WWE Extreme Rules 2018

A wee bit late on this one - had a taxing shift at work, but better late than never and it was well-worth missing a PPV live in order to prove to myself that I can do whatever I set my mind to. Almas vs. Sin Cara on the damn pre-show features Almas taking a flip bump off the top to the apron, which is so stupid. Almas wins with a hammerlock DDT thanks to a Vega distraction - so he's just barely good enough to beat Sin Cara with cheating. Sanity beats New Day in a table match when EY elbows Kofi off the top to the floor.

Ronda and Travis Browne enter the building as fans. Deleter of Worlds face the B-Team, who get a huge pop. B-Team wins it after a mscue and Bo hits the draping neckbreaker on Matt - good for them, they're more over and it gives them some momentum. WWE actually comes off like they're rewarding a somewhat naturally-evolving act here. Kurt gives Brock an ultimatum to etiher show up on Raw to negotiate terms for his next defense or Brock will be stripped of the title. Balor comes out in new, awesome silver and black gear to face Constable Corbin. Balor wins off a cradle to avoid the End of Days.

We get a wacky WWE Superstar Memes video for Summerslam.  Kane is beaten up backstage by the Bludgeon Brothers with a door and Bryan is tossed into a sheet metal door. THE MALLET is used on a door on Kane's leg. NOT THE MALLET NO! Paige demands medical attention ASAP. Asuka vs. Carmella features an Edge-O-Matic to start and then Ellsworth drops a chain in the ring from the cage. Hip Attack misses by a mile. ASUKA LOCK IS ON, but Mella gets to the ropes and goes outside. Ellsworth is stuck upside down trying to get out of the cage. Asuka beats him up and jiggles nicely. Asuka beats up guys trying to put him back in the cage and kicks Ellsworth's ass - literally. Carmella tosses her head into the cage in front of the ref and wins...how was none of this crap a DQ?

Nakamura beats Jeff Hardy with a dick punch before the bell and an instant Kinshasa. Nakamura wore Hashimoto tribute pants tonight and they looked fantastic. Orton returns and kicks Jeff Hardy in the balls. So he and Nakamura can be the Nut Crackers now.

Braun and Owens have a pretty nothing cage match until the finish. Owens gets a stunner and a bit of heat with handcuffs, but gets chokeslammed off the top of the cage through an announce table in one of his craziest bumps ever. Somehow, a decade into the HD era and 20 years after Mick's bump, they almost completely miss the landing in real-time. Owens wins the match to an "OH. MY. GOD!" from Coach that sounds so fake. A "Get These Hands" chant breaks out and KO gets really nothing out of the win.

Bryan faces the Bludgeon Brothers 1 on 2. Bryan eats a ton of offense until Kane comes out with a walking boot and chokeslams the Bludgeons. He gets his knee kicked out and Bryan tags in for a missile dropkick and the yes kicks. Rowan hits the spin kick and a powerbomb/lariat combo ends it. The B-Team cheers on Roman and Roman is a dick to them. Lashley and Roman have a fun hard-hitting (bot not soft-spoken) match. Roman hits a superman punch, but eats a rebound spear and Lashley wins it.

Alexa vs. Nia features Nia tosses weapons around. Corey explains all the kendo sticks by saying they're here for ninjas. Alexa puts a chair in the corner and Nia of course misses and hits the chair. Ronda watches Nattie get beaten up and mean mugs until she jumps the rail to attack Mickie. Ronda hits the spinning Samoan drop and throws her into the German announce table and mean mugs Alexa from across the ring.

 

Ronda attacks her, but Mickie hits her with a kendo stick. A crossbody leads to a Samoan drop setup, but Mickie chairshots her! Alexa hits a chair to the gut of Nia, then to the back and DDTs her on the chair to win. Ronda runs in immediately - so that win itself sure helped no one. Rusev's intro is so important that he gets the Hulu plug intro. A fan with a Rusev Day shirt looks at his phone instead of Rusev.

AJ's reign is at 250 days - making him the longest-reigning WWE Champion in five years. It's an impressive stat and most importantly, began when it ended Jinder's reign! Rusev looks pretty good here, hitting the fallaway Samoan drop. Aiden pulls the pad off the top rope, but Rusev bonks it and eats a Phenomenal Forearm to end it! Seth vs. Dolph is up with Dolph in new, good-looking blue, white, and red tights.

Buckle bomb into a cradle gets a fall for Seth 4 minutes in. STOMP gets another fall 8 minutes in. Drew attacks Seth for a DQ, so he's up 3-0. This costs him 1 fall, but Dolph gets 1 fall off of it right away and a superkick gets him a second - so the attack got him one more fall than it cost him. A post shot and a Zig Zag ties it at 3-3. A dive is met with a forearm and Dolph cradles him with the ropes to go up 4-3. Dolph gets 2 off an amateur cradle, but Seth pins him with a sunset flip after Dolph's head hits the post. Seth locks on a sharpshooter and then a crossface, but the time limit expires with a tie - and Dolph retains.

Kurt comes down and says it was an incredible match - but nothing was settled. Kurt makes it sudden death. Zig Zag off a Drew distraction gets the win. They were given the main event slot here and felt elevated by the match - which was the best overall one on the show. All three guys feel like top-level guys and the key is the follow-through. Dolph in particular feels like he has been completely resurrected, and that seemed impossible before as he was such a jobber and goofball before this Raw push.