7 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Extreme Rules 2016

by Scott Carlson

1. Expectations Exceeded

fatal 4 way extreme rules
WWE.com

Holy Hell.

When the fatal fourway was announced for the Intercontinental Championship, fans knew it had the potential to be a classic, but Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Miz and Kevin Owens ran away with the show Sunday night, keeping fans on the edge of their seats if any were foolish and lazy enough to not stand.

Things got started right away with Sami hitting a Helluva Kick on KO and Cesaro uppercutting Miz out of the match, but it really picked up to a frenzied pace in the last third of the bout, when everyone kept hitting huge moves on someone, only to have the pinfall broken up.

For example: Cesaro hit a Neutralizer on Owens for two (Zayn saved); Zayn hit a sunset bomb on Cesaro for two; Samis Helluva Kick was countered with a Cesaro uppercut, then a Zayn Exploder on Cesaro; Helluva was countered with a KO superkick; Pop-Up Powerbomb on Cesaro for two (Miz saved). And all of that happened in maybe a minute.

Forget the outcome (which was the right one). This was an absolutely incredible match. Worth watching again and again.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.