Extreme Rules - 4/29/12

[Mr. C]

Originally Posted by Noid 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.

Noid, the more I read your posts, the more I realize that you have such an incredible understanding for pro wrestling. You seem to "get it" more than most.

I 100% agree with everything that you said about Bryan/Sheamus and feel like your booking for it is a win-win for everybody involved. It's just terrific.

After reading one of your first posts in this thread, I myself now see six matches would be the perfect amount for this card. As you said, the 2/3 Falls Match would be like three matches in one. My own personal idea for Jericho/Punk would be to have an Ultimate Submission Match. Suprisingly, they've only had one in the WWE, when Benoit and Angle wrestled for 30 minutes to see who could score the most submissions before time expired. It's a crime that it's only been done once, but they totally should make it happen again at Extreme Rules with Jericho and Punk.

The only change I'd make to your card is putting a tag title match between Brodus/Santino and Epico/Primo on the show instead of Ambrose/Foley, but other than that, the rest looks nice.