Extreme Rules: General Discussion

[Sully]

NO FATE'S EXTREME RULES REVIEW

United States Championship (Fatal Four-Way): Kofi Kingston (c) defeated MVP, William Regal, and Matt Hardy
--Solid opening match, but nothing special. The botched side-suplex/vertical-suplex spot looked awkward and I was surprised that Regal wasn't injured, the way he was curled up in a ball afterwards. No weapons or anything used, so what was the point in this being on the card of the extreme gimmicks? It was also very obvious that Regal was taking the pinfall here and that Kofi would retain. Still, it wasn't crap lol.

Intercontinental Championship (No Holds Barred): Chris Jericho defeated Rey Mysterio (c)
--Same basic match that they had before. I don't think these two work very well together. At least, not nearly as much as some other people do. Mysterio is a bane in every match in my mind. He's sort of the height opposite of the problems you run into with Khali. Both are just boring as hell to me and take me away from every match they're in. Now that Jericho is a NINE time IC champ, expect to see this feud continue for the Great American Bash and possibly even Night of Champions. Yay? Not really. I would've much rather preferred Mysterio start a feud with Shelton or Ziggler.

Batista Promo
--Stupid and unnecessary waste of time. They run their recaps and rewinds so much already, do we really need to have another segment explaining the story? Overkill.

Samoan Strap Match: CM Punk defeated Umaga
--Crowd was completely dead. And my god, how many times did they really have to keep repeating the line "one more and ___ wins!" I can count, Grisham. Lackluster and ultimately, this match felt like it deserved to be on SmackDown rather than on a ppv to me.

ECW Championship: Tommy Dreamer defeated Christian (c) and Jack Swagger
--Crowd was still dead. No real pop for Christian or Dreamer. I'll admit, I was surprised that Tommy Dreamer picked up the championship here. I thought there was no way they'd give it to him. It took them long enough, but finally, weapons were used. The only problem was that they should've just gone ahead and called this a Trash Can match as that's pretty much all they brought out. Fell a bit flat.

Miss WrestleMania Title (Hog Pen Match): Santina Marella defeated Vickie Guerrero (c)
--What can I say? Fat person fall down and go boom on poop. Might as well have been written by a three year old. Simplest, lowest form of "comedy". And it doesn't get any better...

Backstage Vickie Guerrero Promo
--...because right afterwards, we have to watch some ******ed segment with Goldust. What a fucking ridiculous character he's become. This electroshock idea is not funny at all, nor can I ever applaud such an overused and pathetic middle school joke like the "shitake mushroom" one. Apparently the three year olds writing these segments also have no imagination. Then, Vickie and Edge have something about a divorce. This is what, 3 months too late? Its no longer relevant. Who cares?

WWE Championship (Steel Cage Match): Batista defeated Randy Orton (c)
--Totally shocked at this one. I didn't have a clue that Batista would walk out the champion. What's making me scratch my head about it is why they'd want so many title changes on the same ppv, especially when...supposedly...Batista informed them of a bicep injury before the match even took place. Hopefully this goes somewhere and it isn't just an obligatory 1 day (or 1 week) Batista title reign for the hell of a shock to the audience. The match itself was yet another stagnant nothing. Not a single thing stood out to me. Might as well have been the main event on an episode of Raw - except for the fact that you can't apparently make a Raw main event happen without Legacy coming in and attacking the face. Time to roll my eyes at WWE Creative yet again.

Submission Match: John Cena defeated The Big Show
--I might not be one of those Cena bashers that is completely against the guy, but for fuck's sake, we fucking get it, Vince. "John Cena is so great and he's the best and we should all have his babies and worship him as the next prophet". Stop cramming this idea down our throats. If I were Big Show, I'd be thoroughly pissed off that they're making me look like a weak idiot. You should be the most dominant character in the WWE, but you can't even beat a guy when he has internal injuries. If you've seen one Cena/Show match, you've seen them all. Big Show beats him down, Cena gets a few shots in, then beaten down again, until out of the blue he "somehow...someway" picks up the win. WWE Uncreative, I really want to punch you all in the head.

World Heavyweight Championship (Ladder Match): Jeff Hardy defeated Edge (c)
--Very surprised again to see the title switch hands. I guess this means Hardy is staying and not taking some time off. Decent match, but...yet again...nothing great. This whole ppv reeked of that "meh" feeling, despite all the title changes. Maybe its because this was supposed to be the most violent ppv of the year and it turned out to be nothing but a series of TV matches with title changes for the sake of shock and awe, rather than purpose, or so it seems right now. Wait, who am I kidding...seems right now? What makes you think the WWE has some master plan? Hahaha. Yeah right. Tell that to the guys who wrote the Illegitimate Son and Million Dollar Mania storylines.

World Heavyweight Championship (Money in the Bank Cash-In): CM Punk defeated Jeff Hardy (c)
--Another shock for the sake of it. Why give Jeff the title just to immediately take it off him again, when you've already had title changes on your ppv? Now, the Great American Bash is going to have shitty matches with no results because the powers-that-be will have the mindset that they gave us a real doozy at Extreme Rules and we don't deserve two good ppvs in a row - without realizing that Extreme Rules sucked. I can only assume Punk is turning heel due to cashing it in against Hardy.

This ppv was the wrestling equivalent of those types of films that consist of nothing but twists to try to mask the fact that the acting is shit, the storyline is garbage, and the special effects are cheap. Just because you have a twist and the audience doesn't see it coming does not necessarily mean you're providing the best entertainment you should be producing. Look at the sequels to Saw. Compare it to Extreme Rules. Except, you know...the Saw films actually had too much violence, while ER had virtually none.

Here's looking forward to....er....scratch that....looking in principle towards...the Not So Great American Bash.

dude wtf? all you reviews are negative, you didn't have one good thing to say. Obviously your extreamly negative towards the wwe and i suggest if you think its that bad, then to stop wacthing it. I thought the whole ppv was extreamly freaking awsome, and deserves a 9/10 rating. And i thought the goldust scene was hilarious. "aw, you smell like shit-shit-shitake mushrooms." I lol'd at that.

 

[JGlass]

I really really enjoyed this ppv. Every match (with the exception of the hog pen match) was pretty darn good! I know it's early, but I think this may be one of the best ppv's we'll get out of the WWE this year.

US Title Match MVP vs Kofi vs Regal vs Matt Hardy

It was a good solid match from four solid wrestlers. It's about as good as you're going to get for a mid-card fatal four way. No surprise with Kofi retaining, but that's exactly what he needs to start off his first US title reign.

7/10

IC Title Match Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio

This was a close second to my favorite match on the card, and looking back I may have even liked it more than the ladder match. Jericho does a great job of riling up the crowd, and Rey plays a great hero to Jericho's villain. The match itself was also excellent, as it kept me interested the entire time. I was shocked by the ending to be honest, great stuff.

8.5/10

CM Punk vs Umaga

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. I'm always pretty impressed when Punk can lift up a big guy like Umaga over his head and hit him with the GTS, but it's usually kind of sloppy, like it was tonight. They made it as dramatic as a strap match can get, besides bringing out Kurt Angle and starting it over again.

5/10

ECW Championship Match Christian vs Tommy Dreamer vs Jack Swagger

I liked the promo before the match, it actually caught my attention and drew me into the match a little. I really enjoyed this match. Even though it was a little slow paced, the amount of weapon action made up for that. I thought this was Tommy Dreamer's last moment in the spot light and the WWE was going to allow him to beat Swagger down by using the trash cans and canes and crutches in all sorts of cool ways just to have Christian steal the victory. I'm extremely happy Tommy Dreamer won, he's long over due, and better yet, he won it his way. I plan on tuning into ECW Tuesday to see what happens next, but if I were him, I might book a trip up to Philly for a day or two just to be in the hardcore city where it all started. Seeing him nearly brought to tears when he was given that belt really made the victory even sweeter.

7.5/10

Santina vs Vickie

I didn't watch this, I have no interest in seeing a dude and an old chick mud wrestle.

WWE Championship Match Orton vs Batista

It doesn't seem like they had a lot of time, and it seems like they were flat out of fun new ideas. The beginning was intense with Orton trying to escape, but we all knew he wasn't getting out that easily. He got pretty close a few times, and it kept things interesting, but I think ultimately, we knew he was either going to pin Batista or barely escape. However, I knew right after he missed that punt on Batista that things were not going to go his way. The match wasn't bad, it wasn't boring, it just wasn't that good, and it wasn't that exciting. The one thing this match really did for me was give me more respect for Batista, as he showed plenty of power in the match as well as got a huuuuuuge reaction out of the crowd. I have no idea what is next for the Legacy, but it gives me a precious reason to watch RAW tomorrow night.

