WWE Extreme Rules 2016 Review

AJ Styles goes to war with Roman Reigns, while The Miz defends his Intercontinental Title in an insane Fatal Four-Way!!

WWE Extreme Rules 2016

Newark, New Jersey 5/22/16

Kickoff Show

Before we got to our first match of the evening, we got an in-ring segment with The Dudley Boyz. They talked about how they’re more extreme than anyone in the locker room (including the stars of the “New Era”), and then they proceeded to run down New Jersey. Of course, this brought out Big Cass (Enzo Amore was still out of action at this point). He made fun of The Dudley Boyz, and said the stars of “New Era” could do what The Dudley Boyz did in ECW, but better. This led to a brawl where Big Cass eventually stood tall, sending The Dudley Boys packing.

1.) No DQ Match - Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler: **1/2

So these two have seeming become the new rulers of the Kickoff Show. Ziggler snuck away with the victory on the Payback Kickoff Show a few weeks prior, and since then, their feud continued, leading to this No DQ Match. I thought this was marginally better than their previous encounter. While the action as fine, they really made poor use of the stipulation. No weapons of any kind were used, and it seemed like the only reason this was a No DQ Match at all was so that Corbin could hit a low blow on Ziggler, which was immediately followed by End Of Days from “The Lone Wolf” for the victory. Again, this was ok, but they didn’t come close to living up to the stipulation.

PPV

1.) Tornado Tag Team Match - Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. The Usos: ***

After being The Bullet Club’s primary heavyweight tag team for a good two years in New Japan, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows made their way to WWE, and immediately made The Usos their first target. I thought it was pretty cool that this essentially served as a proxy for the main event, as Anderson & Gallows backed their Bullet Club stablemate AJ Styles, while The Usos are supporting their fellow family member in Roman Reigns. I thought this was a fine opening contest. The stipulation certainly made it a bit more entertaining to watch compared to a normal tag team match. It was by no means spectacular, and it could’ve been a little better, but it was fine for what it was. Anderson & Gallows would pick up the victory after hitting The Magic Killer.

2.) WWE United States Title - Rusev (with Lana) vs. Kalisto: ***1/4

The League Of Nations dissolved shortly after WrestleMania 32, which meant that Rusev was back on his own. That was probably for the best, as Rusev is so much better in a singles environment with Lana by his side. Here, he’s challenging Kalisto for the United States Title. It’s nice to see Kalisto FINALLY get back on a PPV card after being on the Kickoff Show with Ryback on the previous two shows. I thought this was a pretty solid undercard title bout. It didn’t go too long (it was just under ten minutes), but they packed a fair amount of action in that time. Plus. they both played their respective roles well, which helped make this fun to watch. The crowd wasn’t really reacting to this one, which is a shame, because this could’ve been even better if the crowd was more invested. Kalisto gave it his best effort, but “The Bulgarian Brute” was just too much, and Rusev eventually got the win after locking in The Accolade and bending all the way back on it. That looked brutal. After seemingly messing up Rusev for almost a year, WWE turned back the clock to early 2015 with Rusev as the United States Champion. It was the right move, and it was great to see Rusev & Lana back in this position.

3.) WWE Tag Team Titles - The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods with Kofi Kingston) vs. The Vaudevillains: **3/4

The New Day cut their usual promo as they made their way down to the ring. I don’t recall exactly how the situation with Payback was resolved, but The Vaudevillains ended up with this title shot against The New Day, who were being represented here by the combination of Big E & Xavier Woods with Kofi Kingston in their corner. This was a fine tag team encounter, but it was largely a forgettable one. There was some decent action throughout, and they were a few moments where it looked like The Vaudevillains might get the titles, but ultimately, The New Day retained after some involvement from Kofi Kingston. Again, this was a perfectly acceptable tag team bout, but it wasn’t that memorable. It’s the kind of match that you forget about shortly after it happened.

4.) WWE Intercontinental Title - Fatal Four-Way Match - The Miz (with Maryse) vs. Cesaro vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn: ****1/2

This turned into a four-way feud over the Intercontinental Title after Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn inadvertently got involved in a title bout between The Miz & Cesaro. I think most people figured this would be very good (considering who was involved), but it’s fair to say that this match blew away all expectations. This was absolutely awesome!! There was some amazing action and incredible sequences throughout this one (particularly between Cesaro, Owens, & Zayn), and there was never really a dull moment. They also managed to involve a few stories in this one as well. Not only did this continue the Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn rivalry, but they told a good story with The Miz nearly sneaking away with the title on a few occasions. He played the role of the heel opportunist, and that eventually paid off for him, as he took advantage of Owens & Zayn fighting each other to pin Cesaro to retain his title. It’s impossible to recap everything that happened here, because there were so many cool things in this match. Everyone involved put forth an incredible effort, and it really showed. The crowd loved this as well, and that just made the match even better. If you haven’t seen this before, you need to go out of your way to check it out. This was easily one of the best WWE main roster matches of 2016, though it would unfortunately be overshadowed by the main event.

