WWE Extreme Rules 2019: 5 things WWE did wrong at the PPV
The last stop of the summer before SummerSlam was Extreme Rules. Several titles changed hands and both Money in the Bank briefcases have now been cashed in. WWE might have wanted to switch things up now that both Eric Bischoff and Paul Heyman would be in charge of SmackDown and RAW respectively.
Some of the matches were basically ones that seemed like they were from an episode of RAW or SmackDown. A few of the less-touted matches, like Aleister Black vs. Cesaro, delivered due to who was in the match.
When the night was over, there were four new champions as both SmackDown and RAW received two new champions each. The New Day became six-time champions while Shinsuke Nakamura picked up his first Intercontinental Championship in WWE. AJ Styles was US Champion once again while Brock Lesnar won the Universal Championship for a third time.
Lacey Evans and Baron Corbin allegedly had their last shots at Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins respectively, but with Rollins no longer the Universal Champion, that might change. Every show has its share of mistakes and things that were done right. Here are five things that WWE did wrong at the 2019 Extreme Rules PPV.
#5 Samoa Joe loses again
While it was a little strange for SmackDown to have two of its main champions (WWE Champion, Women's Champion) challenged by RAW stars at Extreme Rules, it worked with Samoa Joe targeting Kofi Kingston. Joe is supposed to be on of the most dangerous men in the WWE, but like all of his matches for main titles in WWE, he was on the losing end.
Joe challenged AJ Styles for the WWE Championship three times last year and lost each time. He also failed in his bids to win the Universal Champion during Brock Lesnar's first reign with the big red belt.
In order to give Joe some credibility as a threat and give us fans a reason to invest in one of his major title matches, he needed to win one of them. Instead, now some of us won't take him seriously in the future if he gets any more WWE or Universal Championship matches.
Why should we care if they will always book him to lose those matches? He's deserving of a WWE or Universal Championship reign due to both his in-ring work and his mic work. Instead, he's just been the usual jagged rock that champions are always able to avoid by jumping over or around the rock.