5/10

Big Show vs John Cena

Once again, this match wasn't too special. It was a little above average. I used to like Big Show, but he's too slow and boring. Cena actually kept the match interesting, because you knew he had to lock in the STF somehow, but I certainly didn't know how he was going to do it. It was fairly creative going with the ropes, yet, I almost wished he just barely locked it in the good old fashion way without the help of the ropes. Have you noticed that Big Show never seems to get match stipulations? He grabbed the ropes in this match hoping it'd break the hold, but there are no rope breaks in submission matches. When he feuded with Taker, he tried to get the refs to close the lid in the casket match when he has to do it, and I think he tapped to the Hell's Gate in a last man standing match.

6/10

World Heavyweight Championship Match Jeff Hardy vs Edge

This was one of the better ladder matches I've seen in a while. Very innovative, and very exciting. Of course a ladder match is full of spots, and I can't think of a single one that wasn't great, and most had Edge on the losing end. My favorites off the top of my head were Jeff Hardy supplex slamming Edge into an upside down ladder, Hardy jumping off the ladder to grab onto the belt, the two of them falling from the ladder onto a ladder stretched across the ring, and then of course, the ending. Great to see Jeff win, especially in such a hard fought contest.

9/10

Of course, all good things must come to an end. After scoring a coveted victory over the illustrious Umaga, CM Punk cashed in the briefcase the cheap way. I'm sure there will be much discussion about this somewhere, so I'm not going to get into my opinion about it, but I am very interested to see what happens this Friday night. A Hardy/Punk feud would be a pretty great way to start off this new title reign though.

Like I said, I really liked this PPV. I hope the WWE can follow up with some more great stuff, but I have a feeling this might be one of the best we get all year.

The whole PPV gets an 7.9/10

 

[milenniumman8]

The pay per view really made me scratch my head with the outcomes. What comes out of this? I loved the Jericho/Mysterio match and this will hopefully be a good drawn out storyline that actually goes somewhere(but this is wwe creative we are talking about so they could royally screw it up). But the Batista/Orton situation, what the hell? If Batista is going to have some surgery on tuesday, then why put the strap on him for a day? What will happen at Raw will there be a rematch with Orton going over or what? If Batista is going on the shelf HHH with defn probably be returning this week or next. What will they do with the title though? What about some sorta tournament for the WWE Title? Orton, HHH, Cena,Show,maybe bring back HBK as well?

I do like the possibilities coming outta the Edge/Hardy/Punk situation. Does this turn Punk heel? Does the Edge/Vickie backstage segment begin to turn Edge face? This situation could go many different ways.. Overall extreme rules wasn't a horrible ppv, maybe a 6/10. But still it leaves me a little perplexed at why certain things went down the way they did..

 

[flaboy]

overall it sucked..........point blank. the only good matches was dreamer and christian and jericho vs rey. the whole vikey vs santina thing i mean c mon i think they can come up with something better to waste time. batista winning the champion ship thats a joke, they spend all this time beefing up oton and making him one of the best if not the most greatest heel and most controversal star and then for the second time the orton era is supposed to begin but no they give it to batista right after that. batista should not of been in the story to begin with i was hoping to see a hhh orton in a hell in a cell match like someone alse already stated, i wouldnt mind seeing orton punt batistas teeth clear accross the arena on mon and then take the title back and hold it for a long time. now on to cena and show, a sumission match was stupid anyways because what submission has show ever made famous or used alot its just another way to put cena over when in my opinion show should be one of the most dominate star there is. then there is punk whats the deal here i would rather see jeff as champ then cm or beat edge for the title cause it seems like they are using jeff and he has to much talent for that. so now it seems the cm punk is going to be the next edge where he wins the mitb and then after a great match for the title he cashes it in on some beaten and broken champ then boom we have a new one. that was to good of a match to be ruined by that and to screw jeff over. its almost like the punk umaga fued was placed just to fill space but in other words it all sucks. so how bout it? WHATS UP!

 

[GameOver]

Thats your opinion of course.
IMO it didn't totally suck, it was just average.
Still 10 fold over anything TNA ever puts on

I do agree though the ending was gay, can only assume it's gonna lead to a triple threat match at The Bash, between Punk, Hardy and Edge and at some point Punk will become Edge V2. Zzzzzzzz

Possiblility of Edge going face too, but that could still be 50/50
That ending ruined a great title match.

oh and ofcourse no Tag Title match at a PPV yet again

The rest of the matches were just OK

 

[Id Chokeslam You!]

I thought this was one big disappointment, from the WORST STEEL CAGE match ever, to john cena being "the unbeatable john Cena", and a Very unhardcore "hardcore" ecw title match, and not to mention the horrible hog pen match. the only bright spot off the night was a underacheving ladder match that was awesome, i guess i was just expecting more...the cm punk cash in pissed me off so much, i was more dissapointed in the cash in than the lame, short steel cage match. i reallt wanted to see jeff get a respectable title run, but that might require a contract extension, and some hard ball(title run demands)

 

[Y 2 Jake]

This show was almost as pointless as the title changes it provided. I don't think it had any merit at all. Some was fine, most of it was meh. A night of gimmick matches and it was all very average.

Putting the belt on Tommy Dreamer is pointless. You could tell that by the total lack of reaction to the match and the tepid responce to his win. Christian should have kept the belt, especially considering he was the only one who was over in that match. Hopefully Kozlov takes the title off Dreamer this week on ECW.

The WWE Championship title change was pointless. I don't like Orton, but he should've held the belt for longer.

What does Chris Jericho get from another IC title reign? The previous 8 have been pointless as it is. He's above that belt at the moment, Rey Mysterio isn't. I think it's more that Jericho is so good right now that he shouldn't be left off a PPV.

Pointless Jeff Hardy title reign and it looks like Punk might've been turned heel.

Overall it was worthless. Maybe Punk would've had more impact if he wasn't the 4th title change of the night.

 

[TheOneBigWill]

I'll attempt doing an overall review, more in-depth tomorrow or Tuesday.

As for the basic rundown, I think Jake is more or less correct in everything. This Pay per view, while it was good at spots, it was an overall spot fest from beginning to end. And 5 Championships changed hands. Really? FIVE?! Most of which were the exact same Championships that JUST changed hands about two months ago.

While I'm not as upset over short title reigns - it shows the level of competition has raised. The fact is, it's title changes to the same people - who lost a month ago. So why didn't they just give them the titles, a month sooner?

Jericho failed one month sooner. So in a match with a gimmick, that barely even got used mind you, Jericho wins by doing something that could've easily been done a month ago.

Batista wins the title, injured, and will once again have to likely be either stripped of it, or drop it almost instantly. So what truly is the point of this? To put Orton over as sadistic, in taking Batista out? Couldn't that have been done better inside a Steel Cage, then on another episode of Raw? Surely you'd think Orton "injuring" Batista in the Cage, then retaining would help him get even more over as a Main Event level heel. So what's losing do for him? Makes him look horrible.

Dreamer winning the title is a massive failure waiting to happen. This IS NOT E.C.W from the 90's. Dreamer is the only original left on the brand - a brand filled with guys like David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, Jack Swagger & Vladimir Kozlov. The only thing Dreamer having that title guarantees - is it's almost certain the first individual who gets a one-on-one title shot, is very likely to become the next Champion.

Jeff Hardy's title victory, then loss, does what exactly? Takes pressure off Punk for possibly having yet another failed run as Champion?

In all seriousness, I'm backing Punk this time around. I thought his cashing in, tonight, was better than how he cashed in on Edge a year ago. But the heel turn, if indeed thats what happened, was horrible as well. He didn't seem like he turned heel.. he seemed like he did exactly what he did a year ago.. cashed in, using Edge's hand-book to how to use your MITB shot.

If Punk teams with Hardy, then turns on him on Smackdown - then he's turned heel. Last night's victory, wasn't what I'd call a heel turn - because he didn't do anything heelish, other than what he did a year ago, in taking advantage of a situation.. with exception that this time, it was against another "face". Oh well, thankfully I don't have to endure another meaningless Jeff Hardy title run.

