Thumbs Barely In the Middle — the horrendous crowd made it seem worse than it was.
Best Match: AJ/Rusev — I loved this. Might have been my favorite non NXT – WWE match of the year. Rusev’s selling was killer.
Worst Match: Asuka vs. Carmella
This was the worst crowd I have seen in as long as I can remember. I don’t necessarily like it, but I get pushing back against Reigns or whatever but totally crapping on a Seth Rollins match is lame as hell. Just stay at home.
Show was too long and the finish to the main event sucked – which is to say the live crowd got exactly what they deserved.
– Paul Matyovsky
**********
Thumbs Up
Best Match: Seth Rollins vs Dolph Ziggler
Worst Match: Carmella vs Asuka
WWE is given such easy pops as Randy Orton’s return or Seth Rollins when he returned, and then blow it by turning the wrestler heel immediately without a single match or tease.
Great last two matches but a crap main event finish. Essentially, it could have easily been Bret and Shawn’s 0-0 WM tie with the same out of nowhere quickie finish.
– Jeff Cohen
**********
Thumbs down
Best match- Aj/Rusev
Worst Match- Smackdown Women’s Title
The problem with duel branded PPVs is the shows are way to long, and often produce worst matches because few matches are given the time to be good because even though the shows are so long, so many matches are squeezed into them…plus your not even getting new stars over by giving them big matches on ppv that have time.
The show was so boring, the highlight was the semi dangerous Owens fall off the cage because at least something actually happened in that match.
Roman/Lashley was decent, maybe 3.5 stars. Iron man match suffered from being on last on a bad show when people were either too drunk or sick of being there.
– Grant Fecher
**********
Weird weird show. The show itself was sub average but the pacing, for once, was good and kept it going. Was shocked it ended by 11. But happy.
Almas vs. Cara: fine. Good enough showcase for Almas.
Tables match new Day vs sanity: I found this entertaining but nothing blow away.
Raw tag titles B team def. Hardy/Wyatt: was a raw match but I was glad to see title switch. Think sets up ultimate deletion nicely.
Balor vs Corbin: poor Finn deserves better but least he won. Raw match.
Asuka vs Carmella: all sorts of stupid.
Us title Nakamura def Jeff Hardy: I actually loved this. Orton stuff was weird.
Owens vs Strowman: I for one do not like Braun at all. Over top character who can’t work. Mostly eh besides big spot which woulda gotten over huge 20 years ago.
Hell No vs. Bludgeon Brothers: this was stupid. Kane had injury angle and Bryan takes the pin. Work was fine.
Bliss vs Nia: not terribly good.
Reigns vs Lashley: very good.
Styles vs rusev: loved this match even though never though rusev would win but he deserved to be in the world title mix.
Iron man match: shame on the crowd. Had to put it on mute. I can’t even give an accurate account as they completely ruined the match.
Thumbs in middle. Show went by fast and had enough to be okay. Wwe is what it is have to change expectations from a NJPW g1 to this.
Best match: rusev styles
Worst match: carmella asuka
– Mike Flynn
**********
Thumbs down show
Best Match: Reigns vs. Lashley
Worst Match: Carmella vs Asuka
Why even have an Extreme Rules PPV if there are almost no Extreme Rules matches? Out of 12 matches there were 3 “extreme” matches (four if you count an iron man match, which isn’t particularly extreme since you could still be DQ’d). When every match is “extreme” that gets tiresome too, but I honestly don’t understand the point of an “Extreme Rules” PPV where 75% of the matches are just regular (and subpar) matches.
– Matt Singer
**********
Best match: AJ/Rusev
Worst match: until that ridiculous main event, I was going to say Asuka/Carmella. However, because of the freaking nonsense in the Rollins/Ziggler match, that’s definitely the worst of the night.
Show overall was thumbs in the middle. I was enjoying it until the Asuka match, and then loved AJ/Rusev.
– T.J.Simmons
**********
Forget New Japan. The real competition for WWE right now is Ambien.
I really felt bad for the live crowd after the first EIGHT MATCHES. By the end of Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins I would have been okay with even worse show just to punish the live crowd. The booking & the live crowd both were horrible and they deserve each other.
Thumbs Down
Best Match – AJ Styles vs. Rusev. I saw like five matches in the G1 better than it though.
Worst Match – Do I have to vote for just one? Fine. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy by default.
– William Gregory
**********
Best match: AJ Styles vs Rusev without question. It was refreshing to see AJ in a big match with someone other than Nakamura.
I thought the worst match was Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy vs The B – Team and I just think the entire feud is just stupid in general.
But I thought the most disappointing match was Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins. It wasn’t necessarily a bad match, but it was a little slow at times and the crowd didn’t seem to care the majority of the match for some reason. So it wasn’t necessarily all the participants fault. I’m surprised the cared more about Roman’s match than this, but its whatever I guess.
I think I’m going to have to give this show a thumbs down. There was only one match that I really actually enjoyed. Everything else was just kind of there and most of the finishes were dumb and/or anticlimactic. Sorry for this long email, but once again thank you so much for all the work you do. I really appreciate it!
– Cameron Graham
**********
Massive Thumbs DOWN! I can’t believe we live in a 2018 where Toru Yano is better booked than every active member of the WWE roster.
I thought the show was particularly bad outside of AJ/Rusev and Reigns/Lashley.
