7 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Extreme Rules 2018

6. Smaller Guy Lucks Out Win

Finn Balor Baron Corbin
WWE.com

Welcome to Vince McMahon’s WWE, where big guys reign supreme.

Finn Balor might have defeated Constable Baron Corbin at Extreme Rules, but it wasn’t the kind of victory he’ll be putting on his resumé. Corbin dominated much of the match, hitting most of his signature spots, while Balor had to settle for a couple hope spots here and there.

As the match wound down, Finn went for the Coup de Grace, only for Corbin to topple him and attempt the End of Days. However, Balor turned that into a rollup for the win. Instead of a former Universal Champion absorbing punishment and then dishing it out to gut out a hard-fought win, Balor lucked out to win via rollup.

It doesn’t settle anything and allows Corbin to run around and say he’s still tougher. Unless this is leading to a rematch where Finn wins decisively (a big “if”), then this is an easy down.

This is something that has never made a lot of sense. A big guy like Corbin being felled by a couple huge moves is one thing, but losing to a rollup is another. What would look worse? In McMahon’s view, the surprise rollup presumably helps the bigger guy save face because he didn’t lose to Balor’s finisher.

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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.