Cena won again.. even if I do a full-on review, I'm pretty sure the sum-up of that match will be What a shocker. And honestly, he used the ropes (badly) to lock in a half ass STF(U).. when he's locked it on Khali, a mere two years ago. Either Cena's getting worse with performing the limited moves he knows how to do.. or Big Show's still growing, and none of us are aware of this.

In the end.. I liked the show, but as Jake put it.. it was an overwhelming meh, with all the title changes. (too many overshadow the important ones - like Punk's cashing in) And for the love of everything.. QUIT FUCKING ENDING LADDER MATCHES WITH A GUY BEING TRAPPED BETWEEN RUNGS!!!!! It's pathetic and a complete lack of creativity.

 

[Sparky]

Before i begin, for the most part I agree with your post. I'm not debating all of it. but read it incase there is something I don't agree with.

I'll attempt doing an overall review, more in-depth tomorrow or Tuesday.

As for the basic rundown, I think Jake is more or less correct in everything. This Pay per view, while it was good at spots, it was an overall spot fest from beginning to end. And 5 Championships changed hands. Really? FIVE?! Most of which were the exact same Championships that JUST changed hands about two months ago.

Most of the title changes wasn't needed. I did understand the fact that Dreamer should of won. You might think I'm wrong but he deserved it once more before he retired. you can't have the poor guy go all that time chasing the belt never to get it.

While I'm not as upset over short title reigns - it shows the level of competition has raised. The fact is, it's title changes to the same people - who lost a month ago. So why didn't they just give them the titles, a month sooner?

Jericho failed one month sooner. So in a match with a gimmick, that barely even got used mind you, Jericho wins by doing something that could've easily been done a month ago.

Yeah, i think the only reason that is a positive with Jericho winning is that it gives him something to put on the line against Rey's mask. the annoying part with this is that we will see Rey get it back in a couple of months.

Batista wins the title, injured, and will once again have to likely be either stripped of it, or drop it almost instantly. So what truly is the point of this? To put Orton over as sadistic, in taking Batista out? Couldn't that have been done better inside a Steel Cage, then on another episode of Raw? Surely you'd think Orton "injuring" Batista in the Cage, then retaining would help him get even more over as a Main Event level heel. So what's losing do for him? Makes him look horrible.

This was stupid. Giving a person a title when, the day after his first raw as champion he has Surgery was a faiulure by the WWE. and it goes to show just how much they wanted the title on Orton.

Dreamer winning the title is a massive failure waiting to happen. This IS NOT E.C.W from the 90's. Dreamer is the only original left on the brand - a brand filled with guys like David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd, Jack Swagger & Vladimir Kozlov. The only thing Dreamer having that title guarantees - is it's almost certain the first individual who gets a one-on-one title shot, is very likely to become the next Champion.

I have commented on this before, but It was a good idea. We do all know that he will lose it next ecw or pay per view. but it gives us something to remember him by. As the guy that finally after 7538537 years chasing the title, on his last chance he manages to win.

Jeff Hardy's title victory, then loss, does what exactly? Takes pressure off Punk for possibly having yet another failed run as Champion?

This part made no sense to me. Why Seriously what was the point of this? Maybe they could use it to firther a story line on how he can't hold it or something but why have Punk cash it in on Jeff?

The best part of this morning, was CM punk cashing it in. I was pissed off when Hardy won and actually Marked out when punk came out.

(fuck i deleted it, this is to the part you mentioned about the ladder) )
I was so fucking pissed off at this. Every Ladder match that has Hardy in, he manages to win, while the opponant was stuck staring helplessly either stuck under the ladder or caught up on the rungs. Is that the only way people can win ladder matches nowdays? Seriously they need to think of a better way.

 

[Stasischerge]

Hopefully the MITB-cash-in was the beginning of a heel-turn of CM Punk.
His character could use some refreshment...
I thought he rocked when he seemingly turned heel in ECW with the New Breed even if it was for just one show or so...

 

[IrishCanadian25]

I have one request of most of you in this thread.

Kindly blow it out your ass.

You've all got to be kidding. Have you all become so "smart" about the business that you are totally devoid of the simple ability to enjoy the product for its little victories? Are you all just so knowledgable about the details that you are totally incapable of allowing the waves of the willing suspension of disbelief to wash over you?

Makes me sick. All of you. You claim that what happened last night didn't make sense, but if it did make "sense" in your warped little worlds, you'd lambaste (look it up) as "predictable."

1. The Fatal-Four Way was terrific. Fast paced, all of the participants saw action, all characters were advanced at least a bit, and Kofi - the brightest young star on the roster - retained his title at a PPV, which was an issue with his first reign as IC Champ.

2. Jericho vs Mysterio is, at this point, Match of the Year. Classic mid-card title matches we are used to seeing and what we've been pining for over the course of the last 5 years. Near falls, a solid 20-minutes, the belief that either guy could win at any time, and despite being an Anything Goes environment, the "hardcore" side of things didn't dominate the match - it merely enhanced the in-ring work by both men. Amazing stuff here. Seeing Mysterio having an aggressive side was refreshing.

3. Punk vs Umaga. The best part of this match was that it made us forget for a moment that Punk was the MITB Winner and had the breifcase. Strong match by both men, Punk showed some power, and the ending was a classic strap match ending.

4. Dreamer / Christian / Swagger. Surprisingly a VERY solid match. Loved it. Swagger is a beast, Dreamer is seemless, Christian is endlessly entertaining. Calling Dreamer a "melting candle" was hilarious. Dreamers win was sudden, at times in doubt, and left me feeling satisifed with the ECW side of things. I may even watch it this week.

Marella / Guerrero. Uhg. Even I cannot defend this. Becky (my fiancee) was both upset to the point of tears and livid because she is a poster woman for the Humane Society and when Chavo was sent into the hog pen, almost crushing a pig, she lost it. We may write letters.

Batista / Orton. Short, intense match. Excellent ending (though temporary) to a well developed feud. Orton made Batista SO MAD, and when the heel finally had to "face the music" in the cage, he couldn't answer the call. Orton kept trying to escape, and Batista was equal to the task. I enjoyed this. The shortness of the match suprised me a bit, and the lack of Orton's offense, but it made more sense - Orton was trying to escape and survive, not attack. And making the error of not escaping, instead trying to kick Batista and take him out, was well done. Loved it.

Cena vs Big Show. I fell asleep, so I missed the entire thing.

Hardy vs Edge. Amazing ladder match. Both men worked so hard, the spots were very cool looking, and I bought A LOT of pain on the faces of both men. The ending was terrific, with Edge having to watch Punk take the belt. I don't know what Will is talking about, I felt this finishing spot was great.

Punk vs Hardy. I was still half asleep (from fatigue, not boredom), but when Punk's music hit I perked right up. I'd totally forgotten about the case. Hardy's kick out after the first GTS put the entire thing in doubt, since I'd have loved to have seen Hardy retain. I hope Hardy sticks around to feud with Punk - I sense great things there.

Overall a solid show with tremendous action, and a lot to look forward to on WWE programming this week. Got a problem with that?

Kindly blow it out your ass.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Well here's the consensus from the Mark of Zur-En-Arrh.....

I feel sorry for those who paid to watch that terrible excuse for a PPV that started off so well and then fell drastically after the second match.

Here's the run down......

US Title Fatal 4-Way

Probably the best option overall to start the show off. I was surprised that they didn't do the typical ECW title curtain jerking match, but the whole 'Hardcore rules' which this match didn't have was probably the reason for that.

Anyway, a decent length match overall with a decent finish. I haven't seen Kofi do his weird neck re-bound move in a while and to have Regal get caught out literally in the space of 2 seconds was well executed i felt. The kick wasn't, but we can let that slide considering how difficult it must be to successfully bounce off the ropes with your neck and do a spin kick that connects in 2 movements.

I'll say it once again though. Regal- GET A NEW FINISHER!!!! JESUS CHRIST!!! You did your stupid running knee and then went back to doing the exploder suplex. Ditch the knee, stick with the suplexes.

IC Title No Holds Barred Match

Good promo to begin, but you do wonder why Rey would actually just stay in the back and wait for Jericho to stop slagging him off. I didn't see the sneak attack on SD! either, and thought that was awesome. I did laugh for quite a while.

