WWE SummerSlam 2016

Image Source: YouTube

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: August 21 2016
Location: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Attendance: 15,974

Since I began writing reviews of major WWE events, they have been fairly easy to recap and to pass opinions on. With SummerSlam 2016, though, the task becomes a lot trickier, for the card pretty much had everything on the quality scale, as well as certain events being affected by factors beyond WWE's control. If nothing else, that gives us plenty to talk about, so let's get right to it!

Last year, SummerSlam expanded to a four-hour show, and this year the preceding Kick-Off Show was expanded to two, meaning a six-hour experience in total. On the Kick-off Show, we had three matches, the first of which was a 12-man tag team bout (which was actually a SmackDown rematch), pitting American Alpha, The Usos and The Hype Bros against The Vaudevillains, Breezango and The Ascension. It was a basic warm-up match, in front of a Brooklyn crowd which was probably no more than 30% full at this point, but it received a decent amount of time and gave most involved a chance to shine on some level. I do think that the sequence of everyone using their finisher in a multi-man scenario is getting tired, but that aside this was acceptable for what it was. The match ended with Jey Uso somewhat stealing the glory by sneaking in a blind tag on Chad Gable to hit a splash for the win. It was emphasised enough that this appeared to be step one of a much-need Usos heel turn and a likely feud with American Alpha, which definitely has potential. Assuming that's the case, then this match definitely served its purpose.

Next up on the KO portion was another tag bout, as Neville and Sami Zayn took on The Dudleyz. Some were dismayed that Zayn wasn't on the main card, but I'm confident that he'll be in the thick of things on Raw over the next few months. This was alright; nothing special, but it was enjoyable to watch, and once-NXT rivals Neville and Zayn formed a pretty good team. Bubba Ray inadvertently struck D-Von to set up the finish, which saw an unusually-hesitant Neville hit Bubba with the Red Arrow as Sami held D-Von away (D-Von was visible watching Neville hit his big move which was a slight botch). Neville and Zayn won; The Dudleyz had their third miscommunication problem in the last two weeks. I expect Bubba to turn heel on D-Von to split up the Dudleyz, possibly as soon as the post-SummerSlam episode of Raw.

Last up on the KO Show was Cesaro vs. Sheamus in the first match of a Best-Of-Seven series. It was a slow starter, and the crowd was very quiet considering that one of their heroes Cesaro was involved. But it soon picked up and turned into a pretty good bout, with the highlights coming on a double-jump into a splash by the Swiss Superman, making use of the new screen pillars that surrounded the ring post at this event, and Cesaro brilliantly reversing a Brogue Kick attempt directly into a Sharpshooter. But, as I expected given that Cesaro has recently pinned Sheamus twice, it would be the Celtic Warrior who got the nod here, as he drove Cesaro shoulder-first into one of the posts and followed it up with a match-winning Brogue Kick. Round 1 goes to Sheamus, with the series likely to be stretched out until the September Raw PPV Clash Of Champions, or perhaps Hell In A Cell in October. In something of a recurring theme, fans have blasted the BO7 concept, but given time this should hopefully be worthwhile. Incidentally, this won't be the last time I refer to wrestling fans in this article; consider that a precursor of things to come. Actually, I'll save it until I've covered all of the (many) matches, because it's a subject that needs addressing.

So, the main card began at this point, and we had a tag bout pitting Enzo and Big Cass against JeriKO. Enzo and Cass got a monstrous pop from the audience, and their pre-match promo went down a storm with references to Big E. Smalls (had they done one more, he might just have showed up at SummerSlam; South Park taught me that). The match was okay: like with Neville/Zayn vs. The Dudleyz, there was nothing exceptionally memorable about it, but it provided entertainment all the same. There was a nice moment when Chris Jericho cut off Enzo's attempt to tag in Cass at the last moment, but the finish was a little bit off: Kevin Owens threw Enzo up as if to taste a Pop-Up Powerbomb, except that he was sending Amore into a Codebreaker by Y2J; however, Enzo either slipped or didn't jump high enough because Jericho's knee just about grazed Enzo's face. Still, it was good enough to get the win for the villains.

Both teams are all about entertainment: besides Enzo and Cass' usual routine, JeriKO have been incredibly entertaining to watch and listen to since forming their partnership a few weeks back. Of note, their promo on Raw where they deliberately and repeatedly got interviewer Tom Phillips' name wrong without ever acknowledging the fact was priceless, and the banter between the two on the Kick-Off Show was hilarious too. These two make a great team, both in the ring and on the microphone, so hopefully JeriKO will be a semi-permanent thing. I was surprised to see Enzo and Cass lose, although it's hard to imagine that they won't win a rematch at some point. It was worrying to see a couple of moments, such as the finish, where Enzo was only just connecting on some fairly risky dive-style bumps. Given his scary-looking concussion at Payback and other close calls since then, someone needs to have a word with Enzo to make sure that the undeniably charismatic "Certified G" doesn't cripple himself before he and Cass can truly establish their careers.

Perhaps similar advice could go to Sasha Banks and Charlotte, whose Women's Title match had a gnarly moment early on as Charlotte positioned Sasha on the top ropes as if she was about to hit a backbreaker, but dropped her (albeit in such a fashion that it seemed part of the match lay-out) and Sasha landed sharply on the back of her head. The match was close to being stopped, but Sasha fought on, and the two recovered to deliver a very good match. Sasha' top rope hurricanrana reversal out of an attempted Razor's Edge was a highlight, even if it looked a bit overly-rehearsed (Charlotte seemed to be waiting for Sasha to reverse it, rather than trying to make it look like she wanted to hit the RE). There was some nice submission reversals as Sasha trapped Charlotte in the Bank Statement more than once, but on the second occasion, Charlotte (whose usual compadre Dana Brooke was banned from ringside) lent back and caught Sasha off-guard with a roll-up, picking up the win and her second Women's Championship to the shock of the crowd.

I had read online that there were heavy rumours of Sasha losing the title here, so it wasn't a big surprise to me. Match-wise, it was a strong effort, but a notch below their battle on Raw last month where Sasha won the gold originally. Sasha's defeat was quickly followed by her apparently being removed from upcoming events, leading many to wonder if her unexpected title loss, just a few weeks after finally becoming champion, was due to a suspension in the week that Alberto Del Rio, Paige and Eva Marie were shelved for the same reason. It looks like her time off will be to address nagging injuries (the slip-up in this match will add to her injury woes), so those ridiculously spreading #PrayForSasha on Twitter can rest a little easy for now. If she is having an absence, then her title loss was necessary. If not, then it's a questionable result. However, I suspect the former and, in that regard, it's hard to complain if you have a rational point of view.

We then had The Miz defending his Intercontinental Title against Apollo Crews. I won't spend too much time on this one because it was fairly short, the promotion of the bout wasn't very good (their key interaction came during a commercial break on the pre-SS edition of SmackDown, for some reason), and nobody besides the participants seemed to care that it was even happening. Apollo hit some decent offence, but unsurprisingly Miz came out on top after hitting the Skull-Crushing Finale. Apollo has potential, but the overall package isn't quite there yet for him to make a true impact on SmackDown. As for Miz, his IC Title reign continues on, and it's anybody's guess as to who he might face next.

By the way, Baron Corbin vs. Kalisto was at one point scheduled for the Kick-Off Show too (I know I covered the preview section earlier, but I've only just remembered this). For whatever reason, it didn't happen, and instead Corbin interrupted the KO panel with a simple yet effective series of threats to Kalisto, who he has been basically bullying in recent weeks on SD. They will meet at some point; it just wasn't on this show. Since the event as a whole already had 13 matches in total, it's probably a good thing that this will be saved for another evening.

Next up, we had John Cena vs. AJ Styles. This was, no pun intended, phenomenal: bettering their Money In The Bank collision, Cena vs. Styles II was a genuine classic, with almost 30 minutes of big moves, false finishes, dramatic submissions, crazy bumps and more. It was virtually a perfect match, and the best SummerSlam battle since CM Punk vs. Brock Lesnar in 2013. It might seem like I'm skipping through this one, but I don't want to spoil the content of the bout for anybody who plans to watch it; consider this a direct recommendation to watch it, because you should. The likely winner for Match Of The Year (on the main roster, at least) ended with Cena expressing confusion and almost sadness that he couldn't put AJ away, which led him into a second Styles Clash and a second Phenomenal Forearm to give AJ the surprise clean pinfall win to the delight of the audience. Afterwards, Cena (who received his usual reception from a smarky crowd) was given a respectful ovation, which he had damn sure earned, and left behind his "Never Give Up" wristband in a telling manner.

As stated, this was superb: you couldn't have asked for any more from this encounter. Styles lived up to his reputation with his best WWE effort to date, and Cena put on a fantastic performance himself; this may have been the best pure wrestling performance of his life. That Cena left his wristband behind in such a fashion suggests that he's about to have more time off, hence why he lost cleanly to AJ in a rematch that most expected him to win. It's actually a little sad to realise that John Cena, the face of WWE for so many years, is clearly winding down his wrestling career. He'll obviously be back at some point, but he's clearly no longer The Man in WWE. As a matter of fact, whereas most have speculated that he will wrestle in WWE in some fashion for years to come, I am wondering whether he might take an extended leave (as in, a couple of years) in the manner of The Rock after either WrestleMania 33 or WrestleMania 34. That Michael Cole didn't include his match when running down the card's top battles on the Kick-Off Show was telling. To me, Cena is now in the same position that The Rock was in back in 2002-2003; a huge name who will be there for the major events, but won't be around throughout the whole year. We shall see what happens; but this perfectly sets up Styles as a contender to the WWE World Title. Outstanding match.

Following that effort was always going to be hard, but it's safe to say that the subsequent match was a disappointment. We had Jon Stewart (who had a key role in last year's SummerSlam, remember) seemingly joining The New Day members Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods as they defended their WWE Tag Team Titles against Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. The serious (well, semi-serious) tone of their feud (it revolved around G&A supposedly busting Big E's balls and making fun of said injury; that says it all) took a back seat as this Raw-style encounter was run of the mill and saw Stewart again intervene, with The Club members threatening to give him "Ringpostitis". At this point, Big E made his return (to a pretty loud cheer, it has to be said) and helped New Day take out their opponents.

