I was excited for Extreme Rules. Not because it had anything that I was particularly pumped about, but because I enjoy WWE PPVs (or Special Events) and the card just seemed solid. In some regards I was a little bit disappointed, but in others my expectations were exceeded. All in all, the show was what I thought it would be, which was solid overall. However, it didn't achieve that in the ways that I expected, and showed a very different direction than what we are used to seeing.
The show opened up with a triple threat elimination match between Jack Swagger, RVD and Cesaro. Anybody who follows wrestling closely knew before this match was even booked that Cesaro would be the winner at Extreme Rules against whoever he faced, and this match did nothing to change that. This was the most meaningless match on the card, as it really only served to give Cesaro something to do and break him away from the Real Americans while waiting for an opportunity to provide Cesaro with a good opportunity for a push. The fact that RVD was thrown into the story bothers me. There was no real reason for him to be there, with his history with Heyman seeming like a really lame excuse to throw him into an already weak manager feud between Zeb Coulter and Paul Heyman along with their respective "guys". The build up for this left a lot to be desired, but the match was at least solid. These men are all decent at worst in the ring for the most part and put on an okay match. Swagger was eliminated first, and later RVD after missing a frog splash onto a trash can. Whether or not the feud between Swagger, RVD and Cesaro will continue is arguable. There doesn't seem to be a good place to throw Cesaro in terms of a title feud as he would have to either beat the newly rising Bad News Barrett or feud with The Shield in order to get a mid-card belt, so he may continue to battle with Swagger. If so, I will be disappointed because the longer Cesaro goes without a credible feud, the smaller chance he has of being successful.
This match gets a 6/10.
The following match was a 2-1 handicap match between the team of Xavier Woods and R-Truth against Alexander Rusev. The match was the squash you expected and was no different from the other times we have seen this on Raw or Smackdown. This really didn't need to be on the show, and it's a shame that the Usos couldn't make it onto the card but this could.
This match gets a 3/10.
Following the handicap match we get back to business with a match for the Intercontinental Championship between contender Bad News Barrett and champ Big E Langston. This was yet another match with an obvious outcome, which is disappointing as that is how a lot of the card turned out to be. This was another decent match, but it really didn't play either guy up too much. Bad News had a lot of cheers while people booed Big E in a way that made me feel they really didn't want to see him. It is unfortunate that his title reign was so poor, but hopefully Barrett will have a much better one. I think he will, too. This wasn't the best match Barrett has had since returning, but it wasn't bad either. He gets a clean win and the belt.
This match gets a 6/10.
The next match was surprisingly early in the card, coming before the cage match and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. It was between The Shield and Evolution. This match was the best match of the night, although not all of it was special. The first half was a regular 6-man tag match, which isn't really all too exciting. Evolution dominated most of it. The best part about this was that you really didn't know who was going to win because there was a believable outcome either way. Things really started heating up when the brawl was taken out into the stands as Triple H and Orton battled Ambrose and Rollins into the crowd. This was really cool and I was surprised that WWE did this. The crowd was chanting "Holy Sh**" and I couldn't have a agreed more. The best spot in the entire show had Rollins diving unexpectedly off of an upper deck into the trio of Orton, Triple H and Ambrose, taking them all out. Unfortunately, the camera didn't provide the best angle for it. Reigns and Batista were left in the ring alone, and Reigns beat Batista clean. Really good match here and I was happy. I don't like the new Evolution much because they just don't seem to have that chemistry these days that they used to have, but they proved credible opponents for the best thing in WWE.
This match gets an 8/10.
Following The Shield match we get another of the most-hyped matches of the night between Wyatt and Cena in a steel cage. The build up for this match had been pretty good, but the match itself left a lot to be desired. The work in-ring was sub-par, and it wasn't because of Cena. Bray just didn't represent too well. The whole match was based around Cena obviously being able to win, and the Wyatt family stopping it. This match made Cena look incredible and Bray Wyatt look awful. Every five minutes or so Bray would get up, take a hit, and be down for another long period of time. By the end of the match, Cena had knocked out every member of the Wyatt Family in and on top of the cage and was walking out when the place went dark and he was confronted by a child singing "He's got the Whole World" in a demonic voice. I've heard a lot of bad things about the ending of this match, with people calling it laughable. I honestly thought it was pretty cool, but it may have been because I was so upset with the direction WWE took with the match and had thought Cena would even walk out victorious. The distraction allowed Bray to land Sister Abigail on Cena and win, but he didn't look better for it. I expect this feud to continue, but would prefer if it didn't.
This match gets a 5/10.
Now we get the Divas match between Paige and Snukka. This match was okay, not much different than something on Raw. Paige won like we knew she would. It ended quickly and nothing was given to really make the Divas seem like a bigger deal.
This match gets a 5/10.
Finally we reach the main event, and I was very glad that the championship match was given this slot. There wasn't a lot of build up for this match but I was excited for it. The match started with Bryan attacking Kane during his entrance and continued from there. I was happy to see it go back stage, with a lot of things happening like Kane throwing a TV into ice water or slamming Bryan onto a car and throwing a heavy can through the windshield. The backstage segment ended with Bryan beating Kane with a tire iron and loading him onto a forklift and commencing to drive him back to the ring and dump him into it. Afterwards, Bryan got atop the forklift which was raised as high as it could be and did a flying headbutt onto Kane. This whole segment really had me entertained and took me back to the Attitude Era hardcore matches. Later in the match Kane actually lit a table on fire to throw Bryan through, but unfortunately the two men with fire extinguishers got into the shot before the gas (or kerosene?) was ever pulled out by Kane. The set was okay as Bryan countered and sent Kane through the table, but it was ruined as the already exposed fire extinguishers immediately attacked Kane and didn't stop until they had blown him back into the ring, where he received a flying knee and went down for the count. The ending really sucked, and really hurt what otherwise would have been my match of the night.
This match gets an 8/10, slightly lower than the 6-man tag match.
Overall I'd give Extreme Rules 2014 a 7/10. It was solid and average, with some memorable moments for the PG era helping it, but an overall lackluster card. I like the direction we are going though, and if this is the worst level product we get from WWE then we are in a good place.
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