Wow. Jericho looked reeeeaaaallllyyy sloppy in this match. That was just my viewpoint anyway. It got better as time went on, but they kept using certain camera angles at the wrong times and Jericho seemed to be moving in slow motion. Perhaps Rey was going at a faster pace than he should've been, but whatever it was, it was noticeable to me anyway. Other than that, this was near enough the same match as JD. Please Chris, dont use that spinning torture rack backbreaker again. The novelty is wearing thin.
The second problem with this match was it's supposed to be No Holds Barred and what did we get? 3 chair shots in the last 5 minutes? Big fuckin' whoop.
What i did love however, was the ending. By the time they reached the ending, i had completely forgotten the whole 'rip off his mask' bit and i assumed he was going to catch Rey and lock in the WOJ again, but yanking the mask off as a counter move was beautiful.

Obviously this fued isn't over. Nor however, is the belt being passed around like a hot potato apparently. Ok, rey had it for what 2 1/2 months with a whopping 2 title defenses? Santino still is the most credible champion of the last three years..... sad. At least it seems that Rey and Y2J actually care about the title though.

Samoan Strap Match

Well it's about damn time he won. I too am not a great lover of strap matches. I've only ever enjoyed the Rock/HHH one from Fully Loaded '99 and that wasn't anything special either. Very much like the last match they had, which was fine i guess, but my only problem was with the ending. Why bother hitting the GTS? All he had to do was turn around and touch the pad. Instead he let Umaga charge him, picked him up (which more often than not is his undoing when facing Umaga) and hit his finisher and THEN fell back into the pad. Poor strategy that worked out in the end..... thankfully. But considering what happened later in the night, i have to ask, what's next for Umaga? Is he going to disappear like Kane suddenly has? Just not appear until SSlam until Taker's back on the scene and then they have a pointless fued?

ECW Title Triple Threat Match

What were they trying to accomplish with that promo at the beginning? Were they trying to earn Dreamer more support by making Christian seem like a dick? Because it didn't work.

This was a good match i suppose, mainly because i didn't see Dreamer winning for shit. I guessed that Christian was going to pin Swagger and Dreamer get retired without getting beaten, but low and behold the guy won.

What sucked is this. You have Jack Swagger and Tommy Dreamer who had a decent Extreme Rules match not too long ago as i recall. You then add Christian to the equation who is also adept at Hardcore matches, and you give them nothing but kendo sticks and garbage cans to work with.............. very clever.

Whole arena chanting 'We Want Tables' and we didn't get one all fuckin' night. And this is supposed to be WWE going Extreme? (Before you say 'Well they could've used a table if they'd wanted, it's their fault not the creative teams' watch the match again and you'll notice that for once, there was actually next to nothing under the ring last night. On more than one occassion they lifted the apron and there was nothing but darkness.

Striker. DON'T STATE THE REAL NAMES OF THE TALENT ON TV. If you called a HHH match and said 'Paul Levesque is now the WWE champion for the 14th time' you be fired so fast you wouldn't have time to take your headset off. The strange silent pause after you said Dreamer's name suggests that Vince wasn't pleased with that either..... ya fuckin' idiot.

Hog Pen Match

Sorry, i'm not going to bother. The worst part was that after the match was finished, we still had 5-10 minutes of looking at Vickie and Chavo in the mud. This whoe Santina thing was funny for a whole 10 seconds at WM. It's now 3 months later and you're still doing it. QUIT IT!

The following Edge/Vickie segment was hard to watch as well. Please let this be the end of this crap. I'm guessing they're doing it just so they can recycle the exact same storyline for Big Show this year.

WWE Title Steel Cage Match

I was stunned. I thought to myself 'finally, the 15 minutes of Batista just beating Orton up and him running like a freakin' pussy all the time is over, maybe now we can see some development in this match'. And then it ended. Well done guys. Justifiably you weren't the Main Event a-gain, because this was simpy not good.

Now, i've mentioned how annoyed i am watching Orton act like such a coward all the time and lots of guys turn back and say 'that's what the heel does'. That i totally understand, but in Orton's case, it makes absolutely no sense.

This is a guy who had a truly bloody fued with Mick Foley with culminated in one of the best Hardcore matches of the decade with Orton being ripped to shreds and winning.

This is a guy who had a war with the Undertaker throughout 2005, often having his ass handed to him AND his dad.

This is a guy who's beaten HHH in a LMS match AND beat him AND Cena at the same time at WM24.

My point is, during all those hard fought, difficult battles, not ONCE DID ORTON RUN AWAY! NOT FUCKING ONCE! YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT NOW, THAT HE'S AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME AND LEADING HIS OWN CREW HE'S SUDDENLY LOST HIS GENITALS? All it takes is to be put in the ring with Bore-tis-duh and suddenly he's a total pussy? Is that what we're saying here? 3 weeks ago, Orton was kicking Batista's ass throughout that match. He takes one spear and suddenly he's running away and slapping the ref. Last night ALL he did was run away. Fuckin' pathetic. I also don't know why they bother with this Legacy shit anymore. They don't DO anything. They run in AFTER the match has ended, or during lame talk segments and that's literally it. Why would the coward Champion keep coming out alone without back-up?

Now that big Dave's hurt a-gain, what's the bet Orton wins the belt back tonight on Raw in a fuckin' 3 minute match?

Submission Match

Once i saw that this match was near enough going to be the same as JDs i dozed off. I lasted from Show shoving Cena out the ring as he went for a Bulldog and woke up to the sound of 'We thought it was impossible to do it, but he did it blah blah blah blah blah' Stupid. Just use a different hold for God's sake. It's not like there isn't hundreds to choose from. Please let this fued end now.

WHC Ladder match

Phased in and out of this as well to be honest. Wasn't going to be anything new was it tbh? I even told myself they'd do the whole 'put him through a ladder' spot again as well. 'Human body versus steel ladder and the steel wins'. What steel? That ladder splintered in all directions, and you expect me to believe it's made of steel? I did like the countering the mid-air spear into a twist of fate i must say though. That was god. What sucked is for like the 4th of out of the last 5 ladder matches we've seen, the winner does it by trapping is opponent in the rungs. Enough already. Stop doing that. It looked REALLY stupid last night, because Edge just had to lift his arms in the air and he would have slid out straight away.

Not only that though, we had that match end in a shit manner, giving us a new champion..... for all of 5 minutes until we had another new champion. That's got to be the new record for shortest title reign ever surely?

So now our SD main event fued is either Punk/Hardy (2 faces doesn't work) or Punk/Edge which i personally don't think it would stay fresh for more than 2 months without people disliking it.


Overall, this Extreme Rules was a joke. There was little to nothing extreme about it and we had 3 new champions for no clear justifiable reason.

(Sigh) Dare i bother to pay to watch the next PPV on June 28th, a PPV which apparently has had everything 'Great' or 'American' removed from it, because now it's just 'The Bash'

Zur-En-Arrh out.

Transmission ends............

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Well here's the consensus from the Mark of Zur-En-Arrh

A consensus of one person? Puh-lease...

I feel sorry for those who paid to watch that terrible excuse for a PPV that started off so well and then fell drastically after the second match.

I feel sorry for wrestling fans such as yourself who are too "intelligent about the business" to enjoy it anymore.

Regal- GET A NEW FINISHER!!!! JESUS CHRIST!!! You did your stupid running knee and then went back to doing the exploder suplex. Ditch the knee, stick with the suplexes.

Agreed, he was a suplex master in WCW.

Wow. Jericho looked reeeeaaaallllyyy sloppy in this match. That was just my viewpoint anyway.

He did? Man my hangover must have distorted that.

It got better as time went on, but they kept using certain camera angles at the wrong times and Jericho seemed to be moving in slow motion.

So you are not only a wrestling expert, but apparently a cinematographer as well. Splendid.

Perhaps Rey was going at a faster pace than he should've been, but whatever it was, it was noticeable to me anyway.

Or maybe Rey is...wait for it...a faster wrestler, and Jericho knew he'd have to slow the pace down to have a chance. Jericho isn't going to beat Mysterio with speed.

Physics 101, class dismissed.

Please Chris, dont use that spinning torture rack backbreaker again. The novelty is wearing thin.

Please, Chris, don't listen to a guy who has a consensus with himself. The backbreaker is bad ass.

The second problem with this match was it's supposed to be No Holds Barred and what did we get? 3 chair shots in the last 5 minutes? Big fuckin' whoop.

