Extreme Rules (2018) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on July 15, 2018 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the tenth event under the Extreme Rules chronology.

The card consisted of twelve matches, including two on the pre-show. In the main event, Dolph Ziggler retained the Intercontinental Championship by defeating Seth Rollins 5–4 in an Iron Man match that went into sudden death overtime. This was the first time that an Intercontinental Championship match was the main event of a WWE pay-per-view since Backlash in 2001. In the penultimate match, AJ Styles retained the WWE Championship against Rusev. On the undercard, Alexa Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax in an Extreme Rules match, Bobby Lashley defeated Roman Reigns, and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Jeff Hardy for the United States Championship.


I know it's a few days after the event has passed as we've already seen the PPV fallout episodes of Monday Night RAW and SmackDown! Live, so I'm going to try something different for this write-up. I'm going to include my live tweet reactions from during the event as part of this article.

I didn't watch the preshow/kickoff matches, but I'll comment briefly on them if I was keeping up with those storylines/feuds.




I didn't see it, but if this was as good as their match on SmackDown! last week then it should have been a solid opener for this show. Only thing I know is the right man won.







Again, I didn't see this match as I thought this was the preshow and the actual PPV didn't start until 8PM - regardless of that fact, the right team won.









Didn't watch, didn't care. 'Nuff said.





Since the finish showed up on my Facebook timeline during the PPV, I watched this during the gaps in the action.

I don't understand what is WWE's fascination with "chicken shit" heels on both brands holding their Women's Titles, but it's not doing either brand any favors. The only thing a match like this does is expose how inexperienced Carmella is in comparison to someone like Asuka.







This was over in less than 60 seconds. I've heard that Hardy has been dealing with nagging injuries since after WrestleMania, but I didn't think this match would have been over this fast. As SOON as I turned on the PPV feed, the match was over. I'm not complaining that Nakamura getting his first championship win, but dang, it could've been after a cool match, especially after that explosive dud of a feud him and AJ Styles had going.

Randall... err Randy Orton returning is "meh", but I'll take heel Orton over babyface Orton any day of the damn week.






This is all what everyone needs to see from this show to be quite honest, even though WWE bastardized the spot after showing the crash pad inflating during Owens' landing in the replays. 




Kane was allegedly dealing with a legit ankle injury.






Two weeks later and WWE already reversed what looked like a step in the right direction. Lashley's win here meant nothing as Roman Reigns beat him on RAW to win the right to face Lesnar at Summerslam for the Universal Championship. I hate to say it, but Lashley might have to reconsider going back to Impact Wrestling at this point. WWE obviously don't know what to do with him, or any non-dancing black wrestlers that aren't goofballs. Need proof? Just ask Apollo Crews...










This was arguably the best match on the card tonight in my eyes. Rusev put on a great fight against the Phenomenal One, but ultimately fell short of capturing the WWE Championship, thanks to an unintentional blunder from Aiden English. There's still room here for Rusev to bounce back and capture the title down the line. Unfortunately, I don't see Rusev as the man to dethrone Styles right now. If anyone right now, it should be Samoa Joe at Summerslam.

As of this writing (7/30/18), that's exactly where WWE is going too since Samoa Joe has penciled himself in as the next challenger to Styles' title.






In some ways I can't blame the crowd for not giving a shit about this match when the WWE Championship match can't even main event this card. Even more puzzling is the fact that this match went last with that lackluster finish to boot. If that was going to be the finish this should have opened the show instead of ended it.

As for the fans hijacking the match about the timer and counting down like it was the Rumble match, that was just totally uncalled for. Then WWE took it down and really pissed that crowd off, only to make them get more adamant about it.


As of this writing (7/30/18), Dolph and Seth are still in this lackluster feud with people barely invested in this feud - despite these guys being incredible workers - when WWE's fanbase already see Dolph Ziggler as damaged goods. Even I can see the writing on the wall. Dolph's push is going to only last long enough for that pivotal moment where Drew McIntyre (ugh... Galloway) turns on him Diesel-style and goes on his own as singles main eventer.



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