Extreme Rules - 4/29/12
 

Hoping for:

Match #1) Tag Team Championship Gauntlet
Brodus Clay & Santino Marella w/ Cameron & Naomi vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger w/ Vickie Guerrero vs. Epico & Primo © w/ Rosa Mendes vs. Jey & Jimmy Uso w/ Tamina Snuka vs. Kofi Kingston & R-Truth vs. Mizark
Clay and Marella eliminate Ziggler and Swagger, Epico and Primo eliminate Clay and Marella and the Usos, and Kingston and Truth eliminate Epico and Primo to seemingly win the titles, only for John Laurinaitis to come out and declare that there’s still one team left, which brings out Mark Henry and The Miz, who eliminate Kingston and Truth to win the titles.

Match #2) Last Man Standing
Kane vs. Randy Orton

Match #3) Falls Count Anywhere for the Intercontinental Championship
Big Show © vs. Cody Rhodes

Match #4) 2/3 Falls for the World Heavyweight Championship
Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus ©

Match #5) Lumberjill Match for the Divas Championship
Beth Phoenix © vs. Kelly

Match #6) Ladder Match for the WWE Championship
Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk ©

Match #7)
John Laurinaitis vs. Theodore Long
Kind of a joke, but I could see it happening.

Match #8) Cage Match
Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena

Lesnar/Cena - First Blood obviously

And what happens if Cena is busted open in the first two minutes like last night?

Usually in first blood matches, I think they make it clear that it's gotta be something more than just a bloody mouth. I think it was Austin against Kane years ago where he just busted his mouth open or something and the match kept going.

I really do hope they end up going with first blood though. Doesn't have to be a long match and I don't think either one should be pinned cleanly yet so a first blood match would be a great way to give a straight up win to someone and not make the other look inferior.

They should just do relaxed rules for matches. They don't need gimmicks for all of them.

* Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan should be three matches in one, so we don't really need a stacked card. Well, let's say that they go about twenty-five minutes. That's easily two matches, at least.

* CM Punk defends the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho. That one is pretty simple.

* John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar has already been confirmed. Just let that be a regular match between the two.

* Randy Orton vs. Kane will no doubt be happening.

* Mick Foley vs. Dean Ambrose would be a pretty bizarre inclusion, but having Mick Foley work at Extreme Rules is a story enough in itself, and it's a great way to launch Ambrose out the gate.

* The only other match that really deserves to make the card is Big Show defending the Intercontinental Championship against Cody Rhodes.

There you are -- there's your Extreme Rules card consisting of six matches. If you do need another one, go with Beth Phoenix squashing Kelly Kelly in a Divas Title match.

Well, gimmick matches IS the theme of the PPV...

Also, it's a good excuse to have Cena vs Brock end decisively but without a pinfall for the reasons I stated above.

Here's what I'd like to see...

First Blood Match
John Cena vs Brock Lesnar

World Heavyweight Title 2 out of 3 Falls Match
Daniel Bryan vs Sheamus

WWE Title Submission Match
CM Punk vs Chris Jericho

Last Man Standing Match
Randy Orton vs Kane

WWE Intercontinental Title Ladder Match
Cody Rhodes vs The Big Show

Mixed Tag Match
Zack Ryder and Layla vs The Miz and Eve

I feel like Del Rio, Henry and some others deserve some kind of match too. And Santino and Brodus vs Swagger and Ziggler possibly with Primo and Epico thrown in for the tag titles. I don't know.

I don't think First Blood is gonna happen.....

The set it up perfectly on RAW, dont see why not.

They're obviously becoming more relaxed on their stance on things. The word "ass" was taboo there for a while and now the language limit is back to normal. Even if Cena getting his mouth busted open on Raw was a mistake, they ended up showcasing it regularly. So if they don't go first blood, it definitely won't be a "PG" issue like it would have been for all these years.

It is an issue. Accidental blood is one thing. They seem to have embraced it multiple times now.

They aren't about to start doing blade jobs again, though.

It doesn't HAVE to be a blade job

Well then you have absolutely no control over when the match is going to end.

Fake blood?
That eyebrow punch to open someone up the hard way that Foley talked about in one of his books?
Just repeating what happened on Raw?
There are ways.

I think you are clinging to the idea of this first blood match too much. Not gonna happen. Period.

I'm just saying if they wanted to, there are ways.

Crappy, haphazard ways, yeah.

I'm not saying it's GONNA happen. It just isn't out of the realm of possibility.

Especially with how they hyped Brock as "Bringing legitimacy back" and he instantly drew blood. Now they have to (At least they SHOULD) have a gimmick match of some sort. It makes sense.

They will have an Extreme Rules match.

Fake blood would not be the worst thing in the world. And it's not like it's gotta be a "crimson mask".

I think both Jericho-Punk and Lesnar-Cena will be No Holds Barred (Extreme Rules Match) although wouldn't be surprised if Jericho-Punk is in a cage.

Crimson Mask match. First to grab the Red Mask from ringside, and force it onto the head of his opponent wins.

And we've found ANOTHER way to do it!

Oh, a red mask. I thought it was just a mask of TNA "superstar" Crimson.

Would be way cooler... and way more humiliating.

In an e-fed angle, I once dropped a bucket of glue on this dude's face and glued a PowerPuff Girl mask to it.

Dude sold it for like two months.

Its in Chicago, smark crowd ftw.

Poor Sheamus though.