Everything from the languid pacing, silly in-ring storytelling/psychology, dreadful RAW commentary, spastic camerawork and most glaringly- the general contradiction of matches being contested on an “extreme” PPV that required overthought/overbooked screwy finishes with cheating and rulebreaking- basic things that you’d think they’d permit on a traditionally strong gimmick show.
Best Match: AJ vs. Rusev
Worst Match: Carmella vs. Asuka – I couldn’t have hated this match any more.
Not a good night for WWE.
– Jeff.Parker
**********
Overall: Thumbs down — was leaning in the middle until the main-event
Best Match: AJ Styles vs Rusev, with Reigns-Lashley as the runner-up
Worst Match: Carmella vs Asuka. Rollins vs Ziggler was good wrestling wise, but had terrible booking
Those 4 hours PPV are not good. First hour was filler and we end up with a bored crowd entertaining themselves at the end. Would have been thumbs in the middle if the show started with the US title or cage match. Hard to justify paying for a month of WWE Network while the G1 is offered at the same price.
Hope the server holds up for the B&V review
– Eric Bonin
**********
I was 13 when Mick Foley went off the hell in a cell, I freaked out for it and thought it was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.
I’m 33 now and there is no justification for doing that KO spot in 2018. I can’t not know the risks of that now and honestly I don’t want to see a person killed or maimed in the name of entertainment, especially for a spot that will mean nothing in 2 months time.
If they keep rolling the dice with the stuff they will kill someone. How can you be a fan of a company that does that?
On another note I’m a recent subscriber and enjoy your content a lot.
– Jon Halling
**********
Overall flat show. Rollins Ziggler was the best match, nothing more than their Raw matches. The crowd live was more interested in doing the Royal Rumble countdown at each minute until they took the clock off the titantron at around the 20 minutes remaining. The crowd was not into Reigns Lashley at first but the becoming very into it by the ending sequence. Askua Carmella really flattened the crowd. The section I was in was really looking forward to the Jeff Hardy match, and things started to fall apart when that happened. Surprisingly very uninterested in the AJ Rusev match, Daniel Bryan couldn’t get the crowd. Braun and Owens had the crowd invested, but Braun didn’t have them the way he used to. Overall a very off night in comparison to else, the people of Pittsburgh has been fed some terrible shows the past 4 out of 4.
B Team was the most over outcome of the night and that seemed to be mostly due to surprise.
– Zach Myers
**********
Thumbs Down. WTF was that?
Awful booking. Only one excellent match with lots of bad ones. Looked especially bad after watching the great G 1 show from this morning.
Best Match AJ/Rusev by a mile
Worst Match Nia/Alexa by a little
Almas/Sin Cara **1/2. Ok but tv match was better.
New Day/Sanity. **1/4. Rushed nothing match. Waste of talent.
B team vs Woken. **3/4. Better than I expected. At least the B team push paid off.
Corbin/Finn. *1/2 Corbin’s outfit is atrocious, gimmick sucks and he’s dull in the ring. He’s ok in multi man matches but couldn’t even have a decent math with Ballor.
Asuka/Carmela *3/4 The women’s evolution Is dead. Carmella and Alexa are straight from the attitude era-pretty girls who can’t wrestle. They have killed Asuka, who should be set up for Rhonda instead of doing jobs to the worst woman in the company.
US title no rating but good angle, best thing so far in a bad show..
Strowman/Owens *** Another idiotic feud and too risky a bump. It was fine for what it was.
SD Tag Title **3/4 another disappointing match. Harper hasn’t been as good in this gimmick as he was the past. Rowan hasn’t improved and wasn’t good to begin with.
Reigns/Lashley. ***1/4 Work was fine. Crowd killed this. Hopefully this signals the end of Roman as baby face.
Jax/Bliss * Work except by James, who was a bump machine, was awful. Much worse than the SD match but booking wasn’t as bad. Rollins/Ziggler better be great or this a worse show of the year candidate.
AJ/Rusev. **** Rusev sold so well I thought he was legitimately hurt. Excellent match hurt a little by knowing Rusev couldn’t win.
Rollins/Ziggler. **1/2 First half was an overbooked mess. I kept waiting for this to take off and it never really did. Last 10 minutes were pretty good until that awful ending Another disappointment.
– Russell Griffith
**********
Thumbs down
Best: AJ Styles vs. Rusev
Worst: Carmella vs. Asuka
The show was like a bad low budget movie: it was so horribly conceived & produced to the point it became fascinating to watch. There’s just so much wrong with the current WWE product I don’t know where to start. Apparently there’s no connection between stock price and show quality.
– Nick Randall
**********
Thumbs Down – 4+ hours of my life I’ll never get back. Glorified RAW at best.
Best – AJ/Rusev. Second was Reigns/Lashley and nothing else really was anything special.
Worst – plenty to choose from but the Rollins / Ziggler gets my vote.
While the wrestling wasn’t bad the concept of a 30 minute “iron man match” seems fairly underwhelming to start. But then to run 9 falls in that time frame (a fall every 3.3 minutes?) is ridiculous considering these guys can go 10-15 minutes on tv with only one fall taking place. The end was a joke. Then take the fans and their count downs and the fact that a secondary title was defended over the WWE championship – worst match.
Second was the Asuka / Carmella. What a waste. But I guess that could be said for Balor / Corbin, Hardy / Nakamura as well.
– Dave Gould