So, the match which many envisioned would see New Day's year-long reign finally end ultimately became a forgettable scrap based on the attempted crushing of one or more gentleman's private parts. Okay. Gallows and Anderson won by disqualification, further giving this match a second-rate feel. I usually appreciate comedy in wrestling, but this feud isn't particularly funny (although I did laugh at Gallows and Anderson providing a tiny jar to represent Stewart's, erm, bits). Ideally, Luke and Karl will give New Day a genuinely vicious beatdown to set up a serious rematch at Clash Of Champions, where the result could go either way. And whilst New Day will be around for some time yet, evidenced by their long title reign and their wealth of merchandise in the works, their act definitely seems to have peaked, which suggests that a title change (which I half-expected to happen here) might be the best course of action when Gallows and Anderson get a second shot at the titles.

From there, we had Dean Ambrose defending the WWE Title against Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler emerged as a surprise contender for Ambrose's title after being largely irrelevant for years, but since earning the shot, he's delivered some great promos and intensity, and looked good during his televised bouts en route to SummerSlam. Dean has played more of a heelish role, openly doubting Ziggler and virtually dismissing him as a threat to his title. There remained that shred of doubt, though, as to whether Dolph could pull off the big upset. But it wasn't to be: the WWE Championship clash was well-worked, with Ambrose channelling his inner heel just enough to still omit cheers, but it still felt like something was missing. Dolph had some big moments to shine, including a top-rope X-Factor and a sudden Zig Zag, but few believed that Dean would lose the title; and in a smooth counter to an attempted top-rope suplex, Ambrose brought Ziggler down to ground level and drilled him with Dirty Deeds for the victory.

It was a shame to see Ziggler lose fairly convincingly, and unless he turns heel imminently, this represented his last potential chance to become a main eventer. Of greater note, though, was the match quality; it was enjoyable, and as stated the execution was of a high quality, but it still felt like a mid-card match; something to warm the fans up for a bigger attraction, rather than a top-level battle in its own right. And whilst Ambrose has a strong following, this was the third PPV match this year for him that resulted in disappointment, following his WrestleMania 32 fight with Brock Lesnar and his Asylum clash with Chris Jericho at Extreme Rules. Considering that Steve Austin called him out on this in a roundabout way on his Podcast show on the WWE Network (Austin advised Ambrose to "step it up", or words to that effect), I expected a lot more from the match, and Ambrose in particular. AJ Styles is likely to be Dean's next opponent and, as things stand, Styles ending Ambrose's title reign might be the way to go, because Ambrose has essentially been given the floor by WWE to shine, and yet he has yet to truly impress.

A six-women offering from SmackDown suffered from the news that Eva Marie, who has found increasingly funny ways to avoid actually competing (with her reasons now being explained by her deliberately OTT voiceover guy), was suspended and would thus miss the match, which pitted her, Natalya and Alexa Bliss against Becky Lynch, Carmella and Naomi (who is suddenly a babyface again). Hilariously, WWE chose to still give us Eva's entrance before explaining that she was tired and was holidaying in the British Isles. In her place was the surprise return of Nikki Bella to an admittedly-loud reaction. It's always good to see someone return from a serious injury, so I'm happy for Nikki that she has returned from what was once feared to be a career-ending injury. As long as she just wrestles and doesn't try to utilise her acting "skills", I'll be satisfied.

The match was just okay; it was filler, if we're being honest, but it still had its moments. Actually, I missed a few minutes of this due to an awful WWE Network feed. From what I did see, Naomi, in her new LED-surrounded attire, hit her impressive sequence of repeated kicks, and Becky drilled all three of her opponents with a turnbuckle elbow in a fluid motion. Nikki, as the returning Diva for lack of a better word (and John Cena's girl, don't forget), was chosen to get the victory with a variation of Marc Mero's old TKO move on Carmella. The Rack Attack is no more due to the severity of Nikki's neck injury, as is a full-time schedule for the Bella, apparently. Rumour has it that SmackDown is getting a Women's Championship, possibly as soon as Backlash, and I would hazard a guess that Becky vs. Nikki will decide said title.

Speaking of new titles: the Universal Championship was to be awarded to the winner of the following encounter, pitting Finn Balor against Seth Rollins. I've mentioned the crowd a few times, and this is the match where their "influence" had the most impact, so I'll focus instead on the combatants: Balor has had one hell of a start to his main roster career, almost immediately becoming Raw's top babyface. Rollins has had minimal ring time since the Draft, but he has clearly improved on promos, adding weight to his view that he is WWE's best wrestler. Balor is also great in the ring, so expectations were high for this one.

As you will soon read, the crowd greatly affected one's enjoyment of the match, but it was still a very good match, if slightly less than what fans will have hoped for. Balor may have been injured on an early ringside powerbomb, but Finn (dressed in full Demon regalia) fought back, and he and Rollins exchanged plenty of big moves towards the finish, such as the Coup De Grace by Balor, and a top-rope suplex into a Pedigree by Rollins. In the end, a second Coup De Grace by Finn earned him the Universal Championship, culminating what may be the greatest opening month on the main roster ever by someone without experience on WWE flagship television (I'm trying to acknowledge Balor's NXT and New Japan adventures, but it was only July 25 that Finn officially arrived on Raw). Hopefully, Finn isn't too hurt, if one is to believe rumours about his potential injury, and a rematch between him and Rollins at Clash Of Champions (where they will probably be awarded more time, and thus have an even better match) seems likely so long as Finn gets the medical all-clear.

That Roman Reigns pinned Rusev in a non-title match on Raw prior to SummerSlam, and that theoretically there was only half an hour for this and the main event match, strongly suggested some shenanigans, likely in the form of a very short match. As it turned out, Rusev vs. Roman for the United States Title never got started, with the Bulgarian Brute pounding Reigns at ringside before Roman fought back with a chairshot and a series of vicious strikes. With Rusev supposedly now unable to compete, Reigns left a lasting impression with a Spear; at this point, fans (who had been booing Reigns, as usual) were fully backing him and were even chanting "One more time!" If Roman had obliged, he might just have come across as a superstar babyface once more. Alas, he didn't.

For Reigns, who prior to Money In The Bank was essentially #1 in the eyes of WWE management, this reduced role has to be something of a let-down, albeit one triggered by his Wellness Policy violation in June. The non-match was not pleasing on a stage like SummerSlam, although their lengthy bout on Raw last week suggested that this wouldn't be any ordinary encounter. On the bright side, they will meet again at Clash Of Champions, no doubt, and since Reigns was enhanced and cheered as he completed his beatdown, it kind of actually worked. Okay, it was still a let-down, but it was far from a disaster.

And so we have our main event, pitting Brock Lesnar against Randy Orton. This was announced out of thin air prior to Orton's return, and prior to the Draft, where both men were separated. Therefore, building the match proved to be a challenge, and it basically demanded that each man invade the other's show to build momentum, although it hindered the concept of the Draft just a few weeks in. Add to that the news that Lesnar would not be suspended by WWE for failing a drug test in relation to his UFC 200 fight, and the revelation that Lesnar, as a part-time performer, has not been and will not be drug-tested by WWE in future, and this had the potential to be a train-wreck if the crowd responded negatively for the reasons listed above. Fortunately, they didn't - at least for the most part - but what we got in this match, over a decade in the making (the two men had never battled on a supershow before), was peculiar, intriguing, frustrating, shocking - look, let's delve through what happened and then decide.

Lesnar began, as he often does, by attacking Orton in the corner and drilling him with suplex after suplex after suplex. The brawl spilled to ringside where Lesnar violently flung Orton through an announcer's table, and prepared to slam him through a second desk before Orton countered with an RKO. The Viper dragged Lesnar into the ring and hit his draping DDT, followed by a second RKO which got a close two-count. Brock rebounded with an F5 for a near-fall, and at this point the match had been pretty damn good. Then, things turned ugly ...

Lesnar began pounding Orton on the mat ... hard ... like, really hard. Fists, elbows, forearms; Brock was genuinely whacking Orton, and it became clear quickly that Orton had been cut open really heavily. The doctors came in to help Randy (which was greeted with respectful silence rather than boos on this occasion; such a development is often frowned upon in the PG era), but Brock wouldn't allow it and carried on wellying Randy with genuinely stiff shots, making him bleed even more. Orton looked to be knocked out, in fact. And after the assault continued and Orton continued bleeding and not responding, the match was called off with Lesnar declared the winner by TKO. The dismay at the brevity of the match and the lack of offence by Orton was overshadowed by the severity of Brock's beatdown; even if the match script called for such an outcome (which I believe it did), did he really have to whack Orton for real so many times, and leave him lying in a pool of unscripted blood? I know we've seen blood in WWE matches involving Brock in recent times, but it never came across as brutal as this did. Afterwards, Shane McMahon tried to stop the mad beast, only to taste an F5. Lesnar walked away smirking to boos ... and that was it.

It's hard to judge this one. The match itself was incredibly realistic and compelling to watch; you couldn't take your eyes off what was happening, especially at the finish. And protecting Orton with a TKO defeat was smart, since he only returned from a long lay-off a few weeks ago. It was the stiffness of Lesnar's shots, and the genuine feeling (combined with his unscripted yet hilarious "I don't give a s--t about your kids" comment to Heath Slater on Raw) that Lesnar might be a little bit out of control, for real; had John Cena, Seth Rollins or even Orton himself carried out what Lesnar did here and on the microphone on Raw without authorisation, chances are that they would be reprimanded in some fashion (and who knows if it were a mid-carder; termination, perhaps?). Considering that fans have already soured on Lesnar due to his preference for UFC, his non-suspension by WWE, his probable laziness hinted at by Dean Ambrose on Austin's podcast and Brock's part-time status, plus how he has smashed almost every WWE main eventer to the point where no realistic challenger to "The Conqueror" seems likely, Brock is becoming a vilified figure; someone who the WWE fans have almost become sick of, rather than someone they want to see.

