WWE Extreme Rules 2012 Review

WWE PPV Review: Extreme Rules Extreme Rules may have lost some of its charm with the WWE’s current emphasis on family friendly action and a no blood policy, but sometimes the event can overcome that and make for a pretty good show indeed. This year things kicked off with Santino defending his United States Title against The Miz. (this was the pre-show match, so will most probably appear on the DVD release). Miz gave his all, but he couldn’t beat the master of ‘The Cobra’, Marella hitting his finisher for the popular win. The show proper opened with a nice Falls Count Anywhere encounter between Kane and Randy Orton. This featured a hefty amount of weapons shots, near falls and outside the ring battling. During a backstage brawl Zack Ryder attacked Kane and the match intensified well. Orton took the win with a successful RKO on a chair in the end. Next up Dolph Ziggler took on the mighty Brodus Clay (with Hornswoggle and the Funkettes in tow). Ziggler was on fair form for this one, but even as skilful as he is he was unable to defeat the big man. Clay hit a splash for the pin. The Tables Match between Cody Rhodes and Big Show for Show’s Intercontinental Title was a decent affair. Show took control for most of the bout and Rhodes seemed destined to fail in his quest to win the gold. However Show made the mistake of using a table to get into the ring and broke it to lose the belt. He did gain a measure of revenge afterwards by beating Cody down and through some other tables. The 2 out of 3 falls scrap that followed was a good effort too. Pitting World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus against former champ Daniel Bryan this was a well- deserved opportunity for both to showcase their respective skills. There were near falls galore and each fall proved exciting and match enhancing efforts. A Sheamus Brogue kick ended things for Bryan after the pair pulled off one fall a piece. The Ryback versus Arron Relic and Jay Hutton match up next was pure squash match material. Ryback pretty much beat both men down in no time at all and stacked them on top of each other for the pin. The forthcoming Chicago Street Fight between Chris Jericho and CM Punk for the WWE Title was a retrun to form and a welcome sight after a few less than impressive scraps. Punk and Jericho work well together and highlight the skills each has. They traded near falls, battled in and out of the ring and much more throughout the scrap. Punk finally nailed a GTS to keep his gold and put Jericho off the scent of his title for another while. With Beth Phoenix injured the Divas title match changed slightly and we saw layla tackle champion Nikki Bella. This was a reasonable encounter and at least we saw the Bella twin lose her strap to the more proficient in the ring Layla. Phoenix and Brie Bella’s interference didn’t hamper things too much here. The main event saw the returning Brock Lesnar take on John Cena in an impressive and brutal Extreme Rules match. The pair utilised everything they could here and went all out to pummel each other. Lesnar showing no signs of ring rust and Cena (surprisingly) gelled nicely with the monster to provide an exciting and bloody war. This went back and forth and the finish proved to be a huge surprise too. Cena nailing an Attitude Adjustment to pull of the shock win. Extreme Rules was a real treat to watch and one that certainly stood up for itself as a more over the top PPV. The return of Lesnar to the fold should shake things up and make the main events less samey too. By Phil Allely