First Batch of “Extreme Rules” Reader Feedback – Live Reports!

The following is from Paul
 
FATAL 4 WAY FOR THE UNITED STATES TITLE . i thought this was an average match. good high tempo and lots of action. glad that Kofi retained the title, will be interesting to see who challanges for the title next 2.75/5
 
REY MYSTERIO VS CHRIS JERICHO (NO HOLDS BARRED) IC title. again a solid match but nothing that took my breath away. think it was right for the rey to drop the title so they can continue the fued. it looks like the WWE are going to unmask rey could turn into a title vs mask match at THE BASH. 2.75
 
CM PUNK VS UMAGA (SAMOAN STRAP). i didnt think much of this match, just glad that punk won so that he would have lost on a third strait PPV. 2.5
 
TOMMY DREAMER VS JACK SWAGGER VS CHRISTIAN ( EXTREME RULES MATCH ) ECW TITLE MATCH.  i thought that it was a good match. really didnt see dreamer winning the title as christian has been on a role lately. i still think he will retire maybe vacate the title on ECW this comming week 3.0
 
VICKIE GUERRERO VS SANTINO ( HOG PEN MATCH ) i hated this it took up time on the card that could have been given to a proper womens match for either the diva/women championship. 0.5
 
BATISTA VS RANDY ORTON (CAGE MATCH) WWE TITLE.  this match was too short, i understand that batista has torn his bicep and that he needs an operation. its hard to understand why the WWE didnt change the outcome of the match, unless hes going to drop the title back to orton on raw this week. if this does happen then his last 2 title reigns would have lasted a day. 2.25
 
THE BIG SHOW VS JOHN CENA ( SUBMISSION MATCH ) apart from the hog pen match it was by far the worst match of the night, i actually fell asleep and woke up to john cena celebrating the win. cant see how the fued is going to go now or if it has been put to bed 1.25
 
JEFF HARDY VS EDGE (LADDER MATCH) WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE. by far the best match on the card loads of good spots especially when both superstars went through the ladder on the outside of the ring, for a momment i thought hardy might have injured his right shoulder. great finish to the match with hardy winning the title. 4.5
 
CM PUNK CASHES IN THE MONEY IN THE BANK. i was really shocked by this, really didnt see it comming. im gutted that hardy dropped the title, looking at his last title reign i was hopping that the WWE would push him as a strong champion. for a momment i thought that he might pin punk. smackdown is going to be very interesting this week. not fair to give this match a rating but shock factor is 5/5
 
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
 
The following is from Connor
 
Thanks for your coverage on Extreme Rules. I managed to pick up your results this morning and discovered that Extreme
Rules is at the moment and will possibly be the worst PPV this year. CM Punk cashes in this early and so predictably? How stupid. I was getting ready to enjoy a Jeff Hardy title reign.
 
Also, who the hell lets Batista be WWE Champion? Why have Randy Orton job to him when he is way better in every aspect. Is the Randy Orton/ Triple H fued now going to be a sub-par feud with no title at stake?

I mean, the whole Tommy Dreamer storyline I feel was screwed up by WWE. I mean, hes been jobbing until lately and randomly gets a ECW Championship push. Now, I was O.K with him winning the title, but on the backstage notes it says it his last match -.-‘… Why not give him the title beforehand and let him drop it at Extreme Rules? Or at least a longer reign than a day…

However, I did enjoy the whole Jericho/Mysterio thing. That was good.
 
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
 
The following is from Ahmad

As a general rule as it goes for WWE shows/ppv’s, it’s not a good idea to put the title on Batista, much less have Randy Orton lose the title. But alas, that did occur and I still wasn’t upset or disappointed by Extreme Rules! I’m pretty hard on the WWE for putting on sh*t for the past few years (decade really) but this show, despite flaws that I’ll get to, was a real pleaser for me.
 
First the good things:
They, or Kofi, definitely showcased how brilliant Kofi Kingston is as he was firing on all cylinders in his fatal 4 way match with. Predictable winner (as he just won it), but the match was pretty entertianing, albeit a Kofi-spotfest — which ain’t that bad. This is probably going to be one of the last matches with M.V.P. on the midcard and the beginning of his main event status.