On the other hand, maybe that is the intention. Lesnar surely has to be a heel again after this display, and for all of the reasons listed above, Lesnar is a detestable figure in the world of WWE. And this brutal pummelling of Orton, which must have crossed some sort of line (hell, we know what Lesnar is capable of, so the stiff shots were unnecessary), gives people further reason to wish that Lesnar were not a part of WWE, and for somebody to finally defeat him. Who that is remains to be seen, but needless to say, one's opinion of this match depends on your opinion of Lesnar himself. If you like him, you'll have found this to be a gripping spectacle. If you dislike him, you'll have hated this. And, to be fair, WWE should have given Orton more offence and given the match another 5-10 minutes so that fans would be less disappointed at the final bell. Unless, of course, the TKO finish wasn't planned, and that the nastiness of Brock's assault and the consequences left no choice but to curtail the match early. (I personally don't think this is the case, although I doubt it was meant to be as bloody as it became.) Either way, fans won't forget this match in a hurry; it was memorable, if not for all of the right reasons.

And that sums up SummerSlam: a genuine Match Of The Year contender, a few very good matches, a handful of good ones, and some disappointments, either due to booking or a lack of time, along with some filler too. As I mentioned earlier, this covered the entire quality spectrum. It didn't live up to the potential that it had from an in-ring standpoint; we got one classic match, but fans were expecting three or four based on the line-up. So, yes, in several respects it was a let-down, but judged overall, it was still an entertaining card, despite the perception of the show that you may have gotten from the fans.

Oh, yes, finally ... the fans.

The Brooklyn crowd basically ruined one major match, hindered the enjoyment of more than one other bout, and overreacted to certain results as if somebody had died. Rollins vs. Balor was largely greeted by negative chants towards the visual look of the Universal Championship. Seriously. Regardless of your opinion about the look of the title (and I personally think it could have looked better, but I don't have alternative suggestions so I'm not going to complain), the chants were not only trivial and pointless, but they were deeply disrespectful to the two men fighting for it (Rollins himself noted on Twitter that the crowd disappointed him here), and it prevented one from enjoying what was potentially the most exciting match of the entire show. It's clear that fans were going to rant regardless of what the title looked like solely because of its name. The UEFA Cup was renamed the Europa League in 2009/10 to negative feedback. But did fans of the finalists Fulham and Atletico Madrid concentrate on the trophy instead of the football on display? Of course not! It would have been totally stupid, which applies here as well. I could have accepted one chant or initial boos, but not to the level that it overshadowed the entire match.

Ambrose vs. Ziggler was greeted with near-silence, as were several other matches (the huge running time may have contributed to this, admittedly, but Cesaro vs. Sheamus was one such victim to the lack of reaction, and this was very early on in the night). And whilst Sasha Banks is a favourite of the hardcore fans, meaning that her defeat wouldn't be greeted warmly, you would think that someone had ran into the ring and tried to shoot her based on the way in which people were reacting to that loss. (Assuming that Sasha is taking time off, they had to get the title off her, which only makes said fans look idiotic.) Admittedly, the atmosphere for Cena vs. Styles was topnotch, and they could have ruined Lesnar vs. Orton had they so chosen but did not; however, the prevailing thought is that this super-smarky crowd (which reacted to Finn Balor approaching The Club backstage as if Jesus Christ himself had turned up at the Barclays Center, and visibly roared "No!" when Balor walked away from them, as if Jesus had refused to help a dying man) wanted to make themselves the basis of the show, and wanted every last detail to suit them.

And it wasn't just the live crowd; certain portions of the fans watching on PPV or the Network greatly overreacted to developments on the card. I don't want to intimate that all fans are of this mindset, but here are the complaints that fans had about SummerSlam: American Alpha were wasted, The Usos shouldn't have won, Sami Zayn and Neville are presently being wasted, so is Cesaro, Cesaro should have won, Enzo and Cass should have won, the grey ring mats looked ugly (seriously), the Women's Title match shouldn't have been so early on the show, Sasha definitely shouldn't have been beaten, Miz sucks, Apollo possibly sucks too, Cena vs. Styles wasn't a five-star epic (some even said the match wasn't very good which is actually a lie rather than a misguided thought), New Day vs. Gallows and Anderson was a let-down (fair comment), Ambrose is dull, Ziggler shouldn't have been near the WWE Title match, Nikki Bella shouldn't have come back from injury, the Network feed was terrible (which is a good point), the Universal Championship is the most hideous-looking thing ever devised and thus the name and look of the belt tarnishes all who attempt to interact with it, Rollins vs. Balor was also a let-down (perhaps it would have been better had the chants not overshadowed it), Rusev vs. Roman not happening was a rip-off (again a fair comment), the event lasted too long (an understandable criticism), Lesnar shouldn't have won, the main event was too short, Orton was buried, the ending to the main event was a disgrace, Daniel Bryan (who had a severe and career-ending neck issue) should have taken some blows from Lesnar alongside Shane, and Goldberg should have returned with his non-appearance apparently sending the fanbase into meltdown (hell, Goldberg had to apologise for not appearing at a show where he was never even scheduled to turn up!).

Of all those knocks, around six or seven are genuinely good points, and a few others have merit. But the majority feel like nitpicking, and it raises the question: if wrestling frustrates you so much that all of these issues can affect you during one (admittedly very long) wrestling show, then why the hell do you watch it? Do you watch Coronation Street and constantly rip everything about it? How about the elements of the Olympic Games closing ceremony? Seriously, it's one thing to have an opinion on wrestling, and I am definitely not suggesting that fans should shut up and accept whatever we're given. But that list (which doesn't even include a KFC commercial filmed at SmackDown last week where Dolph Ziggler was dressed as The Colonel and The Miz was dressed as a giant chicken) seems incredibly long for what is supposed to be a show where you can just sit back and relax, appreciating and enjoying what is on offer.

SummerSlam was far from flawless, and I mentioned that I personally expected more from the event. But really, the "armchair booker" concept, whereby the fan on his couch or in front of his computer thinks that he can promote a show better than Vince McMahon himself, has gone too far now. During Rollins vs. Balor, I seriously considered watching it on mute so I could just enjoy the action rather than hearing the most critical of fans pay more attention to what a title belt looks like. Seriously, imagine if back in the Attitude Era, fans would have ignored Austin vs. Rock because they didn't like how the Smoking Skull belt looked. Just ridiculous.

I hope this didn't come across as an attack on all fans, because it wasn't intended to be that way. It's just to point out that criticisms of the wrestling product have now reached an intolerable level, where it genuinely seems that wrestling companies can do no right. I will actually be writing a separate article on how wrestling fans have changed where I will refer back to this situation, but needless to say the Brooklyn crowd had a detrimental effect on much of the SummerSlam content, and so I come away with the show with a negative feeling towards the Brooklyn fans, rather than my first reaction being what I thought of the show.

Let's end on a lighter note, shall we? If nothing else, SummerSlam was memorable, and set up or laid the foundations for some intriguing developments going forward. It will be fascinating to see what happens with Brock Lesnar, as well as what awaits John Cena, and Finn Balor and AJ Styles will definitely be two to watch over the next few months. Was it the classic show that I hoped for? No. Did it have disappointing or frustrating moments? Absolutely. Did it deliver enough good wrestling to satisfy me? Yes, if not as much as I'd hoped for. But regardless of what certain people will say, on the whole SummerSlam was worth watching, and the Cena vs. Styles classic is what you should track down immediately after you finish reading this review. Hopefully there will be positive decisions made stemming from what went down at SummerSlam, and it has to be hoped that we don't get such an overly critical audience like the one we had in Brooklyn. Sadly, that seems like a long shot right now. Still, Cena vs. Styles was awesome!

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 - Good

WWE Battleground 2016

Image Source: Wrestling News

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: July 24 2016
Location: Verizon Center, Washington, DC, USA
Attendance: 15,109

This year's Battleground event felt like a transitional show due to the Draft taking place last Tuesday. The WWE roster has once again been split into two, but the line-up changes would not become official until after Battleground. Only thing is, many of the PPV storylines had been compromised by the brand extension, meaning that some rivalries had lost any meaning, since the supershow bouts were now essentially pointless. That all being said, despite the less-than-enthusiastic feeling amongst fans prior to this card, the talent came through with several great matches and moments, all of which resulted in Battleground being one of the top events of the year so far.

The Kick-Off Show gave us The Usos vs. Breezango, a logical bout since the two teams were chosen by SmackDown. This was a by-the-numbers doubles match for the most part, with Tyler Breeze and Fandango repelling early offence by the supposedly babyface combo by taking control and wearing down Jey. He inevitably made the hot tag to Jimmy leading to an Usos comeback. Tyler prevented an Usos Doomsday Device but he and Fandango still tasted a high crossbody from Jimmy. In the end, Jey launched himself through the ropes to take out Fandango at ringside, and Tyler blocked a Jimmy splash and rolled him up for the surprise victory for Breezango.

It was a good start to the night, but more importantly Breezango were very well-received by fans, despite being a heel tandem on the very bottom of the proverbial ladder. In contrast, The Usos were heavily booed again, proving how damaging their alliance with cousin Roman Reigns has been to their popularity, and the fact that the tandem, which were once WWE's top team, lost to a comedy heel twosome here doesn't bode well for their futures. Like with Dolph Ziggler, The Usos are stale and really could benefit from a heel turn themselves. They've been babyfaces for five years, and both their fortunes and their crowd appeal have plummeted in recent times. A series between NXT call-ups American Alpha and a newly-heel Usos team has plenty of potential.

Battleground opened with another tag team match, this time pitting Charlotte and Dana Brooke against Sasha Banks and a mystery partner. Without getting into why the Women's Champion was in a non-title doubles bout for the second PPV in a row, the big intrigue here concerned the identity of Sasha's partner. As it turned out, Sasha's mystery partner of choice was none other than Bayley, who legitimately got a Rock-level pop for her long-awaited main roster debut. The babyfaces were attacked at ringside by the heels, to hefty boos, as Charlotte and Dana took control early of this match.

Bayley showed fighting spirit early on, but it was Sasha who received the brunt of the punishment by the defending Women's Champion and her not-as-talented partner in crime. The Boss soon tagged Bayley back in, and despite her taking a slightly ugly bump on the back of her head to the top turnbuckle, the former NXT Women's Champion proved why so many fans were excited to see her with some great offence, including her running knee attack into Charlotte at the corner. But Sasha would be the one who won the match for her team, locking Charlotte in the Bank Statement and forcing her to tap out. This sets the stage perfectly for Charlotte vs. Sasha for the Women's Title, where Sasha will surely win the gold that she should have claimed at WrestleMania 32.

