WWE Extreme Rules 2014 Review

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.

ECW December to Dismember PPV Review

This review is being written as the content is being watched, this format is subject to change depending on how it turns out, but I want the reader to be able to get my first impressions of everything as I see it. I don't know if reviews typically tell the results, but for now I won't spoil anything (except for the eliminations in the chamber match down to the final two men).

ECW's December to Dismember pay-per-view was the only PPV by the short-lived modern brand of Extreme Championship Wrestling. It is also considered to be one of the worst PPVs of all-time, due to it's complete lack of advertised matches and poor content. As far as I know, only two of the matches on the card were ever advertised, and this PPV came only 2 weeks after a previous WWE PPV. With the help of the WWE Network, I decided to see why this particular show got so much hate from wrestling fans. Surely a Pay-Per-View advertising an EXTREME Elimination Chamber Match must have some solid qualities. I suppose that it is time to find out!

The show opens up with a great crowd reaction after the ECW music hits, and we get the usual commentating that hypes up the event. The crowd doesn't really know what it is about to see, but they just seem happy to be there. In the shots of the arena I see at least one patch where there is a surprising number of empty seats in a corner, though it is entirely possible that those seats would be filled as the show gets started. If not, then I am surprised that the WWE didn't manage to sell out what appears to be a relatively small venue, because it is in fact a WWE Pay-Per-View.

Our first match is MnM vs Team Extreme (The Hardys). This seems to be a promising match. I really like The Hardys and Nitro and Mercury are pretty good, and I doubt that they will screw up a simple tag-team match. As far as I can tell, there wasn't much build-up for this particular match but the fans seem excited about it. The Hardys get a good pop when their music hits, and I have to say I am a bit of a mark for those guys when their original tag team music hits as well. It's good to see that the fans are happy to see Matt and Jeff together. The commentators are saying that this is going to be the last match the Hardys team up in together for a while because they are going to focus on singles competition. Hopefully that inspires them to put on a great match together.

The bell rings on top of Hardy chants throughout the arena. My immediate thoughts are that it is strange that at ECW's first PPV, "Team Extreme" will only battle in a normal tag team match. Maybe things get extreme somehow, but with the Hardys' history of extreme tag matches in the Attitude Era I am disappointing that this match is treated as if it were on any weekly TV taping. All of these men appear to be in good shape at this point, even Matt Hardy who struggled with his physique later in his WWE and short-lived TNA career. The crowd is bringing great energy for such a simple match, and the performers are doing a very good job. The Hardys have the upper-hand for the first portion of the match and a lot of quick tags seem to be getting the fans excited. At one point Matt has a nice power bomb time move on Nitro from the top rope that makes Matt look very strong.

MnM is really easy to hate and they do a good job of getting the crowd against them. The match is fast-paced and very back and forth, and is very fun to watch. As carnage begins to build up outside of the ring, we hear "E-C-Dub" and "Holy SH**" chants from the crowd, who appear to be enjoying the show thus far. I wonder if the wrestlers ever forget who is legal when all of the four-man action begins, because I certainly do. This appears to be one of the longest matches in the show and these guys are doing work. This really heat up towards the end of the match and it ends in really nice fashion. Great opening match for ECW December to Dismember. If this is going to be one of the worst PPVs of all-time then things must REALLY go downhill from here.

Next up is... Matt Striker vs Balls Mahoney? Ok, I really can't pretend that I care about this match in any capacity, but I will give it a go. Before the match, Matt Striker says this will be an "extreme rules match" in which the rules are extremely enforced. The crowd is chanting for Balls, a man I admit I have never heard of. He was probably on the original ECW, which I have almost no familiarity with. There is some mild cheering, but the crowd is far less excited for this match than the previous one, as am I. This really feels like something I would see on a Tuesday night ECW match.

