WWE Extreme Rules Horror Show: Honest Review

This weekend the WWE presented its 2020 Extreme Rules PPV and what an interesting evening it was! Subtitled “The Horrorshow” fans were looking forward to the first-ever Eye for an eye match, a tables contest, stipulation bouts, and muse title contests from the women’s division. The night provided more cinematic match up and controversial moments and as a result, has left us all with plenty to discuss. With that in mind, today we are going to be reviewing the entire WWE Extreme Rules PPV so grab a snack and let’s relive last night's special show.  

New Tag Team Champions?

I’ll be honest, the opening contest did not impress me all too much. The closing spot was fantastic and looked absolutely devastating but the match felt as though it was missing something. There was not a great deal of chemistry between the teams and Nakamura and Cesaro are such a fresh team its difficult to fully get behind them. Saying that however, I do believe this match would have been more successful if the WWE had booked this how the first-ever tag team ladder match was booked where in which both members of a team had to be put through a table. That one change in the booking would have made this more interesting and entertaining and opened up the chance for greater spots. We did see fantastic athleticism from all four men, but they did feel limited. I am personally excited to see what comes from Shinsuke and Cesaro’s reign for there is certainly potential.

A Sneaky Victory

Nikki Cross is a woman I am really pulling for! While the build to her championship bout against Bayley wasn’t the strongest and focused more so on her insecurities and pressure, she was putting upon herself it became clearer that she IS a likable character fan can easily get behind. The match itself was also slightly on the shorter side but one of Cross’ best singles performances of her WWE career to date. They have different styles but Bayley and Nikki worked very well together to create a basic title bout. Will we be remembering this match up? Probably not but I do believe it will be an important one to note in the character development of Cross in the coming weeks. We also saw the unity of Banks and Bayley on display again with Bayley’s sneaky victory scoring the win using the Banks ring to take out Cross behind the refs back.

An eye for an Eye

Okay, so the idea of an eye for an eye stipulation match that meant the eyeball had to be removed from the eye socket may just be the craziest and most stupid thing the WWE has come up with in a long time, however, it must be said that this was one of the best matches of the evening and changed the feel of the PPV massively. If we take away the stupid stipulation here what we had was an incredible match-up between two amazing superstars. The action here was fantastic and we saw the athleticism and wrestling skills of both men on clear display making this incredibly entertaining. The eye spots were absolutely brutal and hard to watch which reminded me of the Hell in a Cell collision between Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy in the sense that it was hard to watch! Now I do believe this match could have been incredible without the stipulation but what we got was entertaining and we did see so many great moments throughout. The ending was not as badly done as I expected but Seth Rollins being sick everywhere while we live in a pandemic…well that was interesting yet somehow fitting. God this is a weird time.

The Dream Match

A PPV title match between Asuka and Sasha Banks can most certainly be considered a dream match and fans had high expectations for this must-see collision. As two of the brightest stars in the women’s division the WWE universe was expecting great things from this matchup and the pair did not disappoint. Both women have a diverse move set and that was on noticeably clear display throughout. In the early stages, we witnessed the more technical side to their move sets focusing on submission holds and backs multiple attempts at different pin styles. The experience of both women was also evident with veteran moves and counters that kept the match so split down the middle that neither woman stayed in control for too long. Midway through it was obvious this was sure to be one of the best matches of the evening and for me personally takes the top spot for the evening thanks to simply fantastic wrestling on display, character work from the Boss and the time provided that allowed both these women to present a show stealer and match of the year contender. What was also great about this was the slight unpredictable factor for there really was a true feeling this match could have gone anyway. When it comes to the result…well, things did get a little messy. With Asuka accidentally hitting the official with green mist it gave Bayley the chance to attack Asuka, remove the shirt off the red, and count Banks’ victory… I must admit I loved this. It was such a unique ending and means there is simply so much more to come and while controversial was fitting and massively entertaining!

Extreme Rules

Up next, we had the WWE championship matchup between Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre and I was a fan of this booking and the build to the contest. These two superstars have plenty of history and that has been such focus point during the recent weeks. The storyline and has been clear and simple and with the addition of Ziggler getting to choose the stipulation for their title bout things were made even more interesting. The former champion decided to wait till last night to announce what stipulation he had picked and it turned out that an Extreme Rules match was the chosen angle however with a twist, the Extreme Rules stipulation would only be in favor of Ziggler, any form of disqualification would result in McIntyre losing the title which made for a very smart decision indeed and a very heel move at that! Now the match itself was damn good! Ziggler used his advantage of Extreme Rules very well and effectively but we saw the experience of McIntyre come into play as he smartly used his surroundings to equally punish Ziggler. We saw Drew however really go through in this championship bout as he was sent through a table, chairs used on him, and submission holds held for longer than I am sure the champion would have liked. The chemistry between the pair was evident and a great basic story was being told. Of course, Ziggler was doing everything in his power here and came close to closing in on a victory many times throughout but in the end there was simply no putting down the Scottish psychopath and McIntyre retained the title after a strong and entertaining match up.

Where is All Began

There is a lot going on between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman and they're ongoing rivalry continued last night in another cinematic “match”. Now, cinematic style matches have become a huge part of the WWE since the pandemic and in recent months we have seen some good and bad versions. What I liked about Strowman and Wyatt’s version was the relevancy. It told a story and touched on their history-making this the best storyline Strowman has been apart of in his WWE career. It was clever, entertaining and we had some fantastic moments throughout, and while this isn’t to everyone’s taste I honestly loved what was done here. So many elements of Braun’s history were touched on including his mix match challenge partner Alexa Bliss and what he went through as part of the Wyatt Family. Of course, this is not the end of their rivalry and we can expect to see the pair collide again for a third time at the SummerSlam PPV next month were hopefully we see the Fiend in action and that title change we have all been waiting for! The contest between them last night very clearly indicated this and the closing visual will leave me with nightmares for at least a month!

Well it safe to say that Extreme Rules 2020 was… interesting. Utter madness there was good and bad parts of the show but overall, I must admit I was entertained. It was a slow start with the first two matches falling a little flat, but things picked up after a dramatic and intense performance from Rey and Rollins. The match of the night in my opinion was Asuka vs Banks and the cinematic collision between Braun and Bray was haunting and again entertaining. There are sure to be people who will not like a lot about this PPV and there were some missed opportunities but we saw unique, smart, and brave booking I simply cannot fault.

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