The bigger story here was Bayley's debut, although the announcers pointed out that this was a one-time appearance by Bayley (for now). I suspect that WWE planned to install Nia Jax (who was called up in the Draft) as Sasha's partner, but the potentially negative reaction to it not being Bayley convinced them to change their minds, whilst emphasising that she hadn't been officially called up yet. You may call it a guest appearance. I can understand fans being unhappy that Bayley wasn't Drafted, but she still has business to take care of in NXT, with an upcoming title rematch against Asuka at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn. After that show, Bayley will probably arrive on Raw or SmackDown for good, with a future title match against Sasha (assuming she is Women's Champion by then) seeming like a great prospect, perhaps for next year's WrestleMania, based on their classic NXT Takeover collisions in 2015.

Next up, The New Day battled The Wyatt Family in a six-man tag team match. This was the second bout of the night involving a champion (or champions) where the title would not be at stake. Also hindering this match was the outcome of the Draft: with Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan on separate brands to New Day and Braun Strowman, this intriguing feud (based on Xavier Woods genuinely fearing the Wyatts) had to end here, without the championships on the line. It also means that the recent six-man brawl on the Wyatt Family compound (which some felt had undeniable similarities to the Final Deletion match/angle involving Matt and Jeff Hardy in TNA) ultimately counted for nothing, unless other enemies to Wyatt end up visiting his gaff at some point.

That being said, this was still an enjoyable bout. New Day did their usual funny pre-match promo, and the bout itself told a logical story of how Xavier was trying to overcome his fear of Bray. After seemingly being mesmerised by the leader of this cult, Woods eventually did snap out of his trance and come out all guns blazing at Wyatt, hitting some nice offence to a big pop by the crowd. But it wasn't enough to seal the victory, as Bray caught him and dropped him with Sister Abigail for the win. It's worth noting that Big E nearly broke his neck hitting his spear through the ropes to the floor on Strowman, which hopefully will be sufficient evidence for the big man to remove this (admittedly impressive-looking) spot from his repertoire; the last thing fans want to see is one-third of their favourite tag team act suffering a serious injury, and I imagine that he wouldn't want that outcome either. Oh, and Michael Cole on commentary dropped a right clanger here, as he noted how Strowman swatted Woods like a fly, except it somehow came out as "flatted a swy". As Ron Simmons would say, "DAMN!"

We actually had a champion defending his title in the following match, as Rusev put his United States Championship on the line against Zack Ryder (who was sporting Randy Savage-esque attire based on the stars and stripes). Against all odds, Rusev's career appears to have been rehabilitated; it seemed like his main event prospects were dead after his turbulent 2015, but the last few months have seen the Bulgarian Brute regain much of his momentum (and the U.S. Title), making him a force to be reckoned with once more. Ryder has had an up-and-down year, although this latest title opportunity at least gave him another PPV match, even if the result was made obvious by the two men being separated via the Draft (noticing a pattern here?).

This bout was okay; nothing special, nothing offensive, but ultimately nothing too memorable. Rusev dominated the early going, with Ryder fighting back and strangely electing not to pin Rusev after a Rough Ryder, instead looking to confirm a victory with an Elbro Drop (that's the name for his top rope elbow; seriously, bro). But Rusev avoided this big finisher and clamped on the Accolade which, after an unsuccessful attempt by Zack to break the hold, earned the big man the submission victory. Rusev continued the beating afterwards, until Ryder's Hype Bros tag team partner on NXT, the called-up Mojo Rawley, ran out to defend his friend, with a bemused Rusev walking away. It filled air time, I guess, and it both continued Rusev's winning ways and gave an official debut on the main roster to Mojo, but this was definitely a match that lost a lot of steam due to the results of the Draft (namely, that they pretty much gave away the result here).

One match which wasn't hindered by the Draft was Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens; both were selected for Raw and thus weren't separated, which ironically flew in the face of expectations. However, this was still hyped as being the feud-deciding match between Zayn and Owens, who originally feuded for a lengthy period in Ring Of Honor in 2009-10 (when both were El Generico and Kevin Steen respectively), then on NXT in 2014-5, and finally on the main roster for most of the year so far. They had a terrific match at Payback, some great exchanges in multi-man battles at other points and stole the show in ROH and NXT matches in the past. Therefore, expectations were high for this, supposedly-final Sami-Kevin scrap.

To be honest, I found the first half of this match to be just alright; the action was watchable, but whether it was due to the slower pace, the less exciting offence than we saw at Payback or the crowd being a little switched off for the first few minutes, this match threatened to feel like a bit of an anticlimax. That was, until Zayn nearly crippled himself with a dangerous-looking fall off an attempted sitdown moonsault to Owens off the top rope to the floor. This increased the realism of the match, as Owens targeted Zayn's shoulder in typically violent fashion, and if Zayn wasn't legitimately hurt, then he did a damn good job of making people believe that he was through his selling and constant holding of his right arm. The match really went into turbo-drive when Zayn hit Owens with a jaw-dropping brainbuster on the ring apron, by which point the fans were now fully invested. Plenty of big moves followed, from a Blue Thunder Bomb by Zayn to a triple sequence by Owens that saw him avoid a through-the-posts ringside DDT by Zayn with a superkick, followed by a Cannonball and a huge Frog Splash. Zayn survived a Pop-Up Powerbomb when his foot just about touched the bottom rope, and Owens was drilled with two consecutive Exploder Suplexes (I thought KO had reversed the first one, but he hadn't; he just no-sold it, if we're being honest). This led to the finish, where Zayn whacked KO with a Helluva Kick, and in a moment reminiscent of a fight scene at the end of a movie, Sami chose to hit one more killer blow over ending the match with a second Helluva Kick for the pinfall win.

Fans were ecstatic, and the match was undoubtedly a great one. I'm not sure if it was a Match Of The Year contender, as some have said, due to the uneventful first half; but the second half was as good as it gets, and if this did indeed bring the Owens-Zayn feud to a conclusion, then the rivalry couldn't have ended any better. I personally suspect that the two will clash again in future, possibly after forming a team based on mutual respect (Owens is surely going to turn babyface at some point; the fans love him too much for this not to happen). So, KO and Sami are probably destined to "fight forever", as the fans chanted, but while their hostilities are placed on hold, they can savour the fact that their latest feud ended with a thoroughly enjoyable and dramatic match that pretty much stole the show.

Due to the excitement of Sami vs. Owens, the crowd seemed worn out for the next match, pitting Becky Lynch against Natalya (set up by Natalya turning heel on Lynch at Money In The Bank). They put on a good technical wrestling match, but the reactions were low enough to bring down the overall quality of the bout. Becky got a good reaction when she trapped Nattie in the Sharpshooter, but her Canadian adversary turned the tables and trapped Becky in the Sharpshooter, giving her the surprise clean heel win.

With both women on SmackDown, their feud is likely to continue. For Becky, though, her defeat here doesn't bode very well; she's likely to be pushed as the top female on Tuesday nights, but losing this match suggests that WWE is unlikely to be fully behind her. Natalya's fortunes seem brighter after this surprise win, although Becky aside, there aren't a lot of babyface females on SmackDown (Carmella, maybe?) for her to tangle with. Hurting both women the most, though, is the fact that the Women's Championship now resides with Raw, so unless the Women's Champion is going to roam between the brands, it could be a very long time before either lady even enters a title chase, let alone win a championship themselves.

The Miz defending the Intercontinental Title against Darren Young seemed like an odd meeting beforehand; despite Bob Backlund's campaign to make Young great again (was he ever great in the first place?), being fast-tracked into a title bout on PPV actually reduced his chances of getting over, if anything. That the two men were separated from each other via the Draft also meant that a title change was unlikely. And a pretty poorly-written and poorly-executed finish capped off an entirely uneventful match, which saw Battleground hit its low point for the evening.

To recap the conclusion: Bob Backlund and Maryse argued at ringside. Maryse slapped Backlund. Backlund fell down, and then Maryse went down, intimating that Bob had hit her. Then Bob tried to remove his shirt, but because he had braces on, this was a challenging task to pull off, leaving him looking absolutely ridiculous. In the meantime, Miz confronted Backlund at ringside, followed by Young, and the two men brawled as the referee counted them both out. And finally, Darren locked Miz in the Crossface Chicken Wing. So, the match had no winner, Miz was left laying, and Young didn't win the title; and, due to the Draft, there will not be a rematch. What the hell was the point of all that?

After a match where the crowd was largely unresponsive and a bout which was pretty awful, if we're being honest, the show took a step in the right direction again with a six-man tag team match, pitting John Cena, Enzo Amore and Big Cass against The Club. That Cena and AJ Styles would continue their feud in a multi-man match, and that both squads were split up by the Draft (if you class Cena and the Enzo/Cass team as a squad), made this match and the show as a whole feel second-rate. Still, Enzo opened proceedings with another unique and humorous promo, which the crowd simply loved. Enzo and Cass can do no wrong right now; it remains to be seen if their popularity will be matched by a push (a New Day vs. Enzo and Cass bout for the Tag Team Titles at SummerSlam would be a good starting point).

And this match was worth watching too. It dragged on a little bit, but it was a good effort by all. The Club dominated much of the contest with Enzo being the babyface in peril; at one point, Karl Anderson hit a sweet dropkick on Enzo to prevent him making the tag. He did tag out to Cass and later Cena, who took control of the match in his usual way (I believe the internet sarcastically call it "the Five Moves Of Doom"; or four, since he didn't hit the Attitude Adjustment right away, which he never does now that I think about it). I assumed going in that The Club would win, but no: after some back-and-forth exchanges, including a Styles Clash on Cena with Enzo breaking up the fall and Amore dropping Karl with a flying DDT at ringside, Cena claimed the win with a middle-rope AA to AJ. Cena vs. AJ will continue on SmackDown, with a probable rematch at SummerSlam forthcoming, although it remains to be seen as to what Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson will fare on separate brands to Styles. Might they recruit Finn Balor, the original Bullet Club leader in New Japan who has been promoted to Raw?