The Rey/Y2J match was very very entertaining. I’ve been critical of Jericho since he returned in late 2007, but his matches with Shawn and now Rey have resold me on the Chris Jericho brand. Loved all the spots, but one gripe: it was obviously clear that Jericho and Mysterio were talking RIGHT before a major spot. Wish it was a lot more less obvious. The ending of the match was brilliant with Jericho pulling the mask off and Rey’s inabliity to kick out due to covering his face.
 
The CM Punk/Umaga match was alright. I’m not really a fan of strap matches, but this wasn’t bad. I can’t help but think if this was ROH or if WWE had Samoa Joe, Umaga would have easily been replaced with Joe. Nevertheless, solid match. About time Punk won a PPV match since Wrestlemania (seriously who loses to Kane).

Swagger is definitely growing on me, something I thought I’d never say. Still love Christian and his melting candle comment about Dreamer. Speaking of…. not too happy with this ending. I love the old ECW, but Dreamer is way past his prime and the ECW of ’09 resembles nothing of the old ECW so… just retire.

Really dug the idea of trying to have Orton escape the cage so early in the match. Classic heel tactic, but it worked so well because Orton really did look like he was gonna jump down from the cage and retain. But again, Batista won and I couldn’t have been more pissed. Batista is so limited in the ring and boring overall to watch.

Hardy/Edge was easily match of the night. Awesome spots with the twist-of-spear? from the ladders, both men falling off the huge ladder onto another ladder, and Edge’s demise between the wrings of the ladder. Had a feeling Jeff would win, but didn’t actually think Punk would cash in (considering I kept thinking he would the past ppvs). I kind of liked the fact it took 2 GTS’s to put Jeff away, made him look less like a punk, no pun intended.
 
The Bad:
BATISTA, REALLY? I’m assuming Orton will retain either tonight on Raw or at The Bash. Tommy Dreamer is going to be hell to watch.
The submission match. This is getting absolutely ridiculous. Maybe yes it’s for the kids, but come on. NO ONE seriously thinks John Cena could make a "500 pound monster" tap out. And no one wants to see these two try to use submission moves, in the first place. This feud will hopefully be over now. Do I even have to talk about the hog pen match? I will not.

Another thing that bugged me throughout the night was the length of some of the matches. The fatal 4 way was about 7 mins. The Orton/Batista match seemed really short as well.
If I had to give "Extreme Rules" a school letter grade, it would be a B or a B+ (if I can set aside the fact Dreamer and Batista winning).
 
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
 
The following is from Lee
 
I have to say that I thought Extreme Rules was one of the worst and most disappointing pay per views in recent memory. I’m usually a lot less negative when it comes to talking about WWE shows, but I thought this one was pretty bad.
 
The best match on the card was the Jericho/Mysterio match, but even this wasn’t one of their best outings.
 
The opening match was a close second, and I was happy to see Kofi Kingston retain the US title. I think he has a lot of potential. However, this fatal 4-way was far from fantastic.
 
The Hog Pen match was predictably bad. I know it was meant to be comedy, and perhaps I should have been rolling with laughter whilst watching Vickie and Chavo get covered in dirt and slop. But the only thing I kept thinking as I watched the debacle is that I was glad I’m back living in the UK now and didn’t have to pay to watch this event.
 
The Big Show/John Cena match wasn’t terrible, but highly predictable. John Cena overcomes the odds once again and makes the Big Show tap… Did anyone really expect to see John Cena submit?!
 
The ECW title match was ok, but not great. It was nice to see Tommy Dreamer win and keep his career alive; if only for the fact that ECW still has ONE original left. But as hardcore matches go, this one seemed quite limited. I got the feeling that it was limited so that it wouldn’t take away from the ladder match that was promised to steal the show…
 
The WWE Championship match was ridiculously confusing. The past few months have been dedicated to letting us see just how good Randy Orton is. I don’t know whether his loss is supposed to make us believe that Orton is nothing when his Legacy buddies aren’t there to help, but the result made no sense to me. Then I hear that Batista is injured – again – so will most likely relinquish the title on Raw tonight. Is the creative team made to go through the Wellness Policy testing? If not, they should be as I’m sure the results would show that they must be on crack!
 
