WWE Extreme Rules (October 2022)

Original Airdate: October 8, 2022

From Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Your Hosts are Michael Cole and Corey Graves

Opening Six-Man Teag Team Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook Match: Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser, and Giovanni Vinci v Sheamus, Ridge Holland, and Butch: It’s so nice having a two person commentary team that’ll keep through the entire show! The heels dominate early on, taking Sheamus out, then moving onto Holland, and then Butch, one by one. Sheamus gets fired up and comes back in hot, slugging it out with Gunther. His partners recover enough to help put the boots to Gunther, and Sheamus delivers a Samoan drop. Brogue kick looks to finish, but Vinci dives in to break up the count at two. Everyone trades off, ending in Sheamus hitting Gunther with a uranage backbreaker, and the Texas cloverleaf looks to finish, but Kaiser saves. Everyone slugs it out, and again it ends in Sheamus blasting Gunther with something (in this case, a knee) for two. The babyfaces grab a bunch of walking canes and beat the heels into mush, and Sheamus finishes Vinci with a Brogue at 17:49. *

WWE Smackdown Women's Title Extreme Rules Match: Liv Morgan v Ronda Rousey: Rousey throws her around to start, and takes her down in a submission, but Liv manages to grab the hair to force it into a cradle for two. Morgan grabs a baseball bat, but Ronda blocks a swing with it, and gets her in an anklelock. Liv dumps her to the apron to escape, and a knee knocks Ronda to the floor. Liv tries a baseball slide, but Rousey blocks, and unloads on the champion on the outside. Ronda grabs the bat, but Liv sprays her with a fire extinguisher to block, so Rousey suplexes her on the floor instead. Rousey whacks her with the bat, but Liv fights her off with an enzuigiri on the way back into the ring. Morgan beats her with the bat until the challenger falls out of the ring, but Ronda comes back with a vengeance, wielding a strap. She whips Liv some, then ties her to the post, and goes to town with the bat. They bring a table in with them, and Ronda ropechokes her, and they fall out of the ring again. Liv grabs a chair to buy time, but Ronda blocks a whip into it on the way back in, and they do a sloppy sequence that ends in Rousey taking a bump into the post for two. That was very awkward. Liv whacks her with the chair a few times, and uses it to assist with a kneeling facebuster for two. She puts Rousey on a table and drives her through it with a flying senton splash for two, but Ronda turns the kick out into a triangle choke. Liv muscles it into a slam for two, but Rousey hangs on with the hold anyway. She cranks, and Liv is so battered that her false eyelash comes off as she passes out at 12:22. This was okay. * ½ 

Strap Match: Drew McIntyre v Karrion Kross: This is pinfall/submission rules. Scarlett distracts Drew while Kross is refusing to connect to the strap, allowing Kross to attack from behind, and they spill to the outside right away. Into the crowd, and Drew gets control as they head back to ringside, and he finally gets Kross attached to the strap to officially start the match. Kross sends him into the post to shake him off, and a single-arm DDT connects on the way into the ring. Kross uses the strap, and then we go back to the outside for Kross to drop him into the announce table. More strap shots, and Kross delivers a suplex for two on the way back in. Drew makes a random comeback, and a spinebuster into a somersault cradle gets him two. Slugfest goes Drew’s way, and he double-arm DDTs him. Claymore, but Scarlett comes in with pepper spray, blinding Drew, and allowing Kross to knock him silly for the pin at 10:23 (13:32 total). This was really boring. ¼*

WWE RAW Women's Title Ladder Match: Bianca Belair v Bayley: Criss cross ends in both women trying a bodypress, leaving both down. They each roll out of the ring to go for ladders, and Bayley is ahead on foot, but Belair comes in with a better ladder, and Bayley has to abandon her climb to go deal with that. Why? Like, does it really matter how tall the ladder is so long as it’s tall enough? Belair bodyslams her challenger onto a ladder to set up a handspring moonsault, so Bayley pulls a weapon out of her kneepad, but Bianca blocks with the KOD. She goes for the gold, but Bayley’s girls run in, and knock her off. They beat the champion down, but Belair fights them both off. Bayley is still able to climb, but Belair tips her off, and whips her with the braid. Bianca adds a KOD on a ladder, and that’s enough to allow her to grab the belt at 16:40. ½*

I Quit Match: Edge v Finn Balor: Edge dominates him early on, but Balor gets a figure four on. Edge reverses, but Balor rolls it back, and the referee sticking the microphone so close to their faces is giving this match a really uncomfortable soundtrack. They spill to the outside, where Balor eats the post, and gets sent into the barricade. Into the crowd, where Edge finds a hockey stick to beat on him with. What a uniquely Canadian weapon choice. They brawl all around the arena with little direction, and then back to the ring, where Balor goes to work with a chair, with Edge refusing to quit. Someone should try a drinking game based around how many times the announcers say ‘uncomfortable’ during this show. Finn keeps unloading, and a Russian legsweep sets up rings of saturn, as the crowd sits silently. Balor tries a crippler crossface next, but Edge refuses to lose, so Damian Priest runs in. Edge fights him off, so Dominik Mysterio joins the party, but Edge takes all three guys out with a triple spear. Rhea Ripley shows up to handcuff Edge to the top rope, and that finally gets the better of him. With Edge locked to the ropes, Balor, Priest, and Mysterio are able to triple up, so Rey Mysterio runs out to make the save. Dom ends that party by beating his own father down, and the crowd is heavily booing all of this, but I’m not sure it’s heel heat so much as just ‘this isn’t good’ heat. Balor unloads on Edge with a kendo stick, until Beth Phoenix shows up to make another save, and is this still a match? Ripley comes back in, but Beth fights her off, and uncuffs Edge. That allows Edge a spear on Balor, but Finn gets up. Second spear, but Balor is up again. Third spear, and he goes for the crippler crossface, but gets distracted when Ripley attacks Beth. That allows the heels to do another beatdown on Edge, but he still refuses to quit, so they threaten to conchairto Beth right in front of him, and he quits at 29:51 to save her. And then they do it anyway, like proper heels. Nothing about this needed thirty minutes, but at least all the overbooking in the final third breathed some life into what was a terribly boring match. The storytelling in the last third was good, and Edge took some serious abuse - this would have been a strong segment with ten minutes cut out. ¾* 

Main Event: Fight Pit Match: Seth Rollins v Matt Riddle: This is knockout or submission only, and Daniel Cormier is the special guest referee for this one. Riddle gets the first takedown, and hammers him with mounted punches. Riddle springboards off of the cage with an enzuigiri, and he gets a triangle choke on, but Seth goes to the eyes. Rollins chucks him into the cage, and then suplexes him into it. Seth with a splash off the cage, but Riddle fights off a submission, and drops him with a cutter. Rollins responds by climbing onto the weird platform at the top of the cage (What’s the kayfabe reason for it? Why not just put a top on the cage?), and they slug it out up there once Riddle follows. Seth powerbombs him into the cage up on that platform (in a dangerous spot), and he adds a pedigree up there, but misses a curbstomp. That allows Matt a cutter, so Seth scurries back down into the pit, but Riddle is on him with a flying senton splash from the platform! That looked like a crazy bump for each of them. Matt tries another triangle choke, but Seth counters with a few no-release powerbombs, though Riddle is able to hold on, and Rollins taps at 16:37. Another boring, boring match, and Cormier’s involvement meant absolutely nothing. ½*

BUExperience: Other than a good angle in the Balor/Edge match, this was a totally forgettable, throwaway show.

DUD