Before the main event, we had the return of Randy Orton on a Highlight Reel segment with Chris Jericho. The two went back and forth in pretty hilarious fashion, although the best comment came from Orton when he threw a barb at SummerSlam opponent Brock Lesnar, suggesting that he can beat Brock, "no enhancements needed" (in a sly yet possibly counter-productive reference to Lesnar failing a doping test prior to his UFC 200 fight with Mark Hunt). Unsurprisingly, the segment ended with Orton levelling Jericho with an RKO, as the Viper returned and officially set his sights on Lesnar ahead of SummerSlam. That both men were separated by the Draft (this is getting repetitive now) will make the promotion of their match a struggle, but it's bound to be a great showdown when they battle for the first time since 2002.

And so we come to the headline attraction: the long-awaited Triple Threat meeting of the three Shield members, as Dean Ambrose defended the WWE Title (that title's name has been shortened in recent weeks, presumably due to the potential fallout of the Draft) against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, who was returning off a suspension due to a Wellness Policy violation. It took a bit of time to really get going, but this soon turned into a very good main event, with a plethora of back-and-forth moves, fast-paced exchanged and double-team combos. At one point, Ambrose and Rollins - sworn enemies since Seth broke the Shield up in 2014 - teamed up to drill Roman through an announcer's table via a double powerbomb, which Seth followed with a chairshot to Ambrose (in a nice nod to Rollins' chair-assisted betrayal of his Shield "brothers").

From there, the big moves kept coming thick and fast. I loved one sequence where Rollins caught Ambrose with a reverse kick to the temple, which Roman followed with a Superman Punch to Seth, only for Dean to rebound off the ropes and clothesline Reigns (the rebound clothesline, which Ambrose now pulls out in every match thus reducing its impact, had a vital role here). With both Commissioners (Shane McMahon and Stephanie McMahon) and both General Managers (Daniel Bryan and Mick Foley) stationed at ringside, a potentially murky finish seemed likely, but it wasn't to be: after Roman was drilled with a Pedigree and a turnbuckle powerbomb by Rollins, Seth was levelled with a Spear, only for Ambrose to drag Reigns up and nail him with Dirty Deeds for the pinfall win. Dean's victory was met with a huge pop, which was expected given that the hated Reigns was defeated, as was his post-match celebration alongside the SmackDown roster (during which The Usos celebrated with Dean despite him defeating their cousin).

I was fully expecting Ambrose to lose the WWE Title here, so that Rollins or Reigns could take the gold to Raw in light of - yes! - the Draft. That Dean won was a nice surprise, and that he won cleanly was even better. As of right now, Ambrose is not only WWE Champion, but with John Cena's schedule reduced going forward, he is arguably the top man in the entire company right now. Beating Rollins clean on SmackDown prior to this, and the extended celebration here, seems to crown him as the new face of WWE, something that was unimaginable even six weeks ago.

Meanwhile, it marked a turning point for Roman Reigns. Having been pushed as the new top dog in WWE for so long despite the crowd simply not accepting him in that role, and with a suspension damaging his prospects even further, Reigns returning to lose cleanly here suggests that his big push is over, at least in its current form. The best thing that WWE can do right now is to turn Reigns heel, and while WWE has been reluctant to do so, the booking here suggests that this could happen; if Roman is to remain a top babyface, why have him lose cleanly again here? I predict and hope that Reigns snaps in the face of fan negativity and his own shortcomings, in a kayfabe sense (due to match results) and in reality (the suspension) and goes full-on heel, turning the more likeable Rollins babyface in the process. It will be very intriguing to see what happens and how WWE moves forward with all three (perhaps Ambrose is the one to really keep an eye on; after all, who on SmackDown could he realistically defend the WWE Title against at SummerSlam if Orton, Cena and Styles are booked up?).

So, for a show that had a B-show line-up (besides its main event), and which was hampered further by the Draft, Battleground was pretty damn good. Zayn vs. Owens slowly turned into an awesome match, the main event was very good, and there were big crowd-pleasing moments, namely Bayley's appearance and Ambrose retaining the WWE Title. It wasn't flawless by any means, but it was far better than anticipated beforehand, and hopefully WWE will continue to deliver strong PPV events going forward as a(nother) New Era commences, thanks to - one more time - the Draft.

Overall Rating: 8/10 - Very Good

WWE Money In The Bank 2016

Image Source:
Champions Of The Champions

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: June 19 2016
Location: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Attendance: 14,000

In the run-up to the latest supershow, WWE was hyping it as "the greatest Money In The Bank PPV ever". The card certainly looked promising beforehand, with two potentially great singles matches and the annual MITB Ladder war. But, like with the "New Era" talk, it was WWE overdoing the self-promotion rather than letting the fans decide (it hadn't even happened when WWE was stating this about the card). As things transpired, it was definitely a night to remember as the main matches lived up to the hype, and there was a major development to end the show - but was it truly the best MITB to date?

On the Kick-Off show, we had two matches on this occasion, both of which were tag team matches (incidentally, Jerry Lawler was absent from the pre-show due to a suspension brought about by problems at home). The first pitted Breezango against The Golden Truth. Goldust and R-Truth have had a very slow build to the formation of their comedy tag team, and once they did form, they have lost multiple times to the new combo of Tyler Breeze and Fandango. But Breezango were at a big disadvantage here because, the previous Monday, they had been sharing a sunbed at the same time (which was funny in itself) and GT turned up the heat quite literally, resulting in them supposedly being near-burned to a crisp. This made them look ridiculous (think Rodney Trotter in the hang-gliding episode of Only Fools and Horses), and made even their slightest movements painful for the heels to absorb. Admittedly, this did raise a few laughs before Goldust finished off Fandango with the Final Cut (or whatever Goldust calls his finisher these days) to finally get a win for The Golden Truth.

The other pre-show match saw The Dudley Boyz battle The Lucha Dragons. This was more serious than the previous clash, and it followed the usual structure (as most doubles bouts do, to be fair) of the heels dominating and wearing down an isolated babyface before his partner gets the inevitable tag to try and turn things around. That's exactly what happened, and cue some decent double-team spots towards the end. An inadvertent clash between D-Von and Bubba Ray was followed by the Luchas avoiding the 3D and taking D-Von out to the floor, before Bubba tasted a Salida Del Sol from Kalisto and a Senton Bomb from Sin Cara, with Cara pinning Bubba for the victory. Something tells me that the seemingly-subtle miscommunication between The Dudleyz could lead to a split and Bubba going on a solo heel run, especially with the Draft approaching. Besides, the Dudleyz have lost to just about everyone now.

Oh, yes: the Draft. Since Extreme Rules, a new brand extension has officially been announced, and is set to begin from mid-July. Therefore, this PPV would be the last before the latest big split. This will have major implications on WWE, from the call-ups of more NXT talent to the re-signings of previous stars to the addition of more PPV events to the possibility of re-introducing a second World Title (which I believe would be a mistake). I will do a story in the next few weeks which will include a mock Draft for the Raw and SmackDown rosters, but in the meantime Money In The Bank would be the final major card before things will be shaken up. Incidentally, neither of the two probable General Managers, current Raw head honchos Shane and Stephanie McMahon, appeared at any point during Money In The Bank.

MITB officially began with a four-team match for the WWE Tag Team Titles, as The New Day defended against Enzo Amore and Big Cass, The Vaudevillains and The Club combo of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. The pre-match scenes featured some choice banter from New Day, and some, well, less entertaining dialogue from Enzo and Cass. This may not be a popular opinion, but I think that Enzo and Cass, while they do provide some witty one-liners, are not quite as funny as fans are making them out to be. Unlike New Day, whose daft comedy at least has some sort of thread to it, and is usually pretty humorous, Enzo and Cass (Enzo primarily) will often be talking about something totally unrelated and, in my case anyway, totally loses the viewer. I'm not saying that the recent NXT call-ups are never funny, because they do come out with some funny stuff here and there, and I appreciate teams who come out with funny lines when they actually are funny, but I suspect that if Enzo and Cass hadn't come directly from NXT, fewer fans would enjoy their act. I also predict that at some point within the next 12 months, the team will be split up with Cass going solo and pushed towards the main event level ... at which point some fans will begin to turn on him (more on that later).

Anyway, this opening contest for Money In The Bank was a really good multi-man affair. All of the teams got a chance to shine in their own way, from the slow, methodical approach of Aiden English and Simon Gotch to the powerful domination by Gallows and Anderson to the more flashy offence by the babyface teams, including a Cass-assisted dive to the floor by Enzo. The match unfortunately had several noticeable botches towards the end, in what would become a theme of the show: Kofi Kingston barely caught Enzo with Trouble In Paradise, and their reactions made it obvious that an error had occurred. Enzo seemed to have Aiden pinned for the win following his big splash, but it was the referee's initial drop to the canvas that seemed to suggest a first count (thus making people believe this ended up getting a three-count) as opposed to there being a true botch here. More notably, after the Magic Killer by the Club seemed to finish English off, Big E grabbed Anderson for the Big Ending, but Gallows strangely didn't react, and somehow ended up on the opposite side of the ring where Cass clotheslined him to the floor, after which the New Day levelled Anderson and Big E pinned Aiden for the win. Besides the clear botches towards the end, this was a strong opening, and it had the right outcome with New Day holding onto the straps for now, and with the Club and Enzo and Cass protected from tasting the losing fall. I foresee The Club vs. The New Day at Battleground as Enzo and Cass continue to build momentum, which could lead to the NXT graduates getting their big moment at SummerSlam.

After a brilliant backstage segment involving Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho which had several laugh-out moments, we had the latest match in the series between Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler (whose attire paid tribute to Shawn Michaels circa SummerSlam 1995, as much of Ziggler's act does these days). This suffered from the fact that the feud had entered overkill. The NXT call-up Corbin targeted Ziggler the night after WrestleMania 32, yet it was Ziggler who won their Payback Kick-Off scrap. Baron won a Raw rematch, and would win another bout (under No Disqualification rules) on the Extreme Rules Kick-Off. That should have drawn a line under the feud, but after Ziggler demanded a technical wrestling match on Raw, which ended quickly after a deliberate Dolph low blow, we ended up getting another Baron-Dolph match here (which incidentally was originally scheduled to be on the Kick-Off show once more along with the later Apollo Crews vs. Sheamus match, but the line-up was switched to include the earlier two tag bouts).

