BRM Reviews WWE Extreme Rules 2013

[Big Red Machine]

WWE Extreme Rules 2013 (5/19/2013)- St. Louis, MO

PRE-SHOW MATCH: Cody Rhodes vs. The Miz- 5.75/10
Much better than any pre-show match I can remember, but Miz didn’t work Cody’s leg over AT ALL before the tap out.

CHRIS JERICHO vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- 6.75/10
Great start to the Pay-Per-View proper. See… this is what happens when you let Fandango go out there and wrestle rather than booking him like a whiny chump.

SHEAMUS PROMO- decent

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Kofi Kingston(c) vs. Dean Ambrose- 6.5/10

STRAP MATCH: Sheamus vs. Mark Henry- 5.5/10

AJ & KAITLYN BACKSTAGE- DUD! WTF?! Kaitlyn just stole AJ’s schtick! AJ is the one who gets angry whenever someone calls her crazy. Now, when AJ calls Kaitlyn a pig, Kaitlyn, the babyface, jumps AJ from behind? BOO! Also, this is a Pay-Per-View. If it doesn’t hype up a match on this show, this segment shouldn’t be here.

I QUIT MATCH FOR #1 CONTENDERSHIP TO THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Alberto Del Rio (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Coulter)- 6.75/10
That is some sneaky sh*t right there on that finish… or not. For whatever reason, THIS TIME, out of all of the other times that people cheat, another referee decides to come out and inform the referee of the match as to what happened. The other referee then decides to go to instant replay (which is always a horrible precedent to set in pro wrestling because it kills the possibility of ever using a heel finish) and they decide to restart the match… and once they restarted the match, you knew it was just a matter of time until Del Rio won.

RYBACK PROMO- Great!

TORNADO MATCH FOR THE WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: Team Hell No(c) vs. Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns- 6/10
Two things happened during Kane and Dragon’s entrance that absolutely filled me with joy: 1) Dragon covered his ears for Kane’s pyro, which was hilarious, and 2) JBL made a reference to the May 19th angle! The match itself was great, but, unfortunately, it only got eight minutes so it really couldn’t deliver too much. They did some cool stuff, but it rarely felt like anything they couldn’t have done in a regular tag match.

EXTREME RULES MATCH: Randy Orton vs. Big Show- 6.5/10
Randy needs to be a heel. That gleeful look on his face when he realized that he could punt Big Show in the head is just too perfectly suited for a heel. What a psychopath!

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE: John Cena(c) vs. Ryback- 6.5/10
I love the fact that they skipped the shine here because it just doesn’t make sense. If we know Cena can still dominate Ryback from the beginning, then there isn’t as much suspense on the comeback. After that, though, it just got dull and it felt like the crawling was going nowhere.
I REALLY hate the non-finish here. Ryback needed to win this match. Yeah, he can come out on TV tomorrow night and say that he put Cena out and that he deserves the title, but the only reason to do this non-finish was to buy time for Cena to recover more fully so that he can beat Ryback. I feel that he really needed to win the belt here. Not having him win the belt here (especially with Cena injured going into the match) sends the message to the fans that no matter how behind a guy you get, even if you make him a huge star, we will just turn him heel and feed him to Super Cena.

STEEL CAGE MATCH: Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman)- 7.5/10
Great match, but worse than their previous two. Lesnar sold very well. After the match Lesnar crosses the unconscious Hunter’s arms over his chest. The announcers tried to play it off as something else, but I think this might well be the start of the build towards Brock vs. Taker.

Overall, a decent show from WWE. Nothing was bad and everything was solid… but nothing was truly great, either, which is what you need on a Pay-Per-View. A decent show in a spot where a better show was called for.

[cero2k]

Too lazy to write my own review this month, so i'm just gonna hijack yours

CHRIS JERICHO vs. FANDANGO (w/Summer Rae)- 6.75/10
Great start to the Pay-Per-View proper. See… this is what happens when you let Fandango go out there and wrestle rather than booking him like a whiny chump.