Yes, you got some extreme rules spots that did not detract from the in-ring skills of these men. How many hardcore spots do you need in a match involving two technical wrestlers who have no more than a 1 or 2 month feud? It wouldn't make sense to have crazy amountsof hardcore spots. I was MUCH happier seeing a few spots that enhanced the in-ring work they did. After all, the point of the match was to win the title.

I've only ever enjoyed the Rock/HHH one from Fully Loaded '99 and that wasn't anything special either.

Guerrero vs JBL > HHH vs Rock.

Why bother hitting the GTS? All he had to do was turn around and touch the pad.

Instinct. He's a pro wrestler, and his instinct is to counter when someone charges him. In normal matches, the object isn't to touch the turnbuckle. So Punk instinctually hit his finisher.

What sucked is this. You have Jack Swagger and Tommy Dreamer who had a decent Extreme Rules match not too long ago as i recall. You then add Christian to the equation who is also adept at Hardcore matches, and you give them nothing but kendo sticks and garbage cans to work with.............. very clever.

Clearly you're a desensitized hardcore junkie. A PPV of all extreme rules matches / stipulation matches, and still you complain that not enough hardcore spots were used? It's a new generation, and none of these three men have enough bad blood amongst them to warrant such violence.

Whole arena chanting 'We Want Tables' and we didn't get one all fuckin' night.

So what? Would tables have made sense in this match?

Striker. DON'T STATE THE REAL NAMES OF THE TALENT ON TV. If you called a HHH match and said 'Paul Levesque is now the WWE champion for the 14th time' you be fired so fast you wouldn't have time to take your headset off. The strange silent pause after you said Dreamer's name suggests that Vince wasn't pleased with that either..... ya fuckin' idiot.

Striker's the best commentator on WWE programming. He's the only one who doesn't spoon feed Vince's rhetoric to fans and gives them credit for being free thinking, intelligent, historically knowledgable, good fans.

Maybe that's why I like him.

I was stunned. I thought to myself 'finally, the 15 minutes of Batista just beating Orton up and him running like a freakin' pussy all the time is over, maybe now we can see some development in this match'. And then it ended. Well done guys. Justifiably you weren't the Main Event a-gain, because this was simpy not good.

By now I trust you've read of Batista's injury?

And please read my prior post (just next to your post) on why this match was terrific.

Overall, this Extreme Rules was a joke. There was little to nothing extreme about it and we had 3 new champions for no clear justifiable reason.

Tremendous show. And we have 5 new champions, not 3. (Jericho, Swagger, Batista, Hardy, Punk.)

(Sigh) Dare i bother to pay to watch the next PPV on June 28th, a PPV which apparently has had everything 'Great' or 'American' removed from it, because now it's just 'The Bash'.

Please don't.

 

[Gerald Brisco]

Fatal 4 Way, VERY good opening match, as said, fast paced, for an opening match didnt drag on too long, entertaining

Mysterio-Jericho, Another classic match, Those 2 blokes have a very good storyline going and it might go all the way to summerslam

Samoan Strap Match, I wont blame the wrestlers, but that was just a horrible stipulation, Yawn, they tried, but average

ECW triple Threat match
Hmm...Some good Spots, NO tables, i was waiting for someone to
1-Get cut Open
2-Get put though table
3-Hit with a stop sign

Neither, happy Tommy won the title, but eh

Hog-Pen
15/10, Utterly Intense and a talent ridden match. WIth these two Diva's wrestling in the mud i think the womans wrestling is at its peak of its game, much like the tent i was pitching in my pants.

Steel Cage Match

I LOVE steel cage matches, but I fell Asleep, Boring ass feud, Glad Batista is off television, He brings good talent down

Submission Match

Cena is an ALRIGHT wrestler, but cannot carry matches by himself, Big show plain sucks and both blokes have No chemistry, its a chore to watch Cena Vs Big show.

Ladder Match

Yeah it was pretty good the ending was just....soo bland, Having edge caught in the ladder and jeff winning it while Edge hung there was swell, but CM punk comming out and winning the title? What a shizenhousen way to end a SHizenhousen PPV

I mean sure, We all like to be critical to convince people on a messageboard we are the smartest Wrestling Cynic, at some type of pissing contest to see who loves it the most, but My god it was just.....bland

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

A consensus of one person? Puh-lease...

Ok, consensus was the wrong word to use. Excuse me for writing a blog when i'm high. There's no need to get bent out of shape about it is there?

I feel sorry for wrestling fans such as yourself who are too "intelligent about the business" to enjoy it anymore.

Never made either of those claims. Simply gave my reasons why i didn't enjoy the show. Thanks for complienting my intelligence though.

He did? Man my hangover must have distorted that.

Again, i'm just giving my opinion, not making a statement of fact. Why even bother arguing?

So you are not only a wrestling expert, but apparently a cinematographer as well. Splendid.

Wow, i haven't read any of your posts in a while but i don't remember you being so hostile over something so trivial before. Seriously whatever you stopped doing or taking, get back on it. I probably should have clarified (you don't have a problem with the word 'clarified' do you? Sure you wouldn't prefer me to use 'specified'?) this point. By wrong camera angles i meant getting in close to the ring so you could blatantly see them giving each other instructions for the next sequence of moves.

Again, never claimed to be a wrestling expert. Just explained why i didn't like the show.

Or maybe Rey is...wait for it...a faster wrestler, and Jericho knew he'd have to slow the pace down to have a chance. Jericho isn't going to beat Mysterio with speed.

Problem is, I'm not talking about how he'd 'beat him'. No one 'beat' anyone did they? Rey Mysterio led there while Jericho pinned him, just as they'd planned to do some 20 minutes earlier. I'm talking about having 20 minutes of match time to fill and Rey moving faster than Jericho thought they should be. It looked like he was trying to slow things down so that a) they didn't get worn out before they even got to the mid-way point and b) so they'd have some fuckin' material left by the end of the match.

See this is what happens when a guy surrenders totally to kayfabe and ignores the slip ups that kill it, and then decides to argue with someone who doesn't. Perhaps if you'd asked what i meant instead of assuming what i meant you wouldn't have made a fool of yourself right there.

Please, Chris, don't listen to a guy who has a consensus with himself. The backbreaker is bad ass.

Again i mispoke, get over it. No one said the move wasn't bad ass. My point was it's a move he does with Rey and Rey only. Doing it in every match makes it look to me as a fan and not as a wrestling expert, or a cinematographer or a stunt co-ordinator or PM of Lithuania, but simply as a fan, that they can't come up with anything else to do. Much like when Rey kept doing that fluid motion reverse DDT on Kane in E-V-E-R-Y match they had together. Was awesome the first time, but then it was used in EVERY match they had and it became the same old shit. Keep doing that move with Rey and Rey only and it'll have the same effect.

Yes, you got some extreme rules spots that did not detract from the in-ring skills of these men. How many hardcore spots do you need in a match involving two technical wrestlers who have no more than a 1 or 2 month feud? It wouldn't make sense to have crazy amountsof hardcore spots. I was MUCH happier seeing a few spots that enhanced the in-ring work they did. After all, the point of the match was to win the title.

You were much happier were you? To see near enough the same match you saw 3 weeks ago, all over again but in a slightly different order? You must be easily impressed, then again we wouldn't be having this debate if you weren't. Why bother calling it a No Holds Barred match if you're not going to play up to that? I'm quite happy to have a high calibur wrestling match, but not when i saw it happen 3 weeks ago at the previous PPV, and not they've hyped this match to be something different.

Guerrero vs JBL > HHH vs Rock.

The point of saying this was what exactly? Because all you've done is argue with another of my opinions, which is a waste of time, because no one is right or wrong.

Instinct. He's a pro wrestler, and his instinct is to counter when someone charges him. In normal matches, the object isn't to touch the turnbuckle. So Punk instinctually hit his finisher.

That's such a lame excuse. He didn't take 1 step backwards because his instincts told him to try something he repeatedly fails to execute. Instead of his instinct saying 'JUST WIN THE MATCH' his instinct said 'grab him and show off for the crowd.'

"Look everybody, i can lift superheavyweights too! LLLOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEE MEEEEEEEE!!!!"

Clearly you're a desensitized hardcore junkie. A PPV of all extreme rules matches / stipulation matches, and still you complain that not enough hardcore spots were used?

