8 Match Star Ratings From WWE: The Horror Show At Extreme Rules
4. Seth Rollins Vs. Rey Mysterio - Eye For An Eye Match
Some of the work was really good.
All of the work made absolutely no sense in the context of a match in which the objective was to remove the eyeball from its socket and, presumably, shred to the point of malfunction the optic nerve.
If it was a weapons match, this would have worked; Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio attentively crafted a spot in which Mysterio crashed hard on a table that wasn't positioned for the sake of the spot. They earned the spot earlier in the match. They built the spot organically. They didn't position the table to clearly save it for later. The spot proved immersive as well as viscerally satisfying. The spot made no sense in the context of a match in which the objective was to remove the eyeball from its socket.
The high spots fused an exhilaration and physicality that made no sense in the context of a match in which the objective was to remove the eyeball from its socket.
Because Rollins is great on his day and Mysterio is plain f*cking great, they somehow conspired to create tension whenever a spiked weapon neared an eyeball. They made halfway acceptable use of what was an unacceptably dumb premise in how seriously it took itself. This was dumb fun that wasn't remotely fun. This was Joey Janela's Spring Break helmed by David Simon.
This at times was a glimpse into how another promotion - a competent promotion - might have promoted Seth Rollins Vs. Rey Mysterio on pay-per-view.
At other, more awful times, it was WWE in microcosm: a staggeringly horrendous pro wrestling promotion salvaged, fleetingly and tragically, by the talent it fails so profoundly.
The next two matches were like that, too!
Star Rating: ★¼