5.) Asylum Match - Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho: *

Chris Jericho changed up his attire for this one, opting for jeans instead of tights. Following Payback, the feud between these two escalated, which led to the first-ever Asylum Match (the brainchild, in storyline, of Dean Ambrose). It’s essentially a Steel Cage Match, but with a bunch of weapons hanging a couple of feet above the top of the cage. This was certainly an odd stipulation, but I was willing to give it change. Well, what we got was a dreadfully boring match that was one of the worst WWE PPV bouts of the year. What made it so hard to watch was the length. The action wasn’t totally bad, but the problem was that this just kept going….and going….and going. In total, this match went twenty-six minutes, which was entirely too long. An assortment of weapons were used here, ranging from a barbed wire 2x4, a straightjacket, a mop, a kendo stick, nunchucks, a fire extinguisher, and even a potted plant. It was just an odd assortment of weapons. The crowd didn’t care at all, and the fact this went so long made it incredibly boring to watch. The only time the fans reacted was when thumbtacks became involved. The last minute or two was the best part of this whole thing, as Jericho got dropped onto the thumbtacks, and Ambrose got the win shortly thereafter. Aside from the final moments at the very end, this was terrible. It was entirely too long, and incredibly boring.

6.) WWE Women’s Title - Submission Match - Charlotte vs. Natalya: **1/2

Ric Flair is banned from ringside for this one. If he were to get physically involved, then Charlotte would automatically lose her title. They also made sure to get a referee other than Charles Robinson to be sure that there was no bias from the referee. You know, it’s really sad to see the diminishing returns when it comes to matches involving these two. Their famous match from the first NXT TakeOver in May 2014 was arguably the match that kicked off the rise of the women’s division in NXT, and eventually the main roster. Since then, their matches on the main roster on major shows slowly decreased in quality, through no fault of their own. Here, they were having a fine, back & forth bout, but then (because this is WWE) we got a distraction finish….in a Submission Match. Ric Flair’s music hit, and it looked like it might be “The Nature Boy”, but it was just Dana Brooke in disguise. This distraction was enough for Charlotte to get the submission victory. What an absolutely lame finish.

7.) WWE World Heavyweight Title - Extreme Rules Match - Roman Reigns vs. “The Phenomenal” AJ Styles: ****3/4

I mentioned in my review of Payback that these two could’ve had an even better match than they ended up having without all of the shenanigans. Well, they certainly proved that here. We knew they could have a great match, but I don’t think anyone was expecting this to be as awesome as it ended up being. This was simply a spectacular match that was easily a MOTYC in WWE for 2016. From start to finish, this was filled with incredible action, insane spots, and emotional moments, with Styles nearly winning the title on multiple occasions. Some of the crazy spots in this one included Reigns giving Styles a back drop from one announce table through another, Styles getting powerbombed through another announce table, and Styles hitting Reigns with the Styles Clash on a steel chair. Of course, The Club (Anderson & Gallows) and The Usos got involved, but that was expected. This time around, I don't think their involvement really hurt the match too much. In fact, it might've added to it a bit. The action in this one was certainly amazing, but this was fantastic on an emotional level as well. There were so many close near-falls, and the crowd was really invested. A hot crowd can add so much to a match, and that was definitely the case here. As for the performers themselves, Roman Reigns (again, to his credit) did a great job, but once again, AJ Styles proved why he is quite possibly the best wrestler on the planet. He's a phenomenal performer (no pun intended). Styles is great at everything he does in the ring, from his selling, to his moves, to athletic ability, to being a master at getting a crowd emotionally invested in a match. When it comes to big match situations, you know that Styles is going to deliver every single time, and it's going to be memorable. Styles put forth an amazing effort here, but ultimately, he fell to Roman Reigns, who pinned him after spearing Styles out of midair. This was a fantastic main event, and as I mentioned earlier, one of the best WWE matches of 2016.

Roman Reigns was celebrating after the match, but then the crowd erupted as Seth Rollins made his return, and hit the WWE World Heavyweight Champion with a pedigree in the middle of the ring. Rollins stood tall as the show went off the air.

Overall: 8.0/10

I would say that this was slightly better than Payback from a few weeks prior, which might be a weird thing to say, considering that two of the best WWE matches of 2016 took place on this show. Yes, Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles and the Fatal Four-Way Match for the Intercontinental Title were both incredible matches, but at the same time, there wasn't anything else noteworthy on this card. The rest of the undercard had a mix of matches that ranged from solid to average, with one match in particular (The Asylum Match) being really bad. Payback didn't have the spectacular bouts that this show did, but as a whole it was definitely more consistent. If you take out the two MOTYC, it's clear to see that this show would suffer tremendously. Also, you had the return of Seth Rollins, which certainly ended the show on a high note. As a whole, the 2016 edition of Extreme Rules was a rollercoaster ride that featured two tremendous matches and a surprise return, which really helped make it memorable.