Clearly you're on your period. Until they did the superplex through the trash cans, there hadn't been any fuckin' hardcore spots. If you consider kicking the chair in Jericho's face, a drop toe hold on a chair and a chair shot that wasn't even a full swing, and whipping each other with a strap to be a 'extreme spots' then i reiterate my point that you must be easily impressed.

It's a new generation, and none of these three men have enough bad blood amongst them to warrant such violence.

To quote you from your Rey/Jericho thoughts, 'The point of the match was to win the title'. Hatred and jealousy is completely irrelevant when the belts on the line, but that's obviously something that those of us who are 'too intelligent' can understand apparently.

So what? Would tables have made sense in this match?

Would tables have made sense in a Hardcore ECW title match that features Tommy Dreamer, The Innovator Of Violence, in his win-or-retire match? Er..... yeah i think it would have. I can't believe you had to even ask that.
Next you'll ask if it would've made sense to bleed.

This was more of a side point as i separated it from the previous text. Did you not understand that either? I thought the words 'all fuckin' night' were a bit of a give away but i'll simplify it for you. The PPV is called 'Extreme Rules'. You don't think that a PPV called 'Extreme Rules' would have one little table spot somewhere in those 3 hours?

Striker's the best commentator on WWE programming. He's the only one who doesn't spoon feed Vince's rhetoric to fans and gives them credit for being free thinking, intelligent, historically knowledgable, good fans.

Maybe that's why I like him.

No, just, just, no. He doesn't even know the rules of basic matches, he makes up bullshit for no reason, he can't introduce a simple cut away to an interview and even when he's corrected several times on air, he still repeats the same mistakes.

By now I trust you've read of Batista's injury?

Yes i have, hence why i asked what the odds were on him dropping the belt on Raw tonight as a result. Him being injured doesn't really mean anything in regards what i was saying anyway. It was 15 minutes of Batista beating on Orton and Orton running away. Your answer was: Batista is hurt.

And? Every other ME talent still works decent matches when they're hurt. Taker, Foley, Austin, HBK all wrestled with severe injuries on several occassions but they didn't dish out all the punishment and take no bumps, why is this scenario so different? Are you saying that no one thought these two could have an even sided match without hurting Dave even more, so they made sure he didn't take much abuse, ESPECIALLY when Dave is most likely 1 of the other 2 guys (the other being Cena probably), along with Orton that complained to Vince about Kennedy hurting people, resulting in his release?

And please read my prior post (just next to your post) on why this match was terrific.

As you actually had some manners for a brief second i'll oblige you.................

Ok, nothing in your review of that match did anything to convince me that this match was actually better than i felt it was last night.

It was a short match. How is that a good thing from your top talent of that brand?

Excellent ending to a fued. How? He won the title with relative ease only after everyone else has been sent to the hospital over the course of 4 months, and despite how mad and vengeful Batista was supposed to be, he opted to simply walk off rather than continue to beat the crap out of Orton...... yeah, great ending. Who said it's finished anyway?

He was going to escape, tried for a punt and lost the match. How is it good that he suddenly stopped being the coward and started being the sadistic Viper for all of 5 seconds? Don't tell me, it was instinct was it?

As i said, Orton isn't a fragile pussy. If he can be torn to pieces with barbed wire by Foley or have a Hell In A Cell match using all the elements of a TLC match against Taker without running away, why is he running away from this idiot who is so easy to out-think by almost every other heel?

I assume your answer is going to be something irrelevant like "Because he punted Flair on Raw."

Tremendous show. And we have 5 new champions, not 3. (Jericho, Swagger, Batista, Hardy, Punk.)

I didn't count Jericho because i meant World champs, but if that's what i meant, that should have been what i said, and i personally didn't count Jeff's 5 minutes as a title reign, but i'll admit that you are correct on that fact. It was not however, in my opinion a tremendous anything. And while i may have got the number of title changes wrong, at least i can remember who won what. Sorry, what title did Swagger win exactly? And according to your original post Edge had to watch Punk grab the title belt. What PPV were you actually watching?

Please don't.

Why? So i don't give you the opportunity to throw slander at the first person to disagree with you after you had just insulted everyone else for thinking that same way?

You basically started your review by saying 'i disagree with what the majority have said so far, so fuck you all, my opinion matters, none of yours do.' Very mature. And then i posted my review, and once you saw the post after yours appear and realised it was another that disagreed, that signalled to you that you had carte blanche to label me as 'too intelligent to enjoy wrestling', 'a desensitized hardcore junkie' and a 'wrestling expert'. Sure you don't want to throw 'smark' in there as well?

 

[IrishCanadian25]

If you can't stand the heat, don't post high.

I just arbitrarilly chose you to bear the brunt of my Monday Morning. When you weren't taken aback by my harshness, you held your own just fine.

Ok, consensus was the wrong word to use. Excuse me for writing a blog when i'm high. There's no need to get bent out of shape about it is there?

You're excused.

Who's bent out of shape?

Never made that either of those claims. Simply gave my reasons why i didn't enjoy the show. Thanks for complienting my intelligence though.

My comment there was more directed to the masses of smarks who feel compelled to shit on every aspect of the wrestling business after every show. But I thought the show was solid, as did the people I watched it with, so why feel sorry that we ordered it? I feel sorry for you because you've obviously dissected the show into a litany (look it up, everyone) of tiny details that YOU would have done differently.

That's all I was saying.

Again, i'm just giving my opinion, not making a statement of fact. Why even bother arguing?

Ok, you do understand that had you stated facts, THEN there would be nothing to debate, right? And you do realize that the point of this site is to discuss / debate, right?

You just weren't prepared for it. It's cool.

You and everyone else are 100% entitled to your opinion. When you post them, you open your "opinions" up to criticism. What's the shock? If we didn't bother arguing, then why bother posting? Why bother having a site? Why bother living?

Wow, i haven't read any of your posts in a while but i don't remember you being so hostile over something so trivial before.

Creative came up with a new direction for my character.

I probably should have clarified (you don't have a problem with the word 'clarified' do you? Sure you wouldn't prefer me to use 'specified'?) this point.

I am a fan of the word "deliniated." But any of them are just fine. I have no issue with your vernacular, the mere fact that you are able to complete a sentence and speak English quasi-properly is one of the reasons I picked you out to debate with.

By wrong camera angles i meant getting in close to the ring so you could blatantly see them giving each other instructions for the next sequence of moves.

The execution of the moves still came off very well. I was thrilled with it. Remember, it's not supposed to be a flawless series of spots, it's a wrestling match - a struggle. "Sloppy" is okay as long as it makes sense, and I felt this match made perfect sense. They could have gone WCW circa-1996 and done a well choreographed dance, but instead, we got a wrestling match.

Again, never claimed to be a wrestling expert. Just explained why i didn't like the show.

If you're able to decide what wrestlers did wrong / right, then you must be an expert, no?

And it's cool if you didn't like the show. But to take the show to the woodshed and villify those who participated in it? Sorry man, I have to take the piss.

Perhaps if you'd asked what i meant instead of assuming what i meant you wouldn't have made a fool of yourself right there.

Why would I ask what you meant? I reacted to what you posted / the information you gave me. And I hardly look like a fool.

You did say in your prior post that you felt either Jericho was too slow or Mysterio was too fast. But if they went at the same speed, that wouldn't make sense. That's what I read into.

If I was wrong, feel free to correct me and point out where you'd made that point earlier. If you failed to make that point earlier (or if you hadn't deliniated it well - see how fun that word is?), then it hardly means I looked like a fool.

Again i mispoke, get over it.

I'm over it. Wasn't really under it to begin with.

No one said the move wasn't bad ass. My point was it's a ove he does with Rey and Rey only.

That's because Mysterio is small enough for Jericho to use it. THAT is why he only uses it on Rey. Kane really only uses the overhead press on Rey, but I've never seen him use it on Mike Knox. Maybe it's because Rey is small and he CAN execute the move on him.

If you're fighting someone whom you outweight by 70 lbs, are you going to match speed with them, or try to use power moves on them?

Doing it in every match makes it look to me as a fan and not as a wrestling expert, or a cinematographer or a stunt co-ordinator or PM of Lithuania, but simply as a fan, that they can't come up with anything else to do. Much like when Rey kept doing that fluid motion reverse DDT on Kane in E-V-E-R-Y match they had together.

