Ups and Downs From Extreme Rules
Last night, the eleventh edition of Extreme Rules took place live inside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In my opinion, WWE delivered some good content on the show, but a decent part of the show was underwhelming.
At the event, Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch reigned supreme over the abominable challengers in Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans. It was a good match that had entertaining moments in it. However, it was the aftermath that left fans talking.
The Beast in the Bank, Brock Lesnar, stormed down into the ring and successfully cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to become the Universal Champion for the third time.
Undertaker and Roman Reigns defeated Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a brutal affair. Braun Strowman finally dispatched Bobby Lashley, once and for all, in a Last Man Standing Match. AJ Styles won the United States Championship from Ricochet, cementing The Club and himself as a force to be reckoned with.
The New Day became the SmackDown Tag-Team Champions again, winning the tag titles for a sixth time by defeating Heavy Machinery and the team of Daniel Bryan and Rowan. Kofi Kingston extended his WWE Championship reign as he vanquished Samoa Joe in a fine contest.
There were other key moments coming out of the event, such as Kevin Owens' convincing victory over Dolph Ziggler. Extreme Rules definitely set the tone for SummerSlam, but it is now time to look at the positives and negatives the show had.
Up: Shinsuke Nakamura is the new Intercontinental Champion
A little over 12 hours ago, none of us even knew that the Intercontinental Championship would be defended. WWE added this match to the show at the last minute. Even though I believed that WWE should have announced this match beforehand, I was satisfied with most of what went down in the match. Nakamura winning the title from Balor was definitely the most satisfying and comforting moment of the match and WWE couldn't have made a better decision.
For months, Nakamura had been directionless and was treading water in a stale tag division alongside Rusev. An Intercontinental title victory was all he needed to gain some momentum and get his career back on track. Things are looking bright for the new Intercontinental Champion - let's hope that he has a better reign than he did with the United States Championship last year.
Finn Balor was a good Intercontinental Champion, but he seemed to be lost most of the time. Nakamura's title victory allows Balor to move onto bigger and better things.