Extreme Rules (2016) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE. It took place on May 22, 2016, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It was the eighth event under the Extreme Rules chronology.
** Preshow ** No DQ Match - Baron Corbin def. Dolph Ziggler
Not even Ziggler can make me give a damn about Baron Corbin. I've said it at least every week since he was called up to the main roster that he's not ready for this position. Corbin is boring on every aspect that you can look at him. To say that this was a no disqualification match you wouldn't even noticed from how the match was worked.
I cracked up laughing at Ziggler selling a LOW BLOW from Corbin like he got shot before he took the End of Days for that L. Someone explain to me why big guys like Corbin and Undertaker have to use a low blow to gain an upper hand when they are already supposed to be dominant and over-powering against their opponents?
Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows def. The Usos - Extreme Rules Match
In a bizarre twist of irony, Jey Uso fell on top of the ring bell (obvious throwback to Gallows' previous WWE run as Festus), allowing Anderson and Gallows to hit the Magic Killer for the win.
This is one situation where WWE's 50/50 booking is really hurting guys. How in the world are Anderson/Gallows supposed to stand out from the rest of the boring teams of the tag division if they couldn't beat the Usos of all people in dominating fashion. I don't hate the Usos unlike most fans, but damn, this one dragged out longer than I thought it would have.
I still have a feeling they are going to be heavily involved in the main event. I guess we'll see but I'm writing this as I'm watching AND live-tweeting the show.
Rusev def. Kalisto (c) to become the NEW United States Championship
Kalisto showing that he can look like a million bucks against bigger opponents left and right. First with Ryback and now with Rusev. Sadly, there wasn't much else to write home about his US title reign other than a few decent matches here and there. Nothing against Kalisto but he was a complete afterthought in terms of booking lately. I'm anxious to see Rusev continue where he left off before him and Lana were split up roughly a year ago. With Big Match John coming back in another week, I'm sure they are going to book Rusev/Cena IV for
Summerslam this year.
As for Kalisto, the tag team division needs the Lucha Dragons desperately to freshen things up on a competitive level. I can't even remember if they've even held the tag titles since coming up from NXT.
One thing I have to notice about Lana's managerial performance at ringside is that she was a lot less animated as she was in the past. I don't know if someone told her to do less or something but it was throwing me off a bit to see her do less when she's normally a much more "lively" character at ringside. She's still got the facials and stuff down but she's not doing much else.
The New Day (c) def. The Vaudevillains to retain the Tag Team Championships
Pretty average match save for the finish and the near-fall spot where the Vaudevillains took out Big E and Kofi at ringside and hit their finish on Woods only for him to surprise the WWE Universe by kicking out. I was more shocked at reactions on Twitter that people weren't aware that Woods is actually a good wrestler. Hello, he's been on the WWE roster prior to this retarded gimmick. Then he was one hell of an X-Division champion in TNA too.
I really wish Big E would quit doing that suicide dive/spear spot out of the ring during every other match. He's landing on his head and/or arms and just bound to break something within this slew of injuries WWE has not bounced back from on the main roster.
A title win for the Vaudevillains could have helped them get over. Let's be serious here. Exactly how long do you think this gimmick is going to work on the main roster until WWE forces them to be repackaged? At least it wasn't a failure at launch like the Ascension or Emma's dancing gimmick...
As popular as the New Day are, people seem to forget that titles are for getting people over who can't get over on their own. When you're more over than the title you're carrying it's time to move to something else and propel someone else for that spot.
Fatal 4-Way Match - The Miz (c) def. Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn to retain the Intercontinental Championship
Definitely a match of the night candidate with everyone shouting "Fight Forever" - echoing the chants from
NXT Takeover: Dallas between Zayn and Nakamura from WrestleMania weekend. This is going to be a hard match to top on this card. Great work from all four men involved.
