20 Reasons Why WWE The Horror Show At Extreme Rules Was An Absolute Mess
Outstanding wrestling undone by hilarious eyeballs and swamps.
Has there ever been a pay-per-view that so perfectly captures the exasperation of the modern WWE fan?
The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was a night of excellent wrestling, mostly notably in Sasha Banks vs. Asuka, where two of the best in the world reached for a characteristically high ceiling and smashed right through it. Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio transcended the wacky Eye for an Eye stipulation with a brutish encounter that conveyed its high stakes though ugly, weighty violence. Murphy and Kevin Owens killed it on the Kickoff and Dolph Ziggler looked great against Drew McIntyre, entering his best performance since 2018's feud with Rollins.
Again, excellent wrestling. The independent contractors killed it. It's a shame, then, that the booking team drowned their efforts in a tidal wave of urine.
While bad writing screwing good wrestling is nothing new, this Horror Show took it to new levels. Only the first three matches (Kickoff included) emerged unblemished. What's most irritating of all is that Extreme Rules' dumber moments weren't even funny enough to compensate, with even the wacky Swamp Fight devoid of the so-bad-it's-good fluff that often turns WWE's cinematic disasterpieces into perverse joys.
Let's unpack the mess...
20. MVP Is A GM Now
MVP awarding himself Apollo Crews' United States Championship fits the ongoing storyline between the false champ, the real champ, and Bobby Lashley, but how does anybody take this guff seriously knowing that Mr. Porter making a General Manager-level decision holds no sway and will mean absolutely nothing when Apollo returns to television?
This is a cursed and loathsome sentence, truly, but The Horror Show at Extreme Rules could have used an on-air authority figure to straight this sh*t out.