The name Extreme Rules conjures up mental images of a pay-per-view show full of hardcore violence and intense bell-to-bell action. With WWE’s family-friendly direction, it’s not surprising that the show was much tamer than what one might expect. Despite that, the PPV was a pretty solid offering that offered a few really good matches, including a trio of Wrestlemania rematches that really delivered.
One of those rematches was the main event, which saw John Cena defend his WWE Championship against his nemesis Batista in a Last Man Standing match. Early on, Cena was able to counter Batista’s size advantage with some clever moves, but soon Batista’s power game had Cena in jeopardy. Then, in a sloppy production moment, the cameras and mics clearly caught Cena telling Batista what his next move should be. Cena’s advice helped, and soon Batista had Cena down after a series of power moves. Things picked up here, and soon, the two started pulling out the stops to keep the other one down for the 10-count. An Attitude Adjustment had Batista down, but he got to his feet to break the count. A pair of spears by Batista nearly had Cena down for the 10, but he popped up at nine. Looking to end the match, Batista went to the weapons well, and picked up a table, which he immediately sent Cena through. Cena got to his feet by rolling out to the floor, but didn’t fare much better there, getting rammed into the ring post, and then whipped through the barricade. Still, the champ had enough to break the 10-count. Frustrated, Batista set his sights on the broadcast announce table, but it was he who ended up getting put through it, courtesy of another Attitude Adjustment. Though it looked like Batista didn’t get up in time, the referee said that he had. Cena tried to hit the groggy Batista with another one, this time in the ring, but Batista caught him in a spinebuster, driving Cena through a table before he barely got up at nine. A Batista Bomb similarly saw Cena down for the nine count. An angry Animal then threw the ring steps into the ring, and was going for another, but Cena locked on the STF instead. Though Batista tapped, it meant nothing, given the match stipulation, and when he got up at nine, the match continued. After that, Cena pulled a schoolyard trick, sliding out of the ring, and crotching Batista on the ring post. He then took out some duct tape and tied Batista’s ankles around the post, so that Batista wouldn’t be able to stand up. It was academic at that point, and with Batista trapped, the referee reached the 10-count, giving Cena the win.
WWE Extreme Rules 2010 – Detailed Results
Sheamus vs Triple H was supposed to start the show. Though Triple H’s music hit, he didn’t immediately come out to the ring. They showed that backstage, he was being attacked by Sheamus, who knocked him out with a lead pipe.
With that match delayed, this gave the Unified Tag Team Champions, ShowMiz, the chance to come out for some words. Miz reminded the crowd that Bret Hart still had to admit that ShoMiz are the greatest tag team in WWE history. They then challenged any team to come out and face them. Teddy Long came out to accept the challenge. No, actually, he said that he would pick a team to face them to earn a title shot. Miz started to disrespect Teddy, so Long made it a Gauntlet match, ShoMiz versus three teams in succession. If any team beat ShoMiz, that team gets a title shot tomorrow on RAW. Hmm … an unannounced PPV match that builds into TV … what is this, TNA?
Gauntlet Match 1: ShowMiz vs R-Truth and John Morrison
R-Mo did all right when facing Miz, but didn’t fare too well against the Big Show. They fired up, and finally Morrison clamped on submission on Show, hanging off of Show’s head and arms, and pulling Show across the top rope. Show tapped, but since Morrison hadn’t let go of the hold while Show was in the ropes, his team was disqualified.
Gauntlet Match 2: ShowMiz vs MVP and Mark Henry
This was really short. Show was on the floor, still groggy from the last match. He was aware enough to get a sneaky knockout punch on MVP to allow Miz to get the pinfall.
Gauntlet Match 3: ShowMiz vs the Hart Dynasty
This was a blink-and-you-miss-it match. In seconds, they hit the super Hart Attack, and got the pin, earning a title shot tomorrow.
Winner: Hart Dynasty
Match Rating: 7/10
Backstage, Sheamus questioned Triple H’s manhood, pretty much daring him to still face him tonight.
Match 2: CM Punk vs Rey Misterio
The commentary team of Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker doesn’t really work for me. But there was one really strange moment here where Lawler was asked if he would like hair like Serena, and he answered that he does, just not on his head. Ex-squeeze me? This Mania rematch was very good, much better than their Mania match, since they were given more time this time around. The Straight Edge Society got involved from the outside, allowing Punk to control much of the match. Punk used a series of moves to stretch Rey’s back, to try to slow down Misterio’s offense. Rey fired up, and went for the 619, but Serena got caught in a trip attempt, and the referee sent her and Luke Gallows to the back. This threw Punk off his game, and Rey capitalized with a beautiful Asai moonsault to the floor, nearly earning him the win. There was a really nice spot as Rey countered a GTS attempt with a great hurancarana into rollup for a near fall. Shortly after a 619, a mystery man in a mask rolled out from under the ring, and put a chair in the ring. As the ref threw out the chair, the mystery attacker assaulted Rey on the floor, knocking him silly, and leaving him prone for the GTS.
