Ladies and gentlemen welcome to a special recap from Ben and I for WWE’s The Horror Show at Extreme Rules. Since Ben and I will be taking off August 1st we wanted to still give you all our thoughts on the pay per view as when we return we’ll be on the road to WWE SummerSlam and AEW All Out. So we hope you enjoy the recap and our thoughts on the pay per view.
Please be advised that there is some foul language, but not enough to warrant the usual NSFW warning we put in our titles.
Kick-Off Show:
Mike: I like how both men started this match by trying to end but only to go right into a brawl. Nice way to start the match in my opinion. Outside that it was your standard back and forth match, but both Owens and Murphy had a very solid match between them.
Kevin Owens defeats Buddy Murphy via pinfall with the Stunner
Match #1:
Mike: This match moved really fast right from the start. The momentum swung quickly between the two teams, but once the tables got involved that’s when things really slowed down a bit, and see both teams get a bit more methodical with trying to get their opponents through the table. The finish was a nice touch. Loved how they did the double table spot to finish the match.
Also I have to say the segment with New Day during the kickoff show was great. Bringing WWE Hall of Famer D-von Dudley in to play the “mentor” was fun to see.
Ben: I hate it when Champions come out first. It’s weird that our current tag champions don;t have a combined theme.. I never like that either.. That being said I’m happy to see the belts a) on someone other than the New Day or the Usos and b) on Cesaro and Nakamura. So I’ll live with it. This match DID NOT STOP, it felt like it needed about 2-3 more minutes just so there could be a breath or 2 between sequences.
Cesaro & Shinsuke Nakamura defeat The New Day after putting Kofi Kinston through two tables to become the new WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champions.
Match #2:
Mike: I enjoyed this match. Good solid match that saw Bayley use dirty tactics with the help of Sasha Banks to retain her title over Nikki Cross. I definitely liked this match from Nikki. It will be really great when she gets the chance to have a run with one of the singles Women’s titles.
Ben: I can’t wait till this Sasha/Bayley bullshit is over and other women can get a look in. Good match, Not a fan of the result, but I just don;t like the Bayley/Sahsa thing. It’s the right outcome for the story they are telling, but I just wanna see Nikki with a nice dominant championship reign. Side note: Bayley’s theme? Low key banger.
Bayley retained the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship via pinfall.
Match #3:
Mike: Umm… Ok?
Ben: I’m not really watching RAW or Smackdown these days so I’m not as up on what is going on week to week so I’m guessing this has something to do with Bobby Lashley putting Crews in a full Nelson on TV? The same full nelson that didn;t really dent McIntyre? Great effective heel work here.
MVP via forfeit?
Match #4:
Mike: Ok so this was primarily an Extreme Rules Match that just had the stipulation that someone had to “lose and eye”. I think the overall match was really good. I enjoyed the action between both Rollins and Mysterio, but I will admit that when they were doing the eye gouging attempts near the end of the match it was really uncomfortable to watch. You got a little insinuation that Rey lost his eye as he was holding what looked like a fake eye in his hand and that was just enough for me.
Ben: Part of me will never understand why in a match like this we see Irish whips and Headscissors.. But it’s wrestling.. so I suspend that kinda thing. Some good action and sequences, I liked that Rey didn’t just walk down the aisle, I loved the sliding flip powerbomb. The ending felt anticlimactic, but it was always going to. I’ve loved Rollins work as the Monday Night Messiah, it’s really benefited from the ability to cut more lowkey, personal promos, and he did well here too. Vomit and all. Rey on the other hand.. At a certain point in the match, Rollins had battered his ribs with Rebar, A falcon arrow on the armor, and more.. And Rey was climbing ropes and moving around like he was just out of breath.. It was.. Weird the lack of selling from one half of the match really broke things.
Seth Rollins defeats Rey Mysterio after popping his eye on the steel steps.
Match #5:
Mike: Another really solid women’s match, and dare I say better than the Bayley/Cross match from earlier in the night. Only thing that bothered me was the finish. I liked the whole build up to the pinfall itself, but Bayley taking the referee shirt and just taking the belts just felt off. I know on RAW they’ll rectify the issue, but it still felt off for me. Overall, great match.
Ben: What the Fuck? Great match.. Hated the ending, but the story isn;t finished. Let’s see where it goes. This wouldn;t have been as WTF if they hadn;t done something similar with MVP one match ago. It is worth noting that neither Banks nor MVP are officially recognized as champions. WWE.com still has Asuka and Crews listed, while Cesaro/Nakamura are listed as SD tag Champs.
Sasha Banks defeats Asuka via pinfall after Bayley took the ref’s shirt and counted the pinfall… So not official?
Match #6:
* Ziggler’s Stipulation is that it will be Extreme Rules for Ziggler Only.
Mike: So as Ben and I discussed on the latest episode of AwesomeMania, Ben made the point that Ziggler’s stipulation should be one that literally says “I win”, and that’s what he did with the Extreme Rules for Ziggler Only stipulation. I thought it was smart for the way they introduced the stipulation and it really put McIntyre in a real underdog spot. Was a good match, and with the right result too.
Ben: When he announced the stip I was wondering if this could get into Over-booked territory, but it worked really well, it created some really nice moments like the suplex spot and more. I still don;t like that Dolph got this shot after winning one match in 2020 in singles competition, but I also don’t; like that Ziggler is in that position, so it;s a trade off. They could have been more creative with the stip like “Drew has to wrestle with his arms and legs tied together,” or make it a ‘No matter what happened, Dolph wins the title” match. Or something.. Really make the most of the stip. The match itself was really good, I really really want to see a prolonged, earned push to a title that he holds for a long time for Ziggler, but he;s just .. the guy who can;t win the big one and I hate that. The timing on the finish was superb.
McIntyre retains the WWE Championship over Ziggler via pinfall
Match #7:
Mike: So I needed to watch this three times. The first time was live, but I needed to step away for reasons. The second and third times I used it to really study the parts I saw again and to take in the stuff that I missed. I’ll admit first that I did enjoy this match more than the Firefly Funhouse, and while the Swamp Fight kept the psychological mind games that the Funhouse had, I think this one did it better. Bray channeling his original persona and having that Louisiana accent again was a nice touch for him. I enjoyed the action for this too. The action leading into the Braun face off with his former self was a nice touch, and then seeing Alexa Bliss in this to both play off of her past storyline with Braun from the Mixed Match Challenge AND the fact that she was originally penciled in to be Sister Abigail, I thought that was very well done and was without a doubt a huge highlight from this match. I loved the false finish where they showed the little graphic signalling the end of the show. It gave us one more bit of action, and introduced the Fiend to lead us to Braun vs. The Fiend at SummerSlam next month.
Ben: That was Superb. I have made no bones about the fact I’ve kinda drifted out of Mondays and Fridays since I watch both Wednesday shows, so I don;t really know what was going on coming into this. So this was excellent. Not only did they learn from the Firefly Funhouse match and actually have some fighting.. But.. I will make no bones about this; the Alexa/Braun thing was one of my favorite things in wrestling when they did it in the first Mixed match challenge and always hoped they would pick it up at some point so to see it referenced here made me very very VERY happy. Please don;t let this wander, WWE, But then again people will see it as a retread of Otis/Mandy…
Winner is… The Fiend?
Overall the card has some results that have questions that need to be answered on Raw (which is happening as I type this) and on SmackDown, but overall we had good matches, and the storylines got progressed as we head towards SummerSlam.
