Recap and Review of WWE The Horror Show at Extreme Rules

Tonight was the annual Extreme Rules show for WWE, but this year it had a different twist. With the current situation they re-branded it into The Horror Show and set up for some really intriguing matches. Going into to this show, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. Before I begin with my thoughts on the evening, here are the results of Extreme Rules:

-Kickoff Show: Kevin Owens defeated Murphy
-Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated The New Day to win the Smackdown Tag Team Championships
-Bayley defeated Nikki Cross to retain the Smackdown Women’s Championship
-Seth Rollins defeated Rey Mysterio in an Eye for an Eye Match
-Drew McIntyre defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship
-Bray Wyatt defeated Braun Strowman in the Wyatt Swamp Fight.

The opening match was The New Day defending the Smackdown Tag Team Championships against Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a Tables Match. The New Day are on their eighth Tag Team Championship reign, but no team has stepped up to them like Cesaro and Nakamura have in recent weeks. I like that these two teams got creative with tables and literally beat each other up. Fans have been saying for months that Cesaro and Nakamura have deserved better. Tonight, after Cesaro power-bombed Kofi Kingston through a table they finally got what they deserved.

Championships continued on Smackdown with Bayley defending the Women’s Championship against Nikki Cross. How crazy is that out of everyone in the group once known as Sanity that Nikki is the last one left on the main roster? She is finally coming into her own and is showing how great of a performer she is. I think teaming with Alexa Bliss over the last year has helped bring out other sides to her character that we have seen. Even though Nikki didn’t win, she had an incredible match with Bayley and I do think she will be Women’s Champion down the road. A lot of people were excited about Asuka and Sasha Banks, but I think Cross and Bayley delivered a very solid match tonight.

One match that I wasn’t too thrilled about going into the pay-per-view is the “Eye for an Eye” match between Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins. I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull it off when the object to was rip someones eye out of the socket. I honestly think this match was garbage. There were some really good spots in the match, but the stipulation really ruined the match. They could have gone out and had a 5-Star Match that was No Disqualification and it would have been better than what went down tonight. It may be a long time before we see Rey Mysterio again, so I am hoping this is not how he leaves WWE. He is a legend who deserves so much better.

Earlier in the night, Bayley and Nikki Cross had a very solid match but Asuka and Sasha Banks topped it. We often forget just how great the women can be but tonight we were reminded that they can deliver on any given night. There were a lot of shenanigans towards the end of this match, which included Bayley putting on a referees shirt and counting to three. It left the door wide open for the story to continue because it left people wondering who is the Raw Women’s Champion? Sasha and Asuka had a great match that will be talked about for a long time. I’ll be curious what the decision is on the Raw Championship. It definitely left people wondering with a lot of questions.

One of the best stories going into Extreme Rules was Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler. They have had a ton of history together, and the buildup was great with Ziggler not revealing the stipulation until just before the match started. This match had great storytelling and psychology to it. Ziggler brought everything he could, but in the end it was not enough to stop McIntyre. Heading into Summerslam, I will be curious on who McIntyre’s next opponent will be. He’s been in on such a role since the Royal Rumble that it’s hard to imagine that anyone can stop him right now.

The Main Event was the Wyatt Swamp Fight between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman which was a Non-Title Match. The resurrected the original Bray Wyatt and he took Braun Strowman on a similar journey that he took John Cena on. I love cinematic matches, but this one you literally had to be on some sort of drug to watch. I honestly think without Rowan and Harper in the company the match didn’t come as well as it could have. You can’t talk about the Wyatt Family history without the two of them. From what I gathered, it appears Strowman killed off the original Bray Wyatt, which brought back The Fiend to take out Strowman. I am very intrigued as to what happens with Strowman considering he’s WWE Universal Champion. It’s another case where I have more questions then answers right now.

It’s fitting that the night was called The Horror Show because the show was horribly overbooked. I thought the effort was great but some of the execution was poorly done. At the of the night, Extreme Rules gets a 6.5 out of 10. I hope going into Summerslam next month they can deliver a show that doesn’t have a lot of forced craziness to it. I love unpredictability, crazy moments and surprises, but tonight I felt like they tried forcing all of it. Let’s just hope Summerslam can close out the summer the right way.