Winner: CM Punk
Match Rating: 8/10
Match 3: Shad Gaspard vs JTG – Strap Match
To win the match, the wrestler had to hit all four corners in succession. Fortunately, they got rid of the cheesy lighting system that they used to use for JBL’s Bullrope matches and that never seemed to work. Crowd was dead for this one, since nothing really exciting happened, until Shad used the rope to violently pull JTG’s shoulder hard into the post and then whipped him several times. In the traditional cliché finish for these types of matches, Shad dragged JTG behind him, and as he touched the turnbuckles, JTG did so right afterward, without his knowledge. Before Shad could hit the fourth, JTG hit a Cutter-like move and then dove to hit the fourth turnbuckle to win the match.
Winner: JTG
Match Rating: 5/10
It was announced that HHH would not likely be in a condition to face Sheamus later on.
Match 4: Randy Orton vs Jack Swagger – Extreme Rules match for the World Heavyweight Championship
This started out with Swagger using his amateur skills to stifle Orton’s offense and keep him down on the mat. The signal blacked out here for a minute, and when it started up again, Swagger was still in control, with the title belt in the ring, so presumably he used it on Orton. Swagger went under the ring to get some weapons, but Orton was able to get to them first. After delivering several shots to the head with a garbage can, Orton drove Swagger head-first into the ring steps, and followed that up by putting Swagger’s head on the steps and stomping on them. Back in the ring, Orton stomped on Swagger some more, but Swagger rolled out of the way of Orton’s big knee drop. Swagger got caught in the ropes, and got planted with Orton’s elevated DDT. But then Orton stopped his pre-RKO fist-pounding ritual to set up a chair in the ring. He tried to drive Swagger’s head into the chair, but Swagger ended up blocking the move and bombed Orton onto the chair. He followed that up with his gut-wrench powerbomb finisher and got the (surprising) clean pinfall victory.
Winner and still World Heavyweight Champion: Jack Swagger
Match Rating: 7/10
After the match, Orton RKO’d the champ on the outside, to the delight of the fans.
Match 5: Sheamus vs Triple H – Street Fight
Despite getting attacked earlier, Triple H agreed to compete, though the earlier attack left him with neck damage that restricted the use of his arm. HHH started off on fire, pounding Sheamus from pillar to post in the opening moments. But when he tried for the Pedigree, his arm gave out. Sheamus capitalized, and in short order, had HHH down and prone for a beating, with several moves targeting the neck and arm. Unable to keep HHH down for the pin, Sheamus went to the weapons. But, just as it did for Swagger earlier, this strategy failed, and soon he was getting smacked in the head and face with a kendo stick. Another Pedigree attempt, this time on the rampway, failed due to HHH’s bad arm. Sheamus unleashed a series of push kicks to the head to get the pinfall.
Winner: Sheamus
Match Rating: 6/10
After the match, HHH tried to make his way back up the rampway, but as he got close to the end, Sheamus came out of nowhere and kicked HHH in the head one more time, prompting the EMTs to come out and load HHH into a stretcher.
Backstage, Edge was interviewed about his cage match against Jericho tonight. He said that he would not allow Jericho to escape the cage tonight, and Edge wouldn’t even be trying to escape.
Match 6: Michelle McCool vs Beth Phoenix – Extreme Makeover Match for the Women’s Championship
This one wasn’t too awful, with the women utilizing an ironing board for some innovative hardcore moves. Unfortunately, the attempts at comedy on the commentary made it hard to take anything seriously. McCool accidentally hairsprayed her friends Vicky Guerrero and Layla, but they were still able to see enough to distract Beth with a broom and mop in the latter stages of the match. It wasn’t enough, though, and after a Glam Slam, Beth got the win and the title.
Winner and new Women’s Champion: Beth Phoenix
Match Rating: 5/10
Backstage, Chris Jericho was asked about his loss at NXT this past week to Heath Slater, one of the rookies. Jericho dismissed the loss as insignificant, and said that his biggest priority is to beat Edge and end the “Spear” chants that the Edge-heads have been directing his way.
Match 7: Edge vs Chris Jericho – Steel Cage match
The story in this one was that Jericho kept trying to escape the cage, but Edge kept catching him and delivering punishment. A good match that saw the advantage swing several times, generally after someone made a mistake, allowing his opponent to capitalize, generally using the cage to do so. At one point, Edge was pulling Jericho back into the ring through the door, only to have Y2J slam the door on his head. Instead of leaving, though, Jericho saw Edge had been knocked loopy, and decided to come in and deliver some additional punishment with the chair. It didn’t pan out, though, and he was hit with a Spear — but he kicked out, and the match continued. Later, he hit the CodeBreaker for a near fall of his own. The match then went to the top of the cage, where the two of them slugged it out for a while. Back in the ring, Jericho hit a beautiful springboard CodeBreaker, and with Edge down, Jericho warned him to stay down. Edge avoided a chair shot, and then flung Jericho into the cage several times. Jericho tried yet again to escape, but was caught and thrown down into the ring. As he inched his way to the door, Edge caught him, and slammed his ankle in the door, as payback for Jericho injuring his ankle last week. Jericho begged for mercy, but Edge would have none of it, wrenching Jericho’s ankle and stomping on it, making Jericho literally cry in pain. A Spear later, and it was all over. Good match, and better than their Mania battle.
Winner: Edge
Match Rating: 8/10
Match 8: John Cena vs Batista – Last Man Standing match for the WWE Championship
Winner, and still WWE champion: John Cena
Match Rating: 7/10
Overall Show Rating: 8/10