This was a competent effort, but being the fifth proper match between the two on television (six if you include the very brief "technical" match from Raw), nobody was interested. This was embodied by the "Boring!" chants during the bout, and a certain section even chanted "Ziggler sucks!" Dolph's character is staler than a gone-off loaf of Warburton's right now, and Corbin doesn't have enough charisma to draw fans into matches at this point. Matters weren't helped when Ziggler stumbled over the steel stairs (another botch) prior to taking a painful-looking Deep Six slam on the floor at ringside. They did have a nice exchange where Corbin threw Ziggler off of a Famouser attempt, followed by Baron then avoiding a superkick to drill Dolph with an almighty clothesline. Baron eventually won it with the End Of Days. This simply has to be the end of the rivalry now, as Corbin could move onto another popular babyface (perhaps Cesaro or fellow newcomer Apollo Crews). For Ziggler, a heel turn and a character change is a must, which could coincide with next month's Draft to have increased impact.

Match three was another tag team match, as Women's Champion Charlotte and her new partner-in-crime Dana Brooke battled Natalya and Becky Lynch, stemming from their shenanigans involving the first three at Extreme Rules (Becky has since sided with Natalya). Fans annoyingly began chanting "We want Sasha!" within seconds of the bell ringing, although to be fair there was no real reason to care about this match. Sure, Charlotte is progressing as a hateable heel character (she kicked Ric Flair to the curb the night after the last PPV), but Dana is too inexperienced and too little is known about her for fans to really care. Add to that the lack of belief that Natalya will actually dethrone Charlotte and the fact that we've already seen the Charlotte-Becky feud at the turn of the year, and you have a match which largely existed to fill time. The action was also fairly unmemorable; this should have taken place on Raw with a Fatal Four Way happening here instead. After a Natalya/Becky collision instigated by the heels, Natalya took the fall to give another boost for the heels (which was slightly surprising, since hints have already been dropped that the Charlotte/Dana alliance won't last long). Nattie burst into tears afterwards, which is never good for a babyface in the modern age.

So, it was a nice twist when Natalya unexpectedly turned heel on Becky afterwards with a sudden attack, seemingly blaming her for the loss. This freshens up Natalya's act and should lead to Becky vs. Natalya over the coming weeks. In the meantime, Charlotte and Dana will probably have a (premature) fall-out based on Dana occasionally bungling in her attempts to assist the increasingly-arrogant Charlotte and a likely Women's Title match at Battleground, before a bigger Women's Title match at SummerSlam (could this be the night when Sasha Banks finally wins the big prize?). As some have pointed out, the Women's scene hasn't exactly been flourishing lately, ever since the disappointing title match at Extreme Rules. Hopefully, the division will pick up over the next few weeks, because most of the pieces are in place; WWE just needs to make sure that the right women are in the right positions, and given plenty of time to make magic as some of them did previously in NXT. The division is stronger now than it was a year ago, but more needs to be done if the ladies are to truly thrive.

Apollo Crews' biggest match to date was next when he battled Sheamus (actually, this was also his PPV debut). Unlike Corbin vs. Ziggler, which was past the point of being fresh, this was a new bout, and consequently this match was a more interesting prospect than Baron vs. Dolph. It was a pretty good big-man match with several unique moves that you wouldn't normally see from men of their size, such as a cool-looking moonsault from Crews off the ring apron onto a grounded Sheamus at ringside, and the Celtic Warrior hitting White Noise off the ropes to his younger opponent. The theme of this match was that Apollo represents the "New Era", which Sheamus is against since it essentially tries to portray him as a thing of the past. Nevertheless, this would be the newcomer's night, as he withstood the ropes-assisted White Noise and rolled up the Irishman for the win to a strong reaction.

Apollo's future looks bright, especially now that he has added a bit more aggression to his game. With further character development and a chance to display more of his surprisingly-agile repertoire, Apollo could be a major player, especially after the Draft when he will probably receive more opportunities on television. It's possible that his feud with Sheamus will continue as they demonstrated some good chemistry here. Sheamus' future looks less certain; he will remain a featured heel on whatever show he ends up on, but the chances of him reclaiming a spot in the main event scene over the next six months seem very low. He's still a very accomplished wrestler, though, and this was a strong effort by both, which succeeded at making Apollo look like one to watch in the future.

We then had what WWE was hyping up as a "dream match" between John Cena and AJ Styles. While I don't recall many fans in the mid-2000s wondering what would happen if Cena ever fought Styles, it did nevertheless sound like a very intriguing prospect, as the biggest WWE star of the post-Attitude Era and the longtime face of TNA and other promotions would be going one-on-one for the first time. The story was that AJ wanted to make an impact by targeting Cena upon his return, turning heel in the process, but in order to do so and to avoided being "buried" by Cena (was he being too honest with this?), he needed help from The Club. But Cena challenged AJ's courage to the point where Styles signed on for a match whereby Gallows and Anderson would be banned from ringside - supposedly, anyway.

The crowd was well into it as the bell rang with both men receiving loud chants, providing that big-fight feel to this first-time clash (no pun intended). The match started a bit slow as Styles took his time, essentially making Cena wait and trying to frustrate the 15-time (or 14-time depending on your opinion) World Champion. From there, some nice back-and-forth exchanges eventually led to AJ taking control of the bout, demonstrating his versatility in the process as his offence in this match differed greatly from his babyface performances earlier this year. Cena would fight back and lock AJ in an STF, which Styles broke free from. Another botch led to AJ landing awkwardly on the ropes, which was followed by Cena very loudly asking Styles if he was okay (which was nice of him to enquire about, but couldn't he have done so quieter?) and blatantly calling spots, which took me out of the moment for a while. A Five-Knuckle Suffle by Cena also went badly, as the announcers even pointed out. Fortunately, things picked up from there as there were many big moves, from an Attitude Adjustment to a Phenomenal Forearm to ringside to a great exchange that led to the Calf Crusher (which was triggered by an AA attempt) to a Styles Clash. The action was all of a high standard, living up the expectations, if not quite matching the classic Cena-CM Punk match from MITB five years prior.

Following a painful-looking Cena double-knee counter to an AJ 450 Splash, There was a ref bump as Cena hit a second AA, at which point Gallows and Anderson ran out despite the match stipulation (the ref was down, remember) and dropped Cena with the Magic Killer, allowing AJ to pin Cena for the win. Many were annoyed that Styles didn't win cleanly, but come on; he's a heel. I know that Kevin Owens and Brock Lesnar have pinned Cena clean in recent times, but if Styles (who gets cheered despite his heel status as it is) pins Cena clean-as-a-whistle, then he loses heel heat because, well, why would you boo him if he can get the job done anyway? This finish, while recycled and a bit cheap, does extend the Cena-Styles feud until Battleground at least. There still needs to be something else before then to really give Cena a reason to keep fighting (Cena's dad could be brought in once again to take a beating or something), and if AJ eked out a win at Battleground (even if it were by DQ after Cena perhaps gets frustrated), it could lead to a major grudge match at SummerSlam where Cena wins the feud (which he will). Regardless, this was a really good match, just a notch below true "Match Of The Year" status, and hopefully we'll get an even better bout when the two meet again.

After that, we got this year's Money In The Bank Ladder match, which also had the potential to be a great one. The 2016 cast consisted of Dean Ambrose, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Chris Jericho and Alberto Del Rio (WWE initially stated that there would be seven entrants, but for some reason this was changed; an oversight on This Week In WWE gave away that Kalisto was supposed to be the final entrant). Of the six, only Y2J and ADR truly would not need the win (although Jericho has had a strong few months, meaning a victory here could be justified), but based on momentum and popularity, the favourites had to be Ambrose and Owens. If Ambrose won, there would be the potential for a third Shield member to win the WWE Title (more on that later), and fans have been clamouring for Ambrose to win the big one for a long time. As for Owens, his heel character is tremendous, combined with his strong in-ring skills, and having KO carrying around the case and performing a villainous cash-in to win the top title would be a treat to see.

The entrants paired off for separate brawls to kick off the match, which soon lent itself to the ladders being used as weapons (Del Rio whacked Ambrose hard with one of the ladders at ringside). There were several non-ladder dives, most notably a Sami Zayn senton onto his opponents at ringside, and a non-stunt as Owens set up a ringside ladder cannonball for Zayn, only to skip the jump and smack Sami in simple fashion. From there, the ladders were suitably introduced, and we got a plethora of great spots. They included ADR (who had his best performance in months here, perhaps since his return at Hell In A Cell) trapping Cesaro at the top of a ladder with the Cross-Armbreaker (which ended with Owens superkicking an upside-down Del Rio, and Cesaro leaping off the ladder to use the ropes for a springboard uppercut to KO in a fantastic triple spot sequence), Cesaro being sent face-first into a ladder by KO after drilling most of his opposition with consecutive uppercuts, Zayn nailing Owens with an extremely painful-looking Michinoku Driver that saw KO land spine-first onto a leg of a grounded ladder, KO powerbombing Sami hard onto another ladder, Ambrose hurling himself off the top of a ladder to hit a standing elbow drop, and Y2J pulling Ambrose off a ladder to catch him with a Codebreaker. An extended brawl which saw two ladder bridges created using a standing ladder took a bit too long, although it did feature the visual of three brawls all going on at once with the prize dangling inches from all six. During this sequence, Del Rio took a hellish fall which almost saw him break his neck; it's possible that he was injured in this spot, but if that's true, the extent of his pain remains to be seen. In the end, Ambrose fought Owens off this ladder tower and took that final step up to unhook the MITB briefcase to a great reaction; Ambrose was Mr. Money In The Bank 2016!