Striker's ring gear is AWFUL. If you ever watch this match you will understand why. I don't want to describe it. I'm definitely noticing some empty seats throughout the arena, too, which is a really bad thing. How hard could it be to sell a relatively small number of seats (really small for a WWE PPV) under the guise of "Extreme" and ECW's first PPV. The One Night Stand show that ECW did before the show restarted was fantastic, so there would be reason to believe this one would be good too.

The match between Striker and Mahoney was short, and I am glad. It wasn't particularly bad, but I just never cared about it and there was no reason to. Very average to below average match.

Sabu is unconscious in the back of the arena and is being taken away by medical officials. The crowd chants "bullsh**" and I don't disagree. He was meant to be in the Extreme Elimination Chamber match but maybe he was at too much of a risk for injury to put into it.

Now we have Elijah Burke and Sylvester Turkay (who?) vs FBI (who?). Another basic tag team match, and two matches in a row that nobody cares about. Burke and Turkay get no reaction on their entrance, probably meaning that the crowd doesn't know or care much about these guys either. FBI gets a bit of a reaction but nothing special. Nothing has come anywhere near the pop the Hardys got. This match actually isn't bad, although it is really short and comes across as yet another weekly match. The crowd isn't completely dead but aren't especially excited either. Two matches that would have been average at best on a Tuesday night showing of ECW in a row, and I'm starting to get worried that maybe an Elimination Chamber match sucked up too much of the talent they could have used to make a stronger card.

Now we get Daivari, the manager-type guy of The Great Khali vs Tommy Dreamer. Seeing Dreamer should be fun, but who cares about Daivari? Certainly not myself. Mid-way through the match the most exciting thing to have happened has been Khali being ejected by the ref. The crowd is now chanting "we want hardcore", as they should, because they have seen none of it. I also want to point out that I do not like the combo of Tazz and Joey Styles as commentators. Maybe they are just having a bad night here, but they just aren't working for me, which is surprising because I really liked Tazz on Smackdown! back in the day.

This is just another quick, forgettable match. If it weren't for the star power of Dreamer I'd probably be mad by now. The ending was more disappointing than the last 3 matches, too. I have to also point out that we are already halfway through a 2 hour PPV. All of these remarks I have made about these matches seeming as if they would be on a regular airing of ECW make sense now, because this show seems to have been booked as a regular show. If it weren't for the elimination chamber match I know is coming at the end, there wouldn't be anything about this show that is reminiscent of a PPV.

Oh, and after the match Khali slams dreamer on the top of the ramp, and it probably was very painful. Dreamer refuses help and crawls backstage.

Now we see Heyman tell Hardcore Holly, who is dressed in his ring gear even though he wasn't supposed to have a match, that he will replace Sabu in the Extreme Elimination Chamber. The crowd isn't happy about it, either.

Now we have a mixed tag team match between the teams of Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly, and the team of Kevin Thorn and Ariel. I have honestly never heard of anybody in this match other than Kelly Kelly. Why are we seeing our third tag match of the night? This is pretty ridiculous, and I still don't care. I feel bad for the people who probably spent a good bit of cash to get into this event. Ariel is strange, but hot as well so I can handle this for now.

Ariel's outfit is not very modest, not that I expected it to be. We basically get to see her bare butt on the side of the ring, which is more entertaining than the match itself. The crowd is dead now, and rightfully so. Why is this on a PPV, and why is it so deep in the card? Was ECW this starved for talent?

This match was legitimately bad and I didn't enjoy watching it at all. I really hope the Extreme Elimination Chamber holds something good for me.

After the match I just discussed, The Sandman comes in to stop Ariel from beating on Kelly Kelly. He beats Thorn with his cane, and this is the first thing that can compare to "extreme" in this show. Too bad Sandman isn't in the main event!

