If there's a criticism to be made of the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, it's that it often doesn't live up to what wrestling fans would label as 'extreme'. This classic Hardcore Championship match certainly does live up to that moniker. While WWE could never match the underground atmosphere of ECW, it's strategy pertaining to hardcore wrestling was to go big on spectacle. Looking back, the hardcore division often had more in common with the exploits of Wile E. Coyote than the patented ultraviolence of today's vision of hardcore in promotions like CZW. Raven, Kane and Big Show fight all over the Reliant Astrodome, breaking windows, walls and golf carts as they go. It's not a match that will go down in history for its technical wrestling or strong storytelling, but it will certainly be fondly remembered for the fact that it threw everything at the wall. TLC II may be the stipulation match most often mentioned in discussions of the pay-per-view, but this bout remains one of the most relentlessly entertaining matches in the history of the Hardcore Championship. We perhaps won't see anything that comes close to this level of carnage on Sunday and that's perhaps for the best. This match holds up upon a rewatch, but it's very much a product of the dying days of the Attitude Era. That being said, there is a chance that the Chicago Street Fight between Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper demonstrates the same kind of ingenuity in its carnage.
