10 WWE Extreme Rules 2018 Impulse Reactions

6. Hypotheticals

Braun Strowman Kevin Owens
WWE

B-Team, winners. Bored beaten-up midcarder, winner. Kevin Owens: biggest idiot loser on the whole show, winner. Was a pattern emerging yet again?

Ignoring the completely broken psychology the...actually, no, not ignoring it, because it's absolutely impossible to ignore. Kevin Owens as a hypothetical heel may have antagonised hypothetical babyface Braun Strowman by trying to galvanise forces against him at Money In The Bank, but has 'The Monster Among Men's response to his sh*thousery not more than evened the odds by this point? Vince McMahon obviously assumed not, crafting an entire pay-per-view match as a retread of the angle up to this point.

Owens got his sh*t in immediately as the bell rang before getting sh*t on before the next one did to confirm his pyrrhic victory. Even when he had the advantage, his character was deemed too stupid or embittered to take it. But then, one can have sympathy for an abuse victim finally having control over his oppressor if such roles were correctly assigned. Instead, Braun the babyface ripping away his handcuffs to return to brutalising heel Owens was supposed to be as vindicating as 'KO's bump was for the finish.

The mechanisms are knackered. Kevin Owens is definitely knackered. Strowman's future remains on ice so thin it would crack under a cruiserweight's feet, let alone the heavy weight of expectation for him.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.