I'm not a Miz fan but he's definitely one of WWE's best pure heels (who doesn't need cheap pops or cheap heat nor flip flops to get over with the fans) and it's going to mean a lot more for whoever the babyface is that's going to beat him. Owens and Zayn can easily bounce back from this loss while Cesaro is going to have to do something to get his momentum back, but that shouldn't be too hard given his skillset.
Compared to Lana, Maryse is the complete opposite tonight when it came to being animated and supporting her man at ringside. Maybe one of the agents told Lana to scale it back a bit for she wouldn't step on Maryse's shoes a bit here? I dunno, maybe I'm thinking too much into that.
First Ever Asylum Match - Dean Ambrose def. Chris Jericho
I didn't care when they fought earlier this month and I honestly don't care in this glorified rip-off of TNA's Lethal Lockdown match mixed with Monster's Ball. Ambrose won by busting out the thumb tacks and hitting the Dirty Deeds on that for the win. Really surprised that the E would bring that weapon back out since like forever, but this event needed something truly "hardcore" to stand out.
Until that spot, this match ultimately boils down to being a huge cock tease for pending violence that almost never happens. It's still pretty awkward to see these hardcore matches without an ounce of blood in them at all too. At least the ending of this match remedied that situation slightly after the two moves onto the thumb tacks.
I guess Ambrose really is crazy if he dropped himself onto the tacks just to beat Jericho...
I hope this feud is over at this point. It's dragged on long enough. Ambrose needs to move onto someone else and get his eyes back on a bigger prize... preferably the WWE Championship.
The most
whored out weapon in the PG-era landscape of WWE has to be the kendo stick. I would love to see a lot less of that weapon in the future if possible.
Submission Match - Charlotte (c) def. Natayla to retain the Women's Championship
Goddamn this fucking match. I don't have a problem with Dana Brooke as a person but I absolutely hated this finish. It was already bad enough that this match was below-average for what both of these women are capable of, but they just had to end it with Dana dressed up as Ric Flair to distract Nattie long enough for Charlotte to get the win?
Anyone who watches NXT should be able to tell you how moronic it is to align Charlotte and Dana Brooke together when they both wanted nothing to do with each other when they were feuding on that brand. Just typical WWE Creative booking this shit to fill in the gaps since Emma is injured and to leave Becky high and dry without a feud. This isn't a promotion in the least; Dana just went from being Emma's partner/sidekick to being Charlotte's goon/lackey. It's not like Charlotte needed anyone else in her corner when Ric Flair is already muddling that up in that aspect and holding her down in her career, but damn. Just when I thought WWE can't find more ways to devalue women's wrestling during this whole Divas Revolution, they find a way to make it even more stupid.
I'm honestly getting fed up of this settling for less when it comes for women's wrestling in WWE, no rather in WWE's booking and storylines as a whole. Fans complain and they cave in a sense to throw fans a bone to make them shut up for the time being. For example, when fans complained about the WWE Divas not getting much air time on the main roster like the NXT Divas, they called up Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and Becky Lynch all in fell swoop to kickstart a "revolution". The Divas Revolution didn't go as how fans hoped as every woman was just as generic and cookie cutter as before, just stuck into stereotypical factions/tag teams. So what did WWE do to stop fans shitting on it? They stripped away the term "Diva", made Charlotte the first "Women's Champion" with a rebranded title. At the end of the day, they are still doing the same shit as before. Women are booked slightly better than a year ago, but the match quality is roughly the same since the veteran women are getting used more among the string of injuries thanks to everyone else. This still hasn't stopped Creative from booking some absolutely moronic finishes to these last few title defenses.
People keep calling it that Natalya's being "protected" but I fail to see how this is a legitimate argument. It's more akin to that Charlotte is being protected for whatever reason (more so than Nikki Bella in her record-breaking Divas title reign). She was protected at
WrestleMania when it was clear her opponents were much more over than her and the crowds were ready for them to win the title for the first time. She was protected two weeks ago at
Payback when WWE rehashed the Montreal Screwjob for the finish of a women's wrestling match. It's not making Charlotte look like a "strong" champion at all when she can't get the job done herself, even when her father was banned from ringside.