I would normally speculate on when/where Ambrose could cash in, but you'll soon find out why that would be a pointless exercise. At this stage, I'll simply say that Ambrose more than deserved his big moment after so many near-misses. What did bother me was how many fans who were rooting for Ambrose to win the WWE Title at Survivor Series last November, the Royal Rumble in January and the Number One Contender's main event from Fast Lane suddenly weren't happy at Ambrose winning here, insisting that he wasn't the best choice. This acts as concrete evidence that some fans will never, ever be satisfied. If you're not an Ambrose fan, that's fine. If you wanted, say, Kevin Owens to win, that's fine. But if you were strongly backing someone to succeed and, when he does, you express displeasure, then there's something wrong. It's no wonder that WWE does not cater to many of the "boo" brigade and has persevered with Roman Reigns' push. Or, at least, it did ... but more on that shortly.

At this point, we were already down to what would normally be the final 30 minutes of the PPV. But rumour had it that WWE planned to take Money In The Bank beyond the three-hour point, and this was confirmed when we got (the admittedly-already announced) Rusev vs. Titus O'Neil match for the United States Title. Titus won a Father Of The Year award, so having his kids at ringside on Father's Day was a nice touch (many alleged that Titus actually kissed one of his kids on the lips before the match, and were baffled as a result, but I don't recall seeing this). The match began unusually as both big men clashed with a double clothesline at ringside, almost leading to an early double-countout. From there, the action was decent, but it was clearly the cool-down match, and fans seemed a bit tired after watching Cena vs. Styles and MITB consecutively. Rusev won by submission with the Accolade, and continued his recovery as a major heel by standing in front of Titus' kids and telling them their father is a loser, and shouting "Happy Father's Day!" Great heel move there.

Titus could get a rematch on Raw, but another PPV encounter seems unlikely after the submission victory for the Bulgarian Brute here. It could be the Draft that determines Rusev's next opponent in the event that it is an NXT call-up or even a former star (WWE is apparently reaching out to many past names about returning in time for the brand extension). Apollo Crews, Sami Zayn or Cesaro are also contenders to challenge Rusev next for the title. One thing is for sure, the heavily-rumoured Rusev vs. John Cena feud revival doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon, which is probably a good thing. Incidentally, remember when Rusev was dominating everybody in 2014 and commentators and wrestlers alike wanted to stop his anti-US brigade? And have you noticed that nobody has similar intentions during Rusev's current reign? There's a simple explanation: that storyline no longer applies to Rusev.

Finally, we have the main event between Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Title. Rollins returned from injury at the end of Extreme Rules to Pedigree Reigns, leading to this match announcement. Though some were disappointed by the build-up for this match, it still had the potential to be a really good headline attraction, and there was obvious appeal in seeing Rollins return and to see the former Shield members clash. This match was meant to happen at two previous PPV events, at Night Of Champions 2014 and Survivor Series 2015, but injuries to Roman and Seth respectively prevented each bout from happening. This also marked the third (of three) different possible combination of Shield members in a singles main event, following Rollins vs. Ambrose matches in 2014/5 and Reigns vs. Ambrose (coincidentally at the aforementioned Survivor Series). And this wouldn't be the last Shield link to this show ...

The match started a bit slowly, although Reigns soon took the upper hand and began acting ever-so-slightly heelish (oh, by the way, yes he was booed again here) with some condescending comments to Seth as he was beating him down. Rollins would fight back with a tope and later a senton to ringside, but Reigns brought the fight himself with a range of major power moves. More villain-like taunting from Roman was followed by Rollins fighting furiously out of the corner in the manner of a babyface, and to no surprise this was another moment in the match when the fans were almost fully behind Seth. Seth attempted the sunset flip from the top rope that led to Seth's previous injury, but fortunately there was no problem here as he picked up Roman and sent him flying with a turnbuckle powerbomb (Roman took a second turnbuckle powerbomb later on). The big moves came from there as Rollins drilled Reigns with a flying knee, Roman caught Seth with a Superman Punch, Roman Speared Rollins for a close near-fall, a ringside Spear attempt was missed as Seth moved and Roman hit the ringside barrier hard, and in the move of the match, Rollins intercepted a Spear attempt into a Pedigree for something very close to a three-count. But Rollins would rally, and he responded with another Pedigree for a clean-as-a-sheet pinfall win to regain the WWE World Heavyweight Title to a rapturous ovation. The Roman Empire had been vanquished, and Rollins - who had never lost the WWE Title prior to his November 2015 injury - was back on top. That Reigns lost, and was pinned cleanly, was a big surprise, but there was more to come.

Dean Ambrose's music hit, as fans realised that a MITB cash-in was about to occur. Rollins looked towards the aisle for the arriving Ambrose, but the Lunatic Fringe came from behind to whack Rollins with the briefcase. Cue the usual histrionics as the bonus match was officially announced, and Ambrose planted Rollins with Dirty Deeds to pin him and win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship! Fans were positively giddy that Ambrose, for so long the nearly-man, was now the man. Some fans complained online, but I covered that earlier. Regardless, it was a huge moment, which would have had more impact had it not been telegraphed in the Ambrose Asylum segment the previous Monday on Raw. Nevertheless, Ambrose had finally won the big one, meaning that all three Shield members have won been WWE Champion, which has to make that group one of the greatest factions in wrestling history. More impressively, the chain of events here meant that on the same night (and within minutes of each other), all three Shield members had been the WWE Champion. (It's also fitting that Rollins, who won his first WWE Title by cashing in MITB, lost the title here via a cash-in.) In addition, Ambrose became only the second man (after Kane in 2010) to cash in MITB on the same night that he won it.

It was a great end to a very impressive show, which also sets up some intriguing future storylines. As well as the continuation of the John Cena-AJ Styles rivalry, and the main event shenanigans seem to hint at the long-awaited Triple Threat match between all three Shield members for the WWE Title. It should be saved until SummerSlam (it's clearly happening this summer, so WrestleMania is out of the question), since it would be a major main event for the biggest event of the season, but it's possible that we get it at Battleground (which is the next PPV) and one of the members ends up in another match at SummerSlam (if, say, Reigns ended up facing Brock Lesnar again and we got Ambrose vs. Rollins for the gold at SummerSlam). More intrigue comes from the possibility of who will play babyface and heel in the three-way saga. They could all stay in their current roles, and Ambrose will probably remain a face (if he was turning heel, he would have cashed in on Reigns), but it's possible that Rollins will go face. If so, that necessitates someone turning heel, and after his mannerisms during the match and his clean loss, it is very possible that Roman Reigns could finally turn heel. He could be frustrated that his title has not only disappeared from his ownership, but that his "little buddy" now holds the title. Imagine the heel heat if Reigns destroys Ambrose in reaction to the events of MITB, and a similar beating to Rollins could turn Seth face. It might even happen as soon as the post-MITB edition of Raw. It's possible that none of this will occur and that Reigns will regain the title as an unpopular babyface, but if that is the case, then the booking of Roman here was questionable to say the least. Let's hope for the best, eh?

To answer the question I posed at the beginning, this wasn't quite the best Money In The Bank card ever (that would be 2011), but it was a close second, and the best PPV of the year so far from an in-ring standpoint. The triple main event all delivered as promised, and the major developments at the end were very welcome (to most) and set up an eagerly-anticipated rivalry for the summer months. Besides Cena vs. AJ, the rest of the WWE landscape is harder to predict due to the upcoming brand extension, which will have taken place by the time of the next supershow, Battleground. I will write my predicted Draft within the next few weeks, and the split will change WWE in many ways. Before then, though, we got a great Money In The Bank event, and for Dean Ambrose, it was the biggest night of his career. Hopefully, it is the first step towards a very eventful and memorable summer season in WWE.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10 - Excellent

WWE Extreme Rules 2013

Image Source: Youtube

Written By: Mark Armstrong

Genre: Wrestling
Produced By: WWE
Format: Pay-Per-View
Date: May 19 2013
Location: Scottrade Center, St Louis, Missouri, USA
Attendance: 14,500

The first PPV after WrestleMania 29 had a pretty big line-up, in keeping with the gimmick theme of the show. There were star-studded speciality matches all across the card, culminating in what seemed (and hopefully was) to be the final chapter in the Triple H-Brock Lesnar feud. But would things get as extreme as they did last year when Lesnar busted John Cena open hard on multiple occasions?

After a pre-show bout which saw The Miz defeat Cody Rhodes, Extreme Rules opened with Chris Jericho vs. Fandango. This was a WrestleMania rematch, and since Mania, Fandango's popularity - or rather, popularity of his entrance music - has exploded due to a rowdy New Jersey crowd chanting it loud and proud, albeit completely tongue in cheek, the night after WM. His status boost didn't affect the result here, though: after some decent back-and-forth exchanges, Fandango (who was wearing some nice-looking yet still very strange multi-coloured attire) was vanquished by Jericho via a Codebreaker, which reversed an attempted flying attack by the ballroom dancer.

Normally, you like to see the younger guy come out on top in a feud. However, despite his recent popularity, Fandango's gimmick is so ridiculous and his ring skills are so run-of-the-mill in most departments that it felt like Y2J demeaned himself losing to the ballroom dancer at WrestleMania. Therefore, it was entirely logical that Jericho won this rematch, although it's possible that these two may have a rubber match where the result could potentially be reversed.

Next up, we had Dean Ambrose challenging Kofi Kingston for the United States Title. Kofi only won the championship a few weeks back from Antonio Cesaro, but Kofi's star seems to have peaked in WWE, whereas the fairly new Shield member's star is on the rise (he and his Shield brethren took out The Undertaker on the London edition of SmackDown after Taker beat Ambrose). Therefore, after a solid and at times impressive, yet still fairly short match, it wasn't exactly a surprise to see a new champion crowned, and this came to pass when Ambrose dropped Kingston with a Headlock Driver to become the new United States Champion.

As alluded to, it made sense that Ambrose would capture the gold here, since it wasn't going to advance Kingston's career any more than the belt had done in the past. In Ambrose's hands, the title could make a difference, and this title win adds to the momentum that The Shield has picked up since their first appearance together at Survivor Series 2012. Even more was to come for the group later in the evening, as it turned out. That made two fairly good matches out of two so far for Extreme Rules.

