WWE PPV Evaluation - Extreme Rules
By Nathan Kyght, PWTorch PPV specialist

BEST MATCH – THE SHIELD VS. EVOLUTION

Wow, was this every something else. The crowd seemed hesitant to get into what I think they felt was a slow start to the match, but I enjoyed the 'feeling-out process.' And then the match shifted up a gear, and just kept going. With all six men brawling at ringside and through the crowd, terrific spots like Dean Ambrose running the announce tables into a dive, and a huge cross-body delivered from a balcony (!) somewhere out in the Izod Center put this match over the op. A spectacular brawl that lived up to the hype.

WORST MATCH – PAIGE VS. TAMINA

Nothing particularly wrong with it, but it was forgettable and sandwiched in between the cage match and the main event, so not a lot going for it interest wise.

BIGGEST SURPRISE – FIRE!

In the current era of WWE, the last thing I expected was to see a flaming table spot in the main event. Granted, it appeared that only the outside of the table was lit and there were people ready to immediately step in with fire extinguishers, but it was still a shock. An aside - only when talking about the wacky world of pro wrestling would I need to commend the safety precautions in place when intentionally putting a man through a burning table.

BEST MOVE – BALCONY DIVE

On a night of Extreme, the most ECW-ish visual came when Seth Rollins dove from the fans in a balcony section down onto Randy Orton, Triple H, and Ambrose, who were brawling in the lower concourse. It was an awesome moment, and the wide shot looked particularly impressive during the replay.

BEST MATCH FINISH – REIGNS..er....reigns

The smartest move was to keep The Shield looking strong as they are red hot right now, and with fan interest so high in Roman Reigns, I thought having him score the decisive pin over Batista was perfect booking. You should really go out of you way to see this match.

OTHER THOUGHTS

- WeeLC watched in mute was a really fun spectacle, with Torito and Hornswoggle (and 3MB & The Matadores) bouncing all over the place. With the sound on, the commentary was excruciating, and treated the whole thing as a joke. It wasn't fair to the work the men put in. They're short. We get it.

- The three-way to open the show was sloppy at times, but putting Cesaro over was the right way to go. RVD looked to have banged his face up on the missed frogsplash to the garbage can spot.

- The Ruzes match was exactly what it should be - a squash.

- Now that Bad News Barrett isn't cutting annoying promos, he's back to being a solid in-ring guy. His match with Big E. was decent.

- John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt. This didn't do anything for me. After a clean interference-free win by Cena at Mania led to the inexplicable booking of a cage match, there was interference galore in a dull, plodding match. The finish? A child sang to Cena through a voice distorter and he was too...scared? distracted? I don't know. Anyway, he lost. This was a mess.

- Daniel Bryan and Kane had a total 'Attitude Era' style main event brawl, with plunder a plenty, a forklift, and the aforementioned burning table. It was very different from a normal Bryan match, but a fun way to end a good show. Side note - ever think logically about what the conversation would be like at work the next day when you're colleagues point out that you are the kind of person that was willing to set someone on fire? Would they feel uncomfortable? Would you?

WHAT IT'LL BE REMEMBERED FOR

The six-man tag. Any show with a match that good is a good show by default for me, and I really enjoyed this year's Extreme Rules.

INITIAL 2014 PPV EVALUATION RANKINGS

1 - WWE WRESTLEMANIA XXX (2014-04-06)
2 - WWE EXTREME RULES 2014 (2014-05-04)
2 - WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER (2014-02-23)
3 - WWE ROYAL RUMBLE (2014-01-26)
4 - TNA LOCKDOWN (2014-03-09)
5 - TNA SACRIFICE (2014-04-27)

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