After a lot of promos and talking, the chamber is down and the entrances begin. World champ Big Show comes out to little reaction, and I don't know if that's because the fans don't care for Show or are just bored, or maybe they're depressed. Show has quite a gut on him here, but I guess that's good for the World's Largest Athlete. The fans are pretty excited to see CM Punk, who they have been cheering for all night. I'm interested to see how he does in this early part of his career. Test comes out and nobody cares. This is probably the most dead the crowd has been for any entrance. He looks pretty good here, sad to know he died so early. Lashley doesn't get much of a reaction, but it is better than Show or Test. I wish he would have stayed with WWE longer, he obviously would have been given the opportunity to have a really good career. Hardcore Holly comes out to dull boos. People don't seem to be booing him because he is a heel, but because they really just don't want to see him. Show, Test and Holly all appear to be on the same side here as they have all applauded each other upon entrance. RVD gets an okay reaction, but by RVD standards it was really lame. The crowd is really down at this point.

The match starts off with Holly and RVD. There aren't going to be any weapons until somebody is allowed out of his pod, because there are only 4 weapons and they are all in the pods. That is pretty disappointing considering that this is supposed to be so "extreme". I was expecting the whole chamber to be armed with weaponry. I'm not sure that a chamber match is the best for RVD to showcase his ability, but I may be wrong and I'm really glad he is here. I hope that Holly and Test get eliminated quickly, because I really don't care about them and they obviously won't win this match.

There is really no chemistry between Styles and Tazz here. Other than a couple of neat stunts by RVD, nothing interesting happens in the first 5 minutes before the release of CM Punk into the match. He brings with him a steel chair and the support of the crowd which goes off for the first time since early in the show. Punk brings in some much needed energy, but I don't know that his steel chair is going to be extreme enough to make up for the rest of this mild-mannered show. For some reason, RVD's kicks seem really slow in this match. Watching him in 2014 seems much better than what he is doing at this point in 2006, and that doesn't make sense. Was RVD injured or what?

Van Dam is the first to bleed in the match, and shortly after is whipped head first into and through a steel chair positioned on a turnbuckle. MAN. That was intense. Heyman is yelling outside of the chamber, and he seems to be in the allegiance with Holly, Test and Show.

On an unrelated note, it is funny that any given episode of RAW now is longer than this PPV.

Next into the match is Test with a crowbar. I think the crowd is happier to see the crowbar than they are Test. Holly is the first to be eliminated, and surprisingly, CM Punk is  eliminated after a frog splash from RVD. After some chair shots at the top of Big Show's pod from Test, he is slammed head first into a chair and onto the mat. Test eliminates RVD with 2 minutes until somebody else is released into the match. Who booked this? Not only are the two most exciting superstars eliminated, but Test is one of the final three and is in an alliance with one of the 2 men in the pods. That means that either Big Show is just going to stand there for five minutes with Test waiting for Lashley to come out, or Lashley is going to come out. Seriously?

For some reason some SWAT-looking guys stop Lashley's pod from being opened, so Test just stands out there and taunts him while Lashley throws a tantrum. Luckily, the table in Lashley's pod is strong enough to bust through the steel chains on top of the pod in only a couple of light taps. If the whole thing was like this then I could probably rip it apart. Lashley climbs out of the pod and into the match, but without the table that was in his pod. If Big Show really wants into the match, why doesn't he just try and do a pull up on the chains in his pod and climb out? Lashley eliminates Test before Show is released, and so now we get to wait until he can come out.

For some reason, Heyman is telling Show that he is going to be ripped apart by Lashley. During the wait, Lashley got his table out of the pod, so that is good. Finally, Big Show enters the match with his barbed-wire baseball bat. I'm pretty sure the crowd is chanting "TNA", which is funny. Show doesn't manage to get a clean hit in with the bat before it gets stuck in the side of the cage. There is a cool moment where Lashley throws Show through one of the pods. Show busts himself out of the other side, making both men look pretty cool. Show's head is busted open.

The winner is predictable, and the show was pretty bad. December to Dismember wasn't a terrible show because the people in it did a poor job, but because the matches were all booked terribly for a PPV and there were very few people on the show even worth listing on a card. If I had to give this show a rating out of 10, I think I'd give it a 4. This just isn't worth watching unless you really want to see the reincarnation of ECW by WWE. I feel bad for everyone who had to be involved with this.