Good Opener, but i think that after monday, Summer Rae is now relevant enough to get involved. 6/10

WWE UNITED STATES TITLE MATCH: Kofi Kingston(c) vs. Dean Ambrose- 6.5/10

good match, Ambrose fights so beautifully and precise, i loved how he moved around Kofi's controlled frenzy 6/10

STRAP MATCH: Sheamus vs. Mark Henry- 5.5/10

i personally thought this match was great! haven't seen such a good strap match since Eddie vs JBL, or at least i can't remember any. Sheamus is such a great heel! 6.5/10

AJ & KAITLYN BACKSTAGE- DUD! WTF?! Kaitlyn just stole AJ’s schtick! AJ is the one who gets angry whenever someone calls her crazy. Now, when AJ calls Kaitlyn a pig, Kaitlyn, the babyface, jumps AJ from behind? BOO! Also, this is a Pay-Per-View. If it doesn’t hype up a match on this show, this segment shouldn’t be here.

Tamina was eating a banana during this segment. I just wanted to point this out.

I QUIT MATCH FOR #1 CONTENDERSHIP TO THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Alberto Del Rio (w/Ricardo Rodriguez) vs. Jack Swagger (w/Zeb Coulter)- 6.75/10
That is some sneaky sh*t right there on that finish… or not. For whatever reason, THIS TIME, out of all of the other times that people cheat, another referee decides to come out and inform the referee of the match as to what happened. The other referee then decides to go to instant replay (which is always a horrible precedent to set in pro wrestling because it kills the possibility of ever using a heel finish) and they decide to restart the match… and once they restarted the match, you knew it was just a matter of time until Del Rio won.

instant replay. facepalm. Awesome match nonetheless. these two guys and ziggler should continue feuding for the rest of the summer. 7/10

TORNADO MATCH FOR THE WWE TAG TEAM TITLES: Team Hell No(c) vs. Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns- 6/10
Two things happened during Kane and Dragon’s entrance that absolutely filled me with joy: 1) Dragon covered his ears for Kane’s pyro, which was hilarious, and 2) JBL made a reference to the May 19th angle! The match itself was great, but, unfortunately, it only got eight minutes so it really couldn’t deliver too much. They did some cool stuff, but it rarely felt like anything they couldn’t have done in a regular tag match.

I'm gonna blame this loss on it being May 19, kane couldn't concentrate . Can't remember the last time this match got introduced as a tornado match. Match was great, but it didn't feel epic enough for the end of Team Hell No's reign. I'm also sad that freebird rule won't come into play since Dean has the US title. 6.5/10

EXTREME RULES MATCH: Randy Orton vs. Big Show- 6.5/10
Randy needs to be a heel. That gleeful look on his face when he realized that he could punt Big Show in the head is just too perfectly suited for a heel. What a psychopath!

that pop for Randy, nice! Good match for two guys i really didn't care for watching, but i was entertained. 6/10
BTW, wasn't the punt banned from WWE? i marked out for the punt!

LAST MAN STANDING MATCH FOR THE WWE TITLE: John Cena(c) vs. Ryback- 6.5/10
I love the fact that they skipped the shine here because it just doesn’t make sense. If we know Cena can still dominate Ryback from the beginning, then there isn’t as much suspense on the comeback. After that, though, it just got dull and it felt like the crawling was going nowhere.
I REALLY hate the non-finish here. Ryback needed to win this match. Yeah, he can come out on TV tomorrow night and say that he put Cena out and that he deserves the title, but the only reason to do this non-finish was to buy time for Cena to recover more fully so that he can beat Ryback. I feel that he really needed to win the belt here. Not having him win the belt here (especially with Cena injured going into the match) sends the message to the fans that no matter how behind a guy you get, even if you make him a huge star, we will just turn him heel and feed him to Super Cena.

again, a sooo much better match than what i was expecting. I think this could be cena's greatest last man standing, so much that i'm willing to ignore the non-finish. I personally loved Ryback's work, even tough he didn't win, he looked soo much stronger than cena and that he lost due to a fluke. 8/10
I hated how serious the announcers were selling the injuries. I hate Lawler

STEEL CAGE MATCH: Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar (w/Paul Heyman)- 7.5/10
Great match, but worse than their previous two. Lesnar sold very well. After the match Lesnar crosses the unconscious Hunter’s arms over his chest. The announcers tried to play it off as something else, but I think this might well be the start of the build towards Brock vs. Taker.

Good match, but the announcing really got in my nerves, it felt really biased, at least King was especially annoying during this match. I felt that triple h hiding the hammer was a bit unfair, he's the COO of the company, he has access to the cage, the arena, the builders, everything.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
I really solid show for WWE, a whole lot more enjoyable than WM in my humble opinion. I was worried that the show would really go down with the absence of Ziggler and the ladder match (the main reason i was watching) but it still delivered.