Six Biggest Takeaways From The Horror Show At Extreme Rules
This year’s Extreme Rules event was certainly a show. A horror show at that.
Lots happened, storylines were furthered (even if the next step was very bizarre) and people are talking about ‘The Horror Show at Extreme Rules’.
I also have to admit I kind of enjoyed the show. The matches had some great action despite the few endings that had me scratching my head. Also, no one can deny that the show was definitely sports entertainment!
The build to SummerSlam starts now but I’m not ready to move forward just yet. Let’s reflect on the ‘Six Biggest Takeaways From The Horror Show At Extreme Rules’:
1. The Fiend Is Back
The Swamp Fight got the job done in conveying a grungy, wacky family gone wrong. This was the first time during this Strowman-Wyatt feud that it felt personal. It felt like Strowman had to find his strength to battle his past demons.
Even though Wyatt was in his weak state of mind, it still felt like he had control of his ‘Monster’. Each section of the fight was eery in Wyatt fashion and even though Strowman is known for defying the odds, time was ticking for the Universal Champion.
The strangest part of this match was when Alexa Bliss appeared, luring Braun into Wyatt’s trap. This has many people believing Alexa Bliss is the real Sister Abigail, however, I disagree.
My assumption is that Wyatt planted these illusions in our imagination. He knew about the past romantic connotations between Braun and his ‘Team Little-Big’ partner, Alexa Bliss. He used this to hypnotize Strowman.
For example, if that was Otis in this situation then Mandy Rose would appear as the gothic ghoul.
The copyright logo appearing when Braun was standing victorious was a trick on WWE’s part. Only for surprisal purposes, when Wyatt got Strowman into the mandible claw to pull him into the Swamp to drown alongside him.
Instead of Wyatt emerging from the gator-infested waters, the Fiend lifted his head revealing that he was the winner of this match.
This was a non-title cinematic, however, it was an interesting main event nonetheless. Overall, it felt like a mix of Boneyard and Firefly Funhouse Match but it never seemed to connect like the previous films. Maybe their next match expected at SummerSlam will be the capitalization this feud requires.
2. MVP Crowned Himself United States Champion… Again.
The United States Championship match was scheduled to be Apollo Crews defending his gold against MVP.
Due to unforeseen reasons, Apollo Crews didn’t turn up. Commentary tried to play off that it was due to an injury from Lashley’s full nelson finisher, however, it is being reported that this is a COVID-19 related issue.
Obviously, this must have been a short-notice situation as the best WWE came up with was MVP crowning himself U.S. Champion due to forfeit. This was quite a lame segment because he literally did that a few weeks ago when he revealed the new U.S. title design.
They could have had Ricochet or Cedric Alexander come out seeing as they are friends of Crews. Hell, they could have even had Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink if they wanted to add more creativity.
Commentary kept on telling us that this doesn’t mean MVP is the official champion, so expect this match to happen whenever Apollo Crews has the all-clear to return to work.
3. Rey Mysterio Lost An Eye
Rey Mysterio has had quite the rough year so far. He got thrown off a roof onto a smaller roof, harassed by the Monday Night Messiah for months and to make it even worse, lost an eye at Extreme Rules. All on the road to his retirement which is getting closer and closer as he is reported to be under no-contract with WWE.
The hype surrounding ‘Eye for an Eye’ was the stipulation’s downfall. The way to win being to extract your opponent’s eye out of its socket made WWE seem very unbelievable even for a scripted show. They couldn’t possibly have a real-life actor lose an eye all in the name of drama!
The end came after Rollins stomped Mysterio into the mat and pushed his already injured eye into the corner of the steel steps. After Rollins found out what lengths he went to, he puked. This ending was way too hokey for me and I would have preferred if WWE allowed Rollins’ facial expressions to tell the story. As he looked devastated that he had to prevail here.
It would have been better overall if WWE just made the match a no-DQ with the same result. Instead, they shoved the stipulation down our throats, tiring us and forming a bad reputation on the match before it even began.
In the long-run, this has me intrigued to see the development of Rollins’ character. Hopefully, he has a match with Dominick at SummerSlam. Also, this whole ‘Eye for an Eye’ stipulation would be proven null and void whenever Mysterio wrestles with both eyes and we will be sitting wondering “What was the point?” He is expected to be taking some time away to sell his eye injury.
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