Boy, and people said that Samoa Joe's first and only title run in TNA was portrayed as weak with the bullshit finishes...
Seriously though, how is anyone supposed to take women's wrestling in WWE seriously when the competitive aspect goes out of the window at every opportunity in favor of something that doesn't show the champion as a credible athlete and deserving of said title?
Extreme Rules Match - Roman Reigns (c) def. AJ Styles to retain the WWE Championship
While I wasn't too crazy about the brawling in the crowd at the beginning of this match, I appreciated that someone finally used the preshow panel set for something for once. I was a little bummed out that the glass table didn't shatter from Styles being dropped onto it though.
For the rest of this match, Styles and Reigns killed each other to the point I was wondering if Styles must have insulted Reigns' mother to generate so much aggression from Roman during this match. Even the run-ins from the Usos and Anderson/Gallows made much more sense here and added to the drama of the match as they handily helped each Superstar attempt to get pins over the opposition and broke pin attempts. It all made SENSE - something that's rare in the current landscape of WWE storylines. AJ Styles and Roman Reigns kept upping the scales with the damage back and forth, even though it seemed like Reigns was thrashing Styles handily in a convincing manner at one point. If I had any issues with this match it's the fact that Styles telegraphed the counters for Reigns a bit TOO much and the fact that Reigns really didn't sell anything until Anderson and Gallows came out to even the odds.
Another thing older fans seem to forget that title matches used to be anything goes but damn, this match and the bulk of this entire PPV wasn't really "extreme" at all. They could have knocked out or blindsided the referee and still did all of these spots anyway. I'm not really trying to knock AJ Styles nor Roman Reigns as I thought they did phenomenal - no pun intended - for what they were given to work with in this spot.
From a storyline perspective, I got a feeling that AJ Styles flipping out with the steel chair towards the end of the match could be figuratively the point where Styles has accepted Gallows and Anderson's way of thinking. That could lead into the Authority being brought back into the fold backing Rollins once again. With Rollins already back as a heel (obvious by him attacking Reigns post-match), I'm guessing they are going to pick up where they left off on his run before his unfortunate injury last year.
Speaking of Rollins, I kinda wish that WWE played his music first before he came out as the crowd's reactions ruined his return before they showed him on camera - that is if you didn't see the news leaked out on almost every other website before the event even started.
What didn't sit well with me with this match was the reactions by fans on social media after the end result. C'mon you have to be fucking stupid to think that a decorated high profile champion and former TNA/Impact Wrestling wrestler - no matter who they are - will win WWE's top title within their first few months of being employed there. AJ Styles is lucky to even be in this position PERIOD. Tonight's match and the one at Payback were both great matches, but Styles didn't do it on his own - it was a team effort along with Reigns. That being said I wish fans would quit giving that guy such a hard time as he's actually pulling his weight in the ring. It's not like he's being thrown around like a ragdoll with next to no offense (AJ Lee) or being carried through the bulk of his matches (Ultimate Warrior, Batista, Charlotte, etc. - take your pick). The guy can actually work.
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Roman Reigns may be The Guy, but Seth Rollins is THE MAN.
Welcome back, Architect. WWE's main event scene is in need of some restructuring. |
Closing Words
Like mentioned above, Extreme Rules was a mediocre event, with only the Intercontinental, United States, and WWE Championship matches sticking out as the best of what this event had to offer. Sadly, this event is starting to stray far away from the extreme aspect completely. Outside of the Asylum Match, this entire event was your average run of the mill PPV.
Seth Rollins is back in the mix, aiming for the title that he never lost thanks to his injury last year and we're a week away from the return of John Cena. Looks like Money in the Bank is going to shape up to be "money" with it's major players back on the table.