That's what I hated about Bret Hart. He did that damn leg lock at the end of EVERY match. The Prime Minister of Lithuania probably hated that move, too.

You were much happier were you? To see near enough the same match you saw 3 weeks ago, all over again but in a slightly different order?

I missed Judgement Day, actually. This was totally new to me.

Even still, matches will always have some similar elements to them, especially as guys begin to scout one another.

You must be easily impressed, then again we wouldn't be having this debate if you weren't.

I am not easily impressed. If I were, I'd have said "wow, good post" and we'd not be debating. But you see, this is far more fun and challenging.

Why bother calling it a No Holds Barred match if you're not going to play up to that? I'm quite happy to have a high calibur wrestling match, but not when i saw it happen 3 weeks ago at the previous PPV, and they've hyped this match to be something different.

And it was different, but it doesn't have to be an ultra-violent bloodbath, nor does it have to revolve completely around the hardcore element to be effective or servicable. The hardcore action served to enhance the wrestling action, as opposed to matches where there is so much hardcore stuff that actual wrestling seems out of place.

The point of saying this was what exactly?

To explain my opinion on strap matches, much as you did. I am sorry, am I not permitted to do so? I guess my opinion on the JBL / Eddie strap match did nothing to advance our feud?

Because all you've done is argue with another of my opinions, which is a waste of time.

Again, I was under the impression that these boards existed so opinions could be argued. Silly me.

That's such a lame excuse. He didn't take 1 step backwards because his instincts told him to try something he repeatedly fails to execute.

Huh? He's pulling to get to the turnbuckle, and Umaga gives the signal for his finishing move. Punk reacts as if to say "oh shit, I have to avoid that" and puts Umaga up for his finisher before winning the match. Other option - touch the corner and get steamrolled?

Dude, until they did the superplex through the trash cans, there hadn't been any fuckin' hardcore spots. If you consider kicking the chair in Jericho's face, a drop toe hold on a chair and a chair shot that wasn't even a full swing, and whipping each other with a strap to be a 'extreme spots' then i reiterate my point that you must be easily impressed.

I think people who need to see bodies go through tables and full swing chair shots instead of creative, sensible wrestling action are the easily impressed ones, actually.

To quote you from your Rey/Jericho thoughts, 'The point of the match was to win the title'. Hatred and jealousy is completely irrelevant when the belts on the line, but that's obviously something that those of us who are 'too intelligent' can understand apparently.

If two or three guys with no history go into a title match with no real heavy personal history in the story line (especially with two of them admitting they are friends in Dreamer and Christian) and use every weapon imaginable to destroy their opponent, then what happens when two guys with some built-up personal heat face off? What's left to do other than one guy taking out a gun and shooting his opponent? There would be no need for these three guys to obliterate each other.

Would tables have made sense in a Hardcore ECW title match that features Tommy Dreamer, The Innovator Of Violence, in his win-or-retire match? Er..... yeah i think it would have. I can't believe you had to even ask that.

That is a fair point. But were tables a Tommy Dreamer specialty? No, the Singapore Cane was, right? Had the Dudleyz been in this match, I'd expect tables.

This was more of a side point as i separated it from the previous text. Did you not understand that either? I thought the words 'all fuckin' night' were a bit of a give away but i'll simplify it for you. The PPV is called 'Extreme Rules'. You don't think that a PPV called 'Extreme Rules' would have one little table spot somewhere in those 3 hours?

10 years ago, the use of a table was novel and unheard of. 5 years ago, it was still cool to see. Now, we're at a point where the words "extreme rules" instantly REQUIRE a table spot?

No, just, just, no. He doesn't even know the rules of basic matches, he makes up bullshit for no reason, he can't introduce a simple cut away to an interview and even when he's corrected several times on air, he still repeats the same mistakes.

We agree to disagree. I think Striker is fantastic.

Yes i have, hence why i asked what the odds were on him dropping the belt on Raw tonight as a result. Him being injured doesn't really mean anything in regards what i was saying anyway. It was 15 minutes of Batista beating on Orton and Orton running away. Your answer was: Batista is hurt.

Nah, I liked the flow of the match. Quick, intense, made sense. Yes, the length was a bit of a disappointment (as every girlfriend I've ever had has felt), but still, seeing the face finally get his hands on the heel and just decimate him was fine by me. Especially when the heel wasn't trying to get in offense, just to escape with title in tact.

And? Every other ME talent still works decent matches when they're hurt. They don't dish out all the punishment and take no bumps, why is this scenario so different? Are you saying that no one thought these two could have an even sided match without hurting Dave even more, so they made sure he didn't take much abuse, ESPECIALLY when these Dave is most likely 1 of the other 2, out of the 3 guys that complained to Vince about Kennedy hurting people, resulting in his release?

That's a good question, I dunno if they would have or not. But why risk making his injury worse? Similar to Orton / HHH a while back when Orton's shoulder got mangled. No clue how bad the injury was.

The problem you and I have? We KNOW that Batista is hurt, so when the angle plays out on Raw tonight, we won't be surprised and we'll be disappointed.

As you actually had some manners for a brief second i'll oblige you.................

I often have manners.

Ok, nothing in your review of that match did anything to convince me that this match was actually better than i felt it was last night.

Bummer.

He was going to escape, tried for a punt and lost the match. How is it good that he suddenly stopped being the coward and started being the sadistic Viper for all of 5 seconds? Don't tell me, it was instinct was it?

Orton had a chance to win the match, which he would have. But Orton knew Batista would be back for him the next night on Raw and still be a threat, so Orton thought "I have him in a prone position, if I punt him in the head now I can put him out for a while, and eliminate a major threat to my title." It backfired. Makes perfect sense.

As i said, Orton isn't a fragile pussy. If he can be torn to pieces with barbed wire by Foley or have a Hell In A Cell match using all the elements of a TLC match against Taker without running away, why is he running away from this idiot who is so easy to out-think by almost every other heel?

I actually agreed with your assessment of Orton and whatnot, so I'll give you this kayfabe argument - that match against Foley was when Orton was just an IC Champ. Still hungry. Still waiting to prove himself. At this point, he's won multiple WWE Titles, and lost them. He's become obsessed with remaining on top that he'll do anything to keep his title in tact, even if it means sacrificing his dignity.

I didn't count Jericho because i meant World champs, but i should have made that clear, and i personally didn't count Jeff's 5 minutes as a title reign, but i'll admit that you are correct on that fact. It was not however, in my opinion a tremendous anything?

Cool.

Why? So i don't give you the opportunity to throw slander at the first person to disagree with you after you had just insulted everyone else for thinking that same way?

Wow, this was as self-righteous as you seem to be claiming I was. Who did I slander. I just stepped up and made you (God forbid) defend your position on the PPV. If you didn't disagree with me, I'd have nobody to debate. And I didn't insult you, I merely attacked your position.

You basically started your review by saying 'i disagree so fuck you all, my opinion matters, none of yours do.'

Damn straight. Glad we're on the same page.

Very mature.

Thank you, sir!

At the same time i started writing my review, and once you saw mine appear immediately after yours, that signalled to you that you had carte blanche to label me as 'too intelligent to enjoy wrestling', 'a desensitized hardcore junkie' and a 'wrestling expert'. Sure you don't want to throw 'smark' in there as well?

Smark.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

Lulz. IC25...is a G with no mercy...

Anyway, my overall opinion of the show was that it showed me that the WWE still has it. I mean, we got 5 title changes. FIVE! We had Punk come out, screw Jeff out of the belt by cashing in. We had one-armed Batista beat Orton for the belt, which many didn't expect. We also had Edge drop the belt, which I didn't figure to happen for a long time. Not to mention Tommy Dreamer winning the ECW title for the first time under the new regime of ECW.

The PPV was solid. Cena and Show's match was what it was. Same goes for the Hogpen match. And I also missed the US Title match AND the IC Title match, which I heard was the best match on the card. And I STILL thought it was a good PPV.

 

[D-Man]

Plain and simple... I was VERY surprised with the PPV. And that's in a GOOD way. They not only had 5 title changes (or six, if you count Santina ), but four of them were COMPLETELY unexpected... at least for me.

First off, who REALLY thought Tommy Dreamer would win last night? Whether he loses it tomorrow night, next month, next year, or 10 minutes ago, he still won against Swagger and Christian who are both as hot as the sun in ECW right now.