The biggest disappointment of the night for me was the World title match. Perhaps because of their past ladder match antics, Jeff Hardy and Edge had set the bar too high. But this match was not the show-stealer I expected. I was still happy to see Jeff win… Only for the moment to be ruined seconds later by CM Punk cashing in his briefcase. I guess this tells us two things: 1, CM Punk is now a heel and 2, Jeff Hardy is not re-signing with WWE when his contract expires. I hope I’m wrong on both accounts. The only good thing that might come out of this is a possible rivalry between CM Punk and John Morrison for the title. Their ECW title bouts were good, and I think both are a lot better now so it could lead to some classic matches.
 
Anyway, all in all, I was very disappointed with this pay per view. And again, I’m just happy that I didn’t have to spend $40 on it. Living in the UK does have some advantages!
 
—————————————————————————————————————————————-
 
The following is from Breon
 
U.S. Championship
Kofi Kingston def William Regal, Matt Hardy and MVP

Thought this was a great opener, but it was a bit short. It made perfect sense for Kofi to go over here seeming as how he just won the U.S. title and it makes him look like a stronger champion. Hope these guys continue to have great matches and that MVP becomes a main eventer.

Intercontinental Championship
Chris Jericho def. Rey Mysterio

Best match on the card. I really enjoyed this and Jericho and Mysterio seem to work well together in the ring. WWE needs to put on more matches like this. The finish was great. It was the perfect way for Jericho to win and it leaves me looking forward to how the feud’s going to continue on Smackdown.

Samoan Strap Match
CM Punk def. Umaga

Wasn’t anything special, but was still pretty good. Not much to say except I’m glad Punk when over, and Umaga looked good.

ECW Championship
Tommy Dreamer def. Jack Swagger and Christian

Another great match from ECW and I’m glad Dreamer won. I didn’t really want to see the last ECW Original WWE has go like that. Very nice hardcore match and I hope Dreamer gets a decent run as ECW Champion.

Hog Pen Match
Santina Marella def. Vickie Guerrero

I’m all for comedy skits in wrestling, but this wasn’t that great or even funny and was pretty painful and disturbing to watch. Well, I watched the last few minutes of it and it didn’t look that funny and the whole dumping “slop” on Vickie and Chavo wasn’t entertaining and was just plain gross. Why bother putting Chavo in these lame storylines? Anyway, Santina/Vickie really needs to end.

WWE Championship
Batista def. Randy Orton

Not that great of a match. I don’t know why they’d give the title to Batista when he’s injured. It does make him look strong when he inevitably comes back from surgery, but I still think they should’ve had Orton retain. Actually, I’m not really sure who I’d want as champion. They’re both pretty stale right now, but at least Orton has a better character to work with. So yeah….I basically didn’t care about this match and it was too short. Probably for good reason.

Submission Match
John Cena vs. Big Show

Slightly better then I thought it was going to be, but it was still too long, slow paced, and the ending was botched. Not a great match at all. Makes me wonder why they even bother saying how Big Show is some kind of “unstoppable giant” when he loses all the big matches. I was hoping for Miz to come out and screw Cena out of the match, but at least this way the Cena/Show feud can end and hopefully Cena/Miz can have a better feud.

World Heavyweight Championship
Jeff Hardy def. Edge

Great match, but I’ve seen them do better. Like you’d expect they did some cool spots with the ladder, especially when Hardy suplexed Edge in-between one of them, but overall I just didn’t think it was anything special.

World Heavyweight Championship
CM Punk def. Jeff Hardy

Don’t really know what to think of this. Have to see where it goes. I think Punk should turn heel, but that’s probably not going to happen if Jeff takes time away from WWE since Smackdown is going to need a new top face, which will most likely be Punk. If he stays a face, then who’s he going to feud with if Jeff leaves? Edge again? Umaga again? Jericho again? I don’t know. It was a little bit cool when Hardy kicked out of the “Go-To-Sleep”, but we’ve seen that already when Cena kicked out of Edge’s spear when he cashed in MITB in 2005. Have to wait and see…

Thought this was a good ppv must better than Judgment Day. Smackdown/ECW continue to have better ppv matches than RAW by a long shot. The Hog Pen match, IC Title match, and Orton/Batista doesn’t compare to the Jericho/Mysterio and Edge/Jeff awesomeness. RAW really needs to step up and I don’t really think they can when you have stale main eventers, but that’s another story.