Instant Reaction - WWE Extreme Rules PPV 4/29
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 8.5

Tonight far exceeded my expectations. With a solid undercard and three four-star-plus matches, the show was a lot of fun to watch and had a lot of emotional highs.

That said, opening the show with a backstage brawl between Randy Orton and Kane was probably a bad idea. It was good that they kept all of the Extreme Rules-esque matches unique, but the brawl took the crowd out of the match to a certain extent. That being said, once they came back to the ring, they had a great brawl that didn't burn out the crowd. It may have had a few too many nearfalls, but the match was still effective.

The two additional matches weren't integral to the show, but they were fine for the buffers that they were supposed to be. Now, some may complain about the IC Title match finish. The match itself was fine, and in my opinion the finish also ended up working. Cody gained more cred than he ever would have by beating Big Show by actually walking out under his own power after taking such a beating. The crowd was giving him a standing ovation! The finish was a bit awkward, but by the end Cody looked like a tank, and I'm glad to see that he has the IC Title again.

Sheamus-Bryan had a bit of an abrupt ending, but it was an otherwise awesome match. Both guys worked a good pace, didn't quite burn out the crowd, and had some great moves throughout. The same can be said for the WWE Title match, pretty much. It wasn't a technical masterpiece, but it was a hellacious brawl that built really well and had a great emotional aspect to it. Some of the bumps were really well done, and even though some spots were sloppy, Jericho covered them up. A really nice match. But, can someone explain to me why they didn't have Kharma come back tonight? Layla's return fell really flat.

Now, we come to Cena-Lesnar. Wow. What a brawl. Yeah, it ended with Cena defying the odds, but the fact of the matter is that WWE may not be able to even use Lesnar - he's not safe to work with! He nearly injured himself majorly, and every move he did looked way too stiff. That being said, it did end up really enhancing the match. Brock looked like a monster (he drank Cena's blood!), Cena sold well, and the crowd was eating out of the palms of their hands. And, there was even blood! See how much more effective it is when used very rarely, TNA? I couldn't imagine the match being done better. And, if Cena's really gone for a while, he earned it without a doubt.

And, that ends one heck of a PPV. It wasn't perfect, but everything felt satisfying, especially the brutal brawl at the end.

Questions? Comments? Reactions yourself? E-mail me at btuckertorch@aol.com, or follow me on Twitter at BTuckerTorch, where I talk about wrestling and... stuff!

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