “Thank you Lilly!” The post-match felt long, possibly because WWE was waiting for the tablet (visible in Bliss’ mouth) to fully engage to get her foaming. Still it was refreshing to see Bliss get to truly wrestle again after so many gimmick matches. Let’s hope this mismanaged version of her is done and we truly get the old kick-ass wrestling version again.
What we also did get back was Sasha Banks. She saved Becky Lynch her SmackDown women’s championship by interfering just when Bianca Belair appeared ready to win back the belt with a Kiss of Death. While you would have liked to have seen a clear winner between Belair and Lynch and would think Sasha would want The EST to win to take the title off her, it sets up an even more star-studded triple threat match. Lynch’s surprise, hesitant and thankful reaction to Banks – including an Orange Cassidy-like thumbs up – was gold. Lynch and Belair, who wrestled matches together on WWE’s recent European tour, have excellent chemistry. The Man hasn’t missed a beat in her absence and every show of strength Belair does makes her feel like an even bigger star. Feuding with Banks and Lynch at the same time and potentially going over them is huge for Belair.
If only that were the story coming out of Extreme Rules heading into this week’s draft. Instead the attention grabber was another dubious, questionable and spotlight-stealing WWE booking decision. Its talent deserves better than this.
Notes
- WWE seems to be doing more multi-man matches loaded with talent that continue to deliver. Lashley wasn’t on the same page with Styles and Omos. It led to him getting pinned by Big E (though not in love with that) and laid a seed for a potential match with Omos one day.
- The Street Profits and The Usos are probably the top two tag teams WWE has right now and they delivered a match worthy of that. The Usos got the win this time, but it should be The Street Profits who eventually take those belts away.
- Damian Priest is still United States champion in a really fun, fast match that saw him, Jeff Hardy and Sheamus take a page or move out of one of their opponents’ books. It feels like Priest has been treading water with these two for weeks and months. Hopefully, the draft brings him fresh opponents.
- Liv Morgan defeated Carmella clean in the kickoff show in what is hopefully a momentum starter for her after losing to Zelina Vega on SmackDown this past Friday. WWE really needs to let her start stringing some meaningful wins together.
Biggest Winner: Bianca Belair
Biggest Loser: Finn Balor
Best Match: The Usos vs. The Street Profits
Grade: B