That mini-streak was unlikely to continue, though, with the next bout pitting Sheamus against Mark Henry under Strap rules. I've never been a big fan of Henry, and this was a rerun of a rivalry which hit a minor peak in the summer of 2011, making a rematch unnecessary here. That being said, it wasn't too bad, or should I say it was no worse than expected. Henry laid in the leather strap shots hard on the back of Sheamus (or maybe it just seems that way on Sheamus' milky-white back), and the Celtic Warrior attempted several comebacks to a good response. The match followed the usual structure of both men taking it in turns to try and hit all four corners with the strap, with the other man always cutting them off at the last moment. It all came down to a Brogue Kick, as Sheamus used his preferred physical weapon to down Henry and make it to the fourth corner to come out on top.

I was glad to see Sheamus win cleanly here, for two reasons: firstly, it ends this feud at one big match, which was all that was needed in this rehash of their 2011 conflict; and secondly, it means there's even less chance of WWE once again pushing Mark Henry as a top heel, after giving us a scare with his push so far this year (this result did make me wonder why WWE bothered booking Henry to beat Ryback at WrestleMania, especially with Ryback challenging for the WWE Championship later on). Match quality overall was alright, to be fair.

A backstage scrap between Kaitlyn and AJ Lee happened next, in place of the Divas Title bout which I assumed would be held on this card after AJ recently became the number one contender to Kaitlyn's prize. Speaking of that honour, the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship was about to be determined when Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger battled in an I Quit match. This wasn't meant to happen; the original plan was for a 3-way Ladder match alongside WHC holder Dolph Ziggler, who cashed his Money In The Bank briefcase in on Del Rio the night after WrestleMania to an incredible reaction. But that went up in smoke when Ziggler suffered a concussion a few weeks later on SmackDown, so with Dolph on the shelf, we would instead get a match to determine a sole contender to his crown.

Similar to their match at WrestleMania, this was well-executed but lacking in any real crowd heat, partly because neither man possesses the dynamic charisma which would be required to make matches like this feel like anything more than average. The key moment here was when Swagger trapped Del Rio in the Patriot Lock (formally the ankle lock) and Zeb Colter, having attacked Ricardo Rodriguez at ringside, threw in a towel to signify ADR quitting. But the referee saw through the hijinks and restarted the match to a surprisingly big cheer, and Del Rio went on to win when he made Swagger quit (well, submit) to the Cross-Armbreaker.

Since Ziggler remains a heel, the logical result was for Del Rio to win. And with this I Quit match, WWE tried to make the most of a bad situation. The downside was that the action was still only solid, and even with the hijinks surrounding the finish, neither combatant could provide anything to make this more than just another match. Hopefully Dolph's charisma and outstanding wrestling ability will make the difference to this three-way rivalry upon his return.

Kane and Daniel Bryan defended their WWE Tag Team Titles against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns under Tornado rules (I meant to say that the earlier Kofi vs. Ambrose match was fought under regular rules). This allowed essentially for two matches to take place at the same time, and the pairings made sense as the big men (Kane and Reigns) concentrated on one another with power moves whilst the smaller athletes (Bryan and Rollins) provided some pretty cool technical wrestling and high-flying spots. Bryan look really good, although everyone in this match put forth a good effort. Like with Kofi-Ambrose, it was a little bit on the short side, and just like that match, new champions were crowned within The Shield, as Bryan got nailed with a cool-looking double-team manoeuver and Reigns got the pin for him and Seth to win the Tag Team Championships.

It was a bit sad to see the long reign of Team Hell No end after eight long months. It's definitely been the most enjoyable tag title run for many years, possibly since the TLC era in terms of pure entertainment. But the Kane/Daniel Bryan combo probably has passed its peak so it was time to pass the belts onto a new team, and since The Shield have been on fire since their debut, a combination of the two was the perfect choice. For all three members of The Shield, this was a big night and another show of faith by WWE.

Up next, we had an Extreme Rules match between Randy Orton and Big Show (their first PPV meeting, surprisingly). This went over very well, assisted by a strong hometown reaction to the Viper. The action on display was quite good; nothing that they did was particularly innovative, but this was one of those matches where everything just works. They exchanged blows from a variety of blows including a ladder, which slightly made up for the absent Ladder match for the World Heavyweight Title, and that same ladder ended up being broken by Show's large frame after an attempted Vader Bomb (the ladder was between two steel chairs). Show came close with a Chokeslam, and Orton thought he had it won with an RKO, but the big man kicked out. Undeterred, and willed on by his local supporters, Orton rebounded with a second RKO on a chair and a Punt (the kick hasn't been used by Orton for a long time) to get the very popular victory.

This match was better than expected, partly because Orton's hometown crowd provided a great atmosphere, which seemed to energise both men. There were some cool spots in there, and the performances of both were strong (for Show, the last seven-to-eight months of his career have been his best ever from an in-ring standpoint). This was a really entertaining match, and both men had a good night as they concluded their WrestleMania-related business.

The semi-final for this card saw John Cena defend his WWE Title against Ryback in a Last Man Standing match. Ryback unexpectedly (and far too prematurely, in my opinion) turned heel on Cena the night after WrestleMania, emerging into a whining cry-baby as well as a big bully (an interesting combination) as he looked to dethrone Cena here. It seemed that nobody remembered Booker T announcing on said Raw that The Rock was the number one contender (and it's possible that nobody ever will). In the meantime, Cena apparently suffered an ankle injury during the UK tour, which was written into the storylines as the announcers wondered if this setback would hinder Cena in, of all things, a Last Man Standing bout.

As it turned out, the injury (if indeed it was real) didn't affect the match at all, as Cena had either fully recovered or shook the injured ankle off in typical Cena fashion. This was a respectable match, but certainly not the best LMS match that we've seen. It was an enjoyable yet familiar stunt brawl, which included Ryback slamming Cena through a table, an exchange of big powerbombs, and Cena putting Ryback through a different table after an Attitude Adjustment. There was plenty of action going on, but whether it was because we've seen these spots or similar spots so many times, or because of the odd nature of Ryback being a heel so soon, there was something, if not a couple of things, missing to make this a truly memorable match. It was still fun to watch and the St Louis crowd seemed to enjoy it, although neither they (nor me) seemed too happy when the match took another hit upon its ending: Ryback Speared Cena through an LED wall at the aisleway, and both men stayed down for the 10-count. It was a draw, with both men being carted out on stretchers (although we learned on Raw the next day that Cena refused to enter an ambulance; Ryback, for some reason, drove what was purportedly his ambulance into the arena on the post-ER edition of Raw). This finish was too similar to Backlash 2007 (also the post-WM PPV) when Batista hit The Undertaker with a Spear off the stage onto electrical equipment that resulted in a no-contest.

The ending of this LMS bout means that we are almost definitely getting a Cena vs. Ryback rematch. Since their first match here was Last Man Standing, it's hard to figure what stipulation they will use - they will use one, believe me - when they meet again. It remains to be seen whether Ryback can do enough between now and then to convince the powers that be to award him a WWE title reign. My gut feeling says no, and that when they do meet again, it will be Cena who gets his hand raised and leaves as the WWE Champion. Hopefully he will at least grow into his heel role between now and Cena-Ryback 2.

So, we come to the main event: HHH vs. Lesnar, inside a Steel Cage. This rivalry actually began the night after Extreme Rules 2012 (which was over a year ago since ER was in May this year), when Lesnar responded to HHH refusing Brock's contract demands by breaking his arm. HHH returned and eventually fought Lesnar at SummerSlam, but was beaten. A rematch followed at WrestleMania 29 when HHH pinned Brock, which I assumed would be the end of their rivalry. Instead, a third match was made for Extreme Rules (making their WM match less worthy of that grand stage since it essentially solves nothing), this time within a cage (and this was a new Steel Cage structure with three parts on each side and a different top to the fences, making it the first new WWE cage for yonks). Fortunately for the combatants, this feud-decider elicited the desired main event crowd response, in contrast to their almost-ignored first two showdowns.

HHH began the match early by attacking Lesnar in the aisleway, which got the match off to a fast and furious start (there's a movie plug somewhere there). The match then entered the cage, where Brock began to take control in his usual, vicious fashion (although, harking back to my earlier point, we did not get blood, which despite this being a PG era I was slightly surprised about after what went down at Extreme Rules 2012, and after HHH split Lesnar's head wide open on Raw back in February). Brock really took control with a German suplex, but he lost it when he accidentally rammed his knee into the cage and began screaming in agony in very convincing fashion. HHH worked on the injured knee, but Brock still managed to clamp in a Kimura Lock on HHH's arm. Paul Heyman soon intervened by slamming the cage door on HHH's head, followed by a Lesnar F5 for a near-fall. Heyman then threw a chair into the cage for Brock to use, but HHH intercepted it and pounded Lesnar's knee with it. HHH kept working on the knee before, from the top of the cage, introducing a hidden sledgehammer to a good pop, but Brock prevented its use. After HHH rebounded with a Sharpshooter (bad knee, remember?), HHH Pedigreed the interfering Heyman and Lesnar too, but it wasn't enough to win. Triple H then picked up the hammer again, but Heyman hit him with a low blow, allowing Lesnar to conk HHH with the hammer and drop him with a second F5 for the victory.

So, Lesnar came out on top in the end. It was the right result because Lesnar's reputation, originally built in WWE and enhanced in UFC, may have been destroyed had he lost again here. Instead, the victory sets him up for his next feud, which is likely to be against another heavy hitter (CM Punk or John Cena again for the WWE Title are the favourites, since bouts against The Rock or The Undertaker would probably be saved for a WrestleMania). For HHH, his next move is unclear, although he did wrestle his first TV match for three years on Raw the next night against Curtis Axel (previously Michael McGillicutty, now being managed by Paul Heyman), but ended up being too weak to continue, partly due to the Lesnar match here.

Extreme Rules always feels like a tough PPV since it follows WrestleMania. It's usually well worth watching, but it lacks the spectacle, the glamour, the huge setting and attendance, the first-time meetings to end long feuds; basically, everything that distinguishes Mania from every other PPV. Fortunately, the in-ring talent saw to it that Extreme Rules was a worthy follow-up to WrestleMania, and with some recent turns, a few returns and several other intriguing developments, WWE has now fully entered what could be a pretty interesting post-Mania season.

Overall Rating: 8/10 - Very Good