The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was broadcast on July 19, 2020. While the majority of the event aired live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, the Wyatt Swamp Fight was pre-recorded at an undisclosed location about two hours outside of Orlando on July 16–17. It was the twelfth event under the Extreme Rules chronology, and the first to have an altered title.

The event was originally scheduled to be held at the SAP Center in San Jose, California; however, the Santa Clara County government restricted public gatherings indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, and just like the majority of WWE's other shows since mid-March, the event was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Bray Wyatt faced Braun Strowman in a Wyatt Swamp Fight. In other prominent matches, Drew McIntyre defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship in an Extreme Rules match in which the stipulation only applied to Ziggler, Seth Rollins defeated Rey Mysterio in an Eye for an Eye match, and Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) in a tables match to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.










Kick-Off: Singles match
Kevin Owens defeated Murphy









Tables match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship
Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura def. The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (c)


This was a typical New Day match for me. Big E and Kofi work hard and go through all of their usual spots - the trust fall (something that Kofi's going to get injuried off of sooner more than later) and Big E's spear between the ropes down to the floor (a move which I cringe everytime I see it because I know Big E's neck and shoulders are going to be like jelly in his old age). I'm still not a fan of the Dalton Castle-esque body suit that they have Nakamura wearing these days to wrestle in. Even Castle doesn't even wrestle wearing that shit. Even though this is a makeshift tag team, Cesaro and Nakamura brought it just as hard as the New Day. I feel sorry for both Cesaro and Nakamura as this is the furthest that this company can present them on these cards, even with a depleted roster during a global pandemic, but they are still left as the opening act on this show. They all made the most of it though and made this a good match to start things off.

[The Horror Show at Extreme Rules Spoilers] Finish to Smackdown Tag Team Title match - New Day vs Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura from r/SquaredCircle

Cesaro would pick up the win by powerbombing Kofi through two tables set up a ringside. I was like holy shit that was awesome. Cesaro dunked him like he was taking out the damn trash. I was glad to see Cesaro and Nakamura holding gold again, even if it's something as trivial as this.








Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
Bayley (c) (with Sasha Banks) def. Nikki Cross (with Alexa Bliss)


This was easily Nikki Cross' best match on the main roster to date. I can't honestly say that this was better than her match with Asuka down on NXT though. Sasha came through in the end for her "bestie" by tossing her the RUN DMC (in her case, BOSS TIME) brass knuckles to Bayley to use to land the cheap shot for win.

Much like the opener, I didn't think this match was bad at all.







Eye for an Eye match
The match could only be won when one competitor extracted an eye of their opponent
Seth Rollins def. Rey Mysterio


As to be expected, Rey and Seth tried to make chicken salad out of the chicken shit that was the stipulation of this match. Both competitors are great workers, but it didn't take away from the fact that the stipulation for this match was completely asinine. I didn't see the point of doing Irish whips and other various moves in this match, especially when the whole point of it is gouging the other guy's eye out.








Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship
Asuka (c) (with Kairi Sane) vs. Sasha Banks (with Bayley) ended in a no contest



A friend of mine shared this tweet to me that completely captures my thoughts onto this match.



This was a NXT caliber match, but with the same typical WWE bullshit for the finish. It's a darn shame too as that's all what people are going to remember about this match when thinking back to this PPV.

The finish occurs after Asuka mistakingly blinds the referee with her Poison Mist. Bayley slides into the ring, removes the referee's shirt, and puts it on before making the count herself to name her best friend the new RAW Women's Champion following Sasha using the title to knockout Asuka.












Extreme Rules match for the WWE Championship
Drew McIntyre (c) defeated Dolph Ziggler

The Extreme Rules stipulation only applied to Ziggler; McIntyre had to wrestle under normal singles match rules. Furthermore, had McIntyre gotten disqualified or counted out, Ziggler would have won the championship.


Dolph and Drew really tried here, but there wasn't a single moment where I actually bought into the possibility that Ziggler would pull an upset victory over McIntyre here. I was in tears laughing at how Ziggler sold that kip up to Claymore Kick like sheer death though. It's hard to top Ziggler when it comes to great sells like that. 

