EXTREME Rules

- For a PPV called Extreme Rules there was not a lot of hardcore elements to the matches. They should have called it Night of Entertaining Gimmick Matches because it was not extreme or even x-treme. Thankfully the ladder match at the end of the show made up for the lack of extremeness that I felt was missing. And yes I know the ECW title match had trashcans and kendo sticks but it didn't do anything for me, mayhaps the days where a kendo stick shot would excite me are gone, it is a sad day.

- How about Tommy Dreamer! I can't say I'm that psyched as I am not a huge Dreamer fan but that does not mean I'm upset either. His title reign will probably be an entertaining one, probably keep defending it until he loses and thus is banished from ECW.

- Jericho and Mysterio put on an excellent match in my opinion and I'm looking forward to this feud continuing. Good call on not showing Mysterio's face, the kids don't need to lose the mystery. It's also nice to see my favorite wrestler increase his IC title record by another win!

- I wasn't sure how the Samoan strap match was going to go this evening. Mostly because I was confused as to what was so Samoan about it. Did the Samoan people become so fond of straps that they named a type of strap after themselves? Then once said strap was claimed they then used it to beat up people by tying it to their wrists and whipping them into things? I think I need to do more research about Samoans because this does not sound right? Anyways... It took me, and the crowd, a bit to get into it but it once it got going I enjoyed myself. They had some good spots and a quality ending, not to mention a helpful graphic which showed you who was winning.

- The hog pen match was cute, my pizza showed up during that match and I wasn't really upset about leaving so I could go get it. I would like to note though that the guy who delivered my pizza looked like a fucking murderer. Seriously, big bald guy, sweaty and a low voice. I was ten seconds away from having my limbs cut off and being left in a ditch tonight.

- The steel cage match was pretty quick, I read afterward Batista is injured...again, so that explains it. I was bummed Batista won the title and by pin fall no less. I really think they should amend the steel cage rules to be that you have to escape, this pinning and submitting crap is weak.

- Submission match was good but I was hoping that Cena might pull out a new submission move, show he has some depth to his mat wrestling. The finish was clever though, albeit Big Shows foot did come undone from the ropes. Overall I think they told a good story and if you were a fan of either guy you were pleased by this match, I would think.

- The ladder match was the reason why I bought this PPV and I was not disappointed. Some pretty big bumps from these two but it looked like Edge took the worst of it for this match. Despite Jeff Hardy's victory I did really like the finish, Jeff standing over Edge while he was stuck in the rungs of the ladder and then leaning down and staring at him as he held the belt smiling was quite an image. In fact you can see it off to the right, how convenient!

- Going into the ladder match I knew Jeff Hardy had not signed a new contract with the WWE. Once I saw him holding the belt I figured he had but then CM Punk comes out and cashes in the money in the bank contract and then I thought well maybe not. This was quite a surprise to me as it was a face screwing a face over for the title. I was hoping that they would not go this route with this MITB contract, picking the bones after a hard fought match, but they did and it was okay but certainly not great. I don't think the crowd really knew what to think and neither did I, all we knew is that CM Punk is world champ and that's that.

All in all it was a good show but I was really hoping for some more over the top hardcore wrestling. This was not really any different from any other WWE PPV in terms of content and certainly not the one night that the WWE goes extreme as Michael Cole mentioned 45 fucking times during the broadcast. Fun show but One Night Stand 1 & 2 it ain't.