How WWE Can Win The New Wrestling War
Extreme Rules 2019 was everything great about the modern WWE product.
The year's most exciting main roster pay-per-view had its lulls, but was breathless when at its best. Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley delivered the kind of destructive monster mash only possible when two hosses are turned loose on each other, something that can't happen with AEW's size-deficient talent pool. Aleister Black and Cesaro scratched the workrate itch in under 10 minutes. Wrestling genius Daniel Bryan worked his magic once more in his and Rowan's three-way with The New Day and Heavy Machinery, creating a low-key main roster Match of the Year contender.
The opener, meanwhile, provided the clearest blueprint for how WWE can present their most exciting in-ring product going forward.
The Graveyard Dogs vs. Drew McIntyre and Shane McMahon was magnificent. Perfectly laid-out to highlight strengths and hide weaknesses, it was a white-knuckle thrill-ride and the most exciting Undertaker match in years, with the live crowd's thirst for Shane's blood amplifying with each perfectly-planned exchange. If one could distill everything that makes WWE's big-theatre spectacle into a single match, this would be it. Your writer had as much fun watching it as any G1 Climax bout (Jon Moxley vs. Tomohiro Ishii aside) this year.
Big, explosive, and designed to make you pop out of your seat rather than stroke your chin, it was an action movie. It was the Hobbs & Shaw to AEW/NJPW's Portrait of a Lady on Fire. A big box office banger vs. artful Cannes fodder.
And that's how WWE should continue.
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