Here are my final thoughts on Raw and SmackDown Live’s WWE The Horror Show at Extreme Rules 2020!
Kevin Owens vs. Murphy
Reactions: I mean, we knew these guys were gonna deliver. Kevin Owens and Murphy are a part of that crew on Monday Night Raw that keep that brand alive with good to great matches. And to the surprise of no one, they faced each other once again and lived up to their usual match quality here. The beginning, in particular, started at a breakneck pace and stayed smooth throughout. And as the match wore on, both men slowed things down when the situation called for it and sped up the action near the closing moments. The counter exchanges were the best part of this bout as it showcased how both men were familiar with each other’s gameplan and played into their ongoing rivalry. This was one of the better Kickoff Show matches of the year.
Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars
The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) (c) vs. Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura (Tables Match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship)
Reactions: WE GOT NEW BLUE BRAND TAG TEAM CHAMPS! The way Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura ended up planting Kofi Kingston through a table was masterful. It has been so long since I’ve seen Cesaro pull out that old Ricola Bomb. I’m glad he pulled it back out to destroy Kofi and earn himself a title in the process. As for the rest of this match, it was pretty good. Both teams found clever ways to prevent their man from getting eliminated and the way Kofi ate a table to the face on the outside was quite the crowd popping moment. Putting this match into the opener spot was a great decision to make. Congrats to the new SmackDown Tag Team champs!
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Bayley (c) vs. Nikki Cross (WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship)
Reactions: See what happens when you put Bayley in the ring with someone who’s capable of bringing so much more life out of her? This match was such a huge step up from Bayley’s atrocious feud with Tamina and pointed to Nikki Cross’ underrated in-ring ability. Nikki’s crazed antics always pits her as the manic, fast-paced competitor that doesn’t go down so easily. This major detail helped push Bayley to go a lot harder than she usually does and make this match a fiery affair. The ending was pretty lame, to be honest. But the rest of the in-ring action produced here was quite entertaining. And I usually don’t say that about Bayley’s matches, so color me surprised on this one.
Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars
Apollo Crews (c) vs. MVP (WWE United States Championship)
Reactions: I’m getting Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon vibes from this storyline development. Since Apollo Crews decided to stay at home and quarantine (I don’t blame the man, honestly), MVP has crowned himself as the owner of the brand spanking new United States Championship. This most likely means that Crews will make his return as the rightful holder of the belt and go right at MVP’s neck in a bid to also get his hands on the new belt. So chances are we’re getting a title unification match at SummerSlam between Crews and MVP, which is cool I guess. Wished they would have just canceled this match altogether and put Sheamus/Jeff Hardy back on the card, though…
Rating: We didn’t even get a match…
Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio (Eye for an Eye Match)
Reactions: Man…that ending. I’m sure they were going for shock value here and have the fans watching it puke just as hard as Seth Rollins did. But it was unintentionally hilarious more than anything else. Watching Rey grasp an obviously fake eyeball while his son and medical personnel ran down to aid him was just silly, to be honest. I enjoyed everything else that took place before that horrible finish, though.
It’s really hard for the two men featured here to put on a bad match, so I knew going in that this was going to be watchable despite the horrible gimmick attached to it. Both men even found a way to make their constant struggles to poke the other man’s eye out entertaining. I enjoyed most of what these guys delivered in the ring before they were forced to go completely left with the cornball eye for an eye gimmick.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
Asuka (c) vs. Sasha Banks (WWE Raw Women’s Championship)
Reactions: This match definitely had its noteworthy moments. Asuka and Sasha Banks are known for putting on quality bouts every time they square off. I had high hopes for this repeat meeting and those expectations were being met during the first half of it. But the longer it went on, the more steam it lost over time. Along with the overly long run time being a blemish on this match were the sloppy exchanges that transpired more often than not.
That German Suplex Asuka tried to pull off on Sasha from the ring apron clearly didn’t pay off, plus Sasha’s top-rope Diving Meteora attempt led to her slipping and further decreasing this match’s overall rating. And as for the ending, I hated every part of it. It was overly convoluted and put a further damper on a match that should have been amazing. What started out as a fun match ended up being a prime example of WWE’s booking style turning a great situation into a lame one. What a letdown this turned out to be…
Rating: 2 & a Half out of 5 Stars
Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler (Extreme Rules Match for the WWE Championship – Dolph Only; If Drew McIntyre gets DQ or Counted Out, Ziggler Will Win the Championship)
Reactions: Dolph Ziggler rolled the dice on a pretty smart match stipulation that ultimately should have worked out in his favor. And during those moments where Dolph took advantage of his custom ruleset, it looked as if he had the title won. But Drew McIntyre is just too tough to put down – I loved watching him remain resilient against everything the challenger threw at him. I definitely got a kick out of watching Dolph pull out all the stops with his use of weaponry and tables. I also loved the story being told where the champ refrained from doing anything that would have gotten him DQ’ed or counted out and lose the belt in the process.
Special shout out goes to Dolph for landing that sick flying elbow drop to Drew through a table on the outside. And I’m sure he planted Drew with a Rock Bottom onto a chair since The Rock himself showed Dolph some Instagram love beforehand. Drew ended up remaining champion once he delivered a sicker than usual Claymore Kick after competing in one of his best title defenses to date. Dolph may be irrelevant when it comes to being taken seriously as a title contender, but the man still knows how to put on a damn good match.
Rating: 3 & a Half out of 5 Stars
Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt (Wyatt Swamp Fight)
Reactions: I had a bad feeling that WWE would find a way to overdo the cinematic match concept at some point. After the smashing success of the Boneyard Match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles, they followed it up with an (in my opinion) cringeworthy “match” between John Cena and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt. Then we got the Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WWE HQ months later and I wasn’t a huge fan of that either. And after watching yet another cinematic clash featuring Bray Wyatt, WWE is now 1-3 when it comes to the quality of their pre-taped matches. I know some people are still into Bray’s mind games and twisted promo delivery, but I stopped caring once he was fed to Goldberg earlier this year. And I stopped giving a damn about Braun Strowman long before he claimed the Universal Championship.
So with all that being said, you probably guessed how I felt about this Wyatt Swamp Fight. And you’re right – I hated it. This was hokey, boring, and the worst way to bring this show to a close. Having to sit through a painfully long promo from Bray made this feel way longer than it actually was. Braun’s constant brawling with Bray’s minions was C-Level movie quality “entertainment” at best. And the creepy callback to Braun’s love for Alexa Bliss did nothing for me. Braun and Bray’s back and forth struggle was uninspired and just a complete chore to sit through, too. So yeah, this was a horrid cinematic presentation. I hope WWE takes a break from doing these types of matches for a very long time…
Rating: HATED IT!
Match of the Night
Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler!
Final Verdict
The extra moniker this year’s edition of Extreme Rules got came true in the worst ways possible. The horror we ended up getting from this show included an advertised title match not happening as planned, a hilariously bad ending to a good match, a match that should have been great being brought down by miscommunication and bad booking, and a painfully boring cinematic main event that did nothing to make me care about what was happening onscreen. The rest of the card was less of a horror show, thankfully. But even with those good moments to speak of, The Horror Show at Extreme Rules 2020 turned out one of the most lackluster wrestling shows of the year. And to think we’re probably going to get even more Braun and Bray next month. Yay…
Final Score: 2 & a Half out of 5 Stars
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