I'm actually wondering if the WWE will have Sheamus squash Bryan twice at Extreme Rules. It seems like the sort of thing they would do to try and get him over. If it doesn't fit the first time, repeat twice more to make it, dammit!

It'd be like having a Steel Cage Match at TLC, though -- entirely unwarranted. Just have Lesnar and Cena go at it in relaxed rules. With Laurinaitis entirely behind Lesnar, it's possible to have some sort of shady ending with Otunga getting involved and making things "grey," not that I feel they need to be.

I am with the first blood crowd on this one.

And that Chicago crowd is going to SHIT on Sheamus.

They mentioned it in the Brock thread, have Brock take Cena out via nefarious deeds, then have him face for a world title. I'm thinking Sheamus since they don't seem to care too much about Smackdown. This will piss people off because his first official match will be for a title, he just gets to jump to the front of the line because he's "legitimate". Sheamus puts up a fight, but ultimately falls to the War Machine™ in a Tables Match.

Now we have Brock the unstoppable monster with the following bragging points:

1. Embarrassed Cena on his debut
2. Injured Cena
3. Won a world title in his first match back, in a match that Sheamus had beaten Cena in way back when

So when Cena eventually returns, Brock will have enough heel heat to baptise Cena in an ocean of baby-face juice. Of course, Cena comes back as tweener Cena who still would do anything for the fans, but no longer gives speeches on morality.

not much of a spoiler#

Having a gimmick match at a gimmick match themed PPV would be like having a steel cage match at a TLC themed PPV?

:wtf:

Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena - Cage Match
Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk © - Ultimate Submission Match for the WWE Championship
Big Show © vs. Cody Rhodes - Bodyslam Challenge for the Intercontinental Championship
Brodus Clay & Santino Marella w/ Cameron & Naomi vs. Epico & Primo © w/ Rosa Mendes - Texas Tornado Match for the Tag Team Championship
Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus © - 2/3 Falls Match for the World Heavyweight Championship
Kane vs. Randy Orton - Last Man Standing Match

Yes, Extreme Rules has used gimmicks in the past, but "Extreme Rules" is also a gimmick in itself. Why throw stipulations out there for the hell of it? Gimmick PPVs themselves are dumb, but we don't need five duplicates of them. Let Extreme Rules be "Extreme Rules" and Tables Match be "Tables Match."

I hate Extreme Rules as a PPV for the record. Not so much because of what it is, but more so when it is. If it were a May PPV -- I'd be cool with it. Coming off WrestleMania, though, I think they should have a regular PPV where the fallout from Mania is solved. Backlash was perfect. From there you can build to your crazy shit for no reason.

I'm really curious to see how Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan turns out. The reason being that the WWE has to suspect that the crowd in attendance is going to be super-smarky. Three things are certain for the PPV:

1. CM Punk will have the fans in a frenzy for anything he does.

2. They will be rabid for Brock Lesnar and wanting to see him kill John Cena.

3. They will be all over Sheamus and chanting "YES!" a lot.

I can understand that they didn't expect Mania to go the way it did, since they are in total hype machine and may not have expected Smarkamania to be runnin' wild; but they should be prepared for Sheamus to get the living shit heckled out of him while Bryan is worshipped as a hero, despite every damn dastardly thing the WWE has done to make him seem like the worst guy on the planet. In my opinion, this would probably be the best way to go about booking the World Heavyweight Title match at Extreme Rules, to make everyone look good and making as many people happy as possible:

* Sheamus wins the first fall after he powers up Bryan -- who has him in a LeBell Lock -- into a Finlay-style Celtic Cross (which I think he used on Bryan at Elimination Chamber). Sheamus will be booed, but he looks as good as gold by drawing first blood and proving that he's the "rightful" champion, if you will.

* The crowd will then be rabid to see Bryan fight back and win the second fall, which he does, probably with a roll-up to stay in touch with his technically heel persona, and because I can't see the WWE having Sheamus tap-out.

* The third fall goes back and forth, with neither man going down easy. The end sees Sheamus catch Bryan coming off the top rope with a Brogue Kick (which is how I believe Sheamus won the US Title, too -- but I may be wrong). Sheamus wins the third fall and retains the World Heavyweight Title. He celebrates for a bit (probably to boos -- or at least a mixed reaction), before he heads to the back. Bryan is left in the ring, however, and he gets the "guy who put on amazing performance is left in the ring as he comes to getting lots of cheers" moment. Bryan loses the match, but finds himself standing in the ring as the Chicago crowd chants "YES! YES! YES!" and "Thank you, Bryan!"

From there, the WWE can move onto its regularly scheduled program and have Sheamus defend the World Heavyweight Title against Alberto Del Rio, while Bryan is sort of reborn as a babyface character -- looking to prove that he does belong at the top. Hell, since they seem to do it every two years, as I've suggested before, bring back the King of the Ring and have Bryan meet Chris Jericho in the finals at Over the Limit, where Bryan wins and his victory speech consists simply of "YES! YES! YES!" It at least gives Bryan a journey as a character over the next few months.

We agree that gimmick PPVs for the most part are dumb. They force gimmick matches into feuds as opposed to the feud flowing naturally into a climactic gimmick match. Hate it.

But getting past that and recognizing "It exists, can't do anything about it now, let's move on."

... it's Extreme Rules. Adding extreme rules to matches on a PPV called... ... ... Extreme Rules is not the same as having a cage match at a PPV called TLC.