Before people groan and moan about Ziggler being looked over and not getting opportunities, I'm just going to say that I'm tired of singing that same song and dance. If I'm perfectly honest, I'm done feeling sorry for Ziggler as he has done this to himself at this stage of his career. He's had multiple opportunities to walk away and go elsewhere, but he willingly chooses to the waste the best years of his wrestling career in WWE out of comfort. He's always going to be the "good hand" that's always willing to go over and beyond in a pinch for whatever stupid ideas they may have up their sleeves. He's content with being in this role, knowing that he's never going to be taken seriously as a main eventer. 

On the other hand, I feel sorry for Drew McIntyre. He's one of many champions that are suffering from the lack of crowd reactions in the current landscape across all promotions still running shows during this global pandemic. It's not even Drew's fault in the least either. I hope and pray that WWE doesn't just lose faith in him and never decides to do anything with him again before we have crowds back in buildings again. Drew's still a great act, much like he was in IMPACT Wrestling and his short return to NXT. He just needs a proper feud and opponent that he could really sink his teeth into. 



Wyatt Swamp Fight
Bray Wyatt faced Braun Strowman



While this match wasn't the acid trip that Bray Wyatt vs. John Cena was on Night 2 of WrestleMania, I can't say that this was much better. This was a piss poor attempt at being a "good" cheesy, indie horror film and that's just insulting to the genre as a whole to even label this clusterfuck as that.

There's a lot of questions to be asked in terms of logic and/or what rhyme or reasoning was behind a lot of decision-making in this cinematic match. It's only been about 3 months since the debut of these cinematic matches in WWE, and they've already ran the concept into the ground. It was flawless with the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker, but each one of these, from The Final Chapter: Gargano v. Ciampa over on NXT, to the Street Profits vs. Viking Raiders clusterfuck from last month, and now this, I don't know what to think with this shit anymore.




Highlights (if you can even call them that...)

  • The lights going off in the swamp of all places and Bray Wyatt disappears

  • Braun Strowman is knocked out by... himself? WTF?

  • Braun wakes up tied to a wooden rolling chair held together by some loose looking chains. Mind you, we've seen Braun destroy a wooden rolling chair mere minutes before this change of scenery with ease - along with flipping vehicles over on a regular basis on WWE programming. What was stopping him from snapping those chains like a Slim Jim and beating the vinegar out of Bray here and now.



  • After being (seemingly) bitten by a snake by one of Bray's cohorts, Braun wakes up once more, this time around a campfire and starts fighting Bray's henchmen like it's an episode of Batman '66. He drops one on top of the campfire and the guy actually catches on fire. Braun laughs at his victim's suffering as he runs around in a fiery blaze. It should be noted that a few of these henchmen are dressed like the former Luke Harper and then another like his current AEW counterpart, Mr. Brodie Lee.

WTF, Alexa Bliss is Sister Abigail?


  • Fast forward a bit and Braun begins hearing the voice of the one he loves the most. They are playing it up like it's Sister Abigail, begging him to come home for they could be together, but when she removes her hood, it's Alexa Bliss of all people. You're telling me after all of this time that Sarah Logan was in this company that they couldn't get her to play Sister Abigail with her Crazy Mary Dobson character instead of phoning it in with Alexa Bliss. This was all for a reference to their pairing (Team Little Big) in the Facebook Video exclusive mini-series, WWE Mixed Match Challenge, where I would be surprised if more than 10-20% of WWE's entire audience even watched nor were remotely aware of. A for effort, but again, it's just past the point of eye rolls at this point.

  • Bray and Braun's brawl resumes after Sister Abigail's coaxing was a clever distraction by Bray Wyatt. Braun gets the upper hand and tosses Bray into a "dilapidated" boat. They didn't call it that, but it's obvious that was a reference to Bray's former partnership with the departed "Broken" (or Woken) Matt Hardy. The boat would ride off onto its own, seemingly carrying Bray into the depths of the swamp to end this shit show, but nope it's not over.

  • The credit tagbox shows up onscreen as Bray looks into the empty boat that returns, only for Bray to drag Braun into the depths of the swamp. The water turns red with the show ending once The Fiend emerges from the depths and stares into the camera.


At this point, I felt the same way as Thomas the Train. I had seen enough and I was glad that this shit show was over. This match was just the setup to bring us one step closer to Braun Strowman vs. The Fiend at possibly Summerslam next month and boy, did this do nothing for me in that regard in terms of garnering any excitement nor anticipation for that match. 

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