Then came the IC title match. I NEVER thought there would be a logical reason for Jericho to win the title for the 9th time. But, WWE swerved me again. Jericho gave a big "FUCK YOU" to everyone that watched by proving them all wrong when he not only took Rey's title, but his mask as well. The sychophants and parasites got a big, Canadian boot shoved right in their mouths and I LOVED IT.

The cage match was as good as it could have been, considering big Dave's injury. To have him come out on top is another MAJOR surprise to me. Whether it makes sense or not to all of the "smarty marks" out there, it should have shocked all of you.

Once again, Jeff Hardy's contract is in jeopardy. His loss was almost wirtten in stone, in my opinion. But then to have him win was a TOTAL shock to me. And before I could even catch my breath, out comes CM Punk (a current monstrous babyface) to FUCK Hardy over?!?!? That's got shock value written ALL OVER IT. The kiddies must've been crying to their mommies. I marked out like a little bitch... I admit it.

In conclusion, I think this PPV was the WWE's way of answering everyone's craving for shocking RESULTS, even if they are effective for only one night. How about we stop trying to break it all down and look at THAT aspect of things. I think it might help things make more sense to all of you.

 

[The Rob]

Kofi Kingston v.s MVP v.s William Regal v.s Matt Hardy, WWE United States Championship Fatal Four Way Match

I was rather impressed with this match as an opener. There wasen't anything 'extreme' about it, other than technically Fatal Four Way matches have no DQ's. But really, they didn't need any sort of weaponary in this match. The tempo was very high constantly and the action was fast paced and exciting. The only thing that went wrong was that superplex but other than that, it was a great match on the whole.

8/10

Chris Jericho v.s Rey Mysterio, WWE Intercontinetal Championship No Holds Bared Match

First off, Jericho's entrance was superb. The way he suddenly got all angry at anyone who touched him and the threats he dished out to a number of people made me both laugh and wanna punch him in the mouth. He's really getting into his stride as a heel when it comes to his promos. As for the match... it was good, but not the all out brawl I was expecting. But it sure didn't lack any intensity, and it proved to be a very entertaining contest. Plus the spot at the end where Jericho counted the 619 by ripping Rey's mask off was an utter surprise.

8/10

CM Punk v.s Umaga, Samoan Strap Match

I kinda found this match to be a bit of a card-filler. It didn't really have any real interesting parts to it and the crowd weren't really all that interested. I kinda liked the concept but it wasen't all that 'extreme' really.

5/10

Christian v.s Jack Swagger v.s Tommy Dreamer, ECW Championship Hardcore Rules Match

I actually really enjoyed this. The best spot was without a doubt where Dreamer got superplex'd onto one of the trash cans. His face made me laugh out loud. I loved the ending and I'm really happy to see Dreamer win the ECW championship, it's been a long time coming since ECW became a WWE brand. Congrats Tommy.

7/10

Vickie Guerrero w/ Chavo Guerrero v.s Santina Marella, 'Miss WrestleMania' Hog Pen Match

Well the fact that Vickie ever became Miss WrestleMania to start with is fucking laughable and that Santina won it at WrestleMania is, again, fucking laughable. Turns out their match was nothing but a pile of shit... quite literally. I don't understand why Chavo is being dragged down by this whole storyline, it isn't making him out to be anything special, other than Vickie's puppet, he's so much more than this. And the whole concept was so awful, it wasen't even entertaining... at all. The best thing of the whole match/aftermath, was Edge saying to Vickie that, basically, their marriage is over. Thank fuck!

1/10

Randy Orton v.s Batista, WWE Championship Steel Cage Match

I already knew Batista was injuried before I watched the match, I didn't watch the show till earlyer this evening, but it still dosen't make any sense to have Batista win the WWE title when he's going straight to surgery. I guess that they had to try and do something interesting but it turned out to be an utter mess. I pray that these two don't have too many televised matches from now on, as when they do, they tend to stink.

4/10

John Cena v.s Big Show, Submission Match

I wasen't overally keen when this was announced a few weeks back. But, I still went into it with an open mind... and it's ended with me thinking that Big Show is now one of the most stale wrestlers in the company today. He's simply not that interesting anymore to watch. I wasen't all that bothered by what was going on as you always knew that John would 'magically' lock on the STF and win. The ending was piss-poor. It's obvious that Big Show's foot unhooked itself from the ropes but Show still sold it like he was in proper pain when, really, at the point, all Cena had locked in was a headlock.

4/10

Edge v.s Jeff Hardy, World Heavyweight Championship Ladder Match

First of all, I fucking loved the promo that was shown before the match. One of the best pre-match promo's I've seen in years. As for the match itself... I loved it. It's easy to tell that both Edge and Jeff were in their elements in this kind of match and both were able to pull of some pretty awesome spots. There were also several moments were I couldn't help but think 'holy shit!'... like when Jeff did that forward suplex onto the bottom of the ladder (if that makes sense)... that actually looked fucking painful. And when they both took that bump from the top of one ladder onto another on the outside... holy crap! Edge bore the brunt of the ladder whilst Jeff just crash-landed on the floor right on his shoulder. The ending was great with Jeff getting Edge caught in the ladder and retreving the title right infront of him. Looked a fitting end to an awesome rivaly that, really, has lasted around 10 years. And then...

9/10

Jeff Hardy v.s CM Punk, World Heavyweight Championship Match

I've lost all respect for Punk (my sig tells the story). He's not Edge... simple. Punk should be one of the best faces in the company and to have him winning something that Jeff has spent his entire life trying and trying to win so easyly really annoys me. Plus I was fucking delighted that Jeff won the World Title at long last as I'm a fan of his and to have the title literally taken away from him after 3 minutes of winning is annoying.

1/10

Overall I'll give Extreme Rules 7/10. An entertaining PPV overall with plenty of surprises and great performances.

 

[Hacksaw Highway]

I'll probably buy this on DVD when it comes out, because it sounds like a solid card. Every year I buy the ONS/ER DVD based on one match, and then I swear I wont do it again, but this year looked good all around. My only complaint (having not actually seen the event) is the constant title changes. The WWE and World Heavyweight titles have been hot potatoes for months now, switching at every second PPV it seems. I'm starting to crave me another Cena-esque marathon year long reign.

 

[The Todd]

First off a nice little fatal for way made up of people wanting to break into the main event and William Regal. It did it's job, warmed the crowd up and gave Kofi an impressive win. U.S. title (after last night's Raw) has now been defended three times in a week, nearly more than Shelton's entire reign.

We then moved onto Jericho vs ReyRey. These two are so good it's unbelievable. Rey in a feud with another agile competitor is a great thing. Whilst it wasn't a No Holds Barred match at all, they entertained without the heavy use of weapons. This feud still has a long time to run, and it's all for the IC title. It's great.

Punk Umaga was okay. It got Punk a victory, making him look strong, and Umaga has been released so it doesn't matter how it made him look. Punk got a convincing win and could carry on building up momentum to him becoming a champion in the future...

ECW match didn't interest me much and I diddn't particularly like Dreamer winning. Your resident jobber just won a title match involving your future face of the business and Christian. I was looking forward to a GM Dreamer messing with Swagger, but looks like we have Dreamer the champ for a while. The match was okay.

The hog pen match will have entertained some people, and let some more have a toilet break. Therefore it worked. Enough said.

The WWE match was short, but that is always best in a Batista match. With a cage match they had to have Batista win really. Orton has failed in his title run, nothing memorable whatsoever. Batista's reign might be even worse, though I've just heard it may only be a three week injury, so he might be able to keep the belt. The match was as good as it could have been.

Oh yeah, forgot the Submission match. Can't understand how I did that. The match sucked, of course, not even Cena can make Show look good, but it did what it had to. Cena won so he still has the credibility without going for the title. Now I was hoping him and Miz would do something but it looks like Show isn't finished yet.

The ladder match was outstanding. I loved the match. The twist of fate off the ladder might not have looked that spectacular on the replay, but it still got a massive pop. The ending was good and everyone was happy Jeff had become world champion again....

But wait, fucking Punk comes out and steals the title! I haven't been as pissed off watching wrestling for ages. It was great! Ending PPVs (except the Big Four) with the viewer being pissed off is great. Think about it, what would make you tune in more, the crowd favourite wins the belt and everyone is happy, or the crowd fvourite gets screwed by someone else the crowd likes and everyone is thinking "wtf?" Great ending.