WWE Extreme Rules 2018: Star Ratings For All 12 Matches
2. AJ Styles Vs. Rusev - WWE Heavyweight Title Match
Ultimately, the match told a good story, in which AJ Styles was presented as that elusive clever babyface for weakening his heel opponent and his most powerful weapon. Styles wrestled with the intelligence of a chess player - but also, for long stretches, with a similar pace.
Rusev entered a good performance, but this proved that he is woefully miscast. He is a natural babyface. In a show crammed to its detriment with heat spot after heat spot after heat spot, his heat spot was virtually indistinguishable. AJ Styles was good in his intelligent and gutsy babyface role, though he hasn’t yet rediscovered the kinetic energy with which he lit up the scene in 2016 and 2017. This match, though good to very good by the finish, retained the strange, almost methodical quality that rendered his series with Shinsuke Nakamura something of a disappointment.
Is this a company-wide directive, or the first sign of AJ’s descent into the twilight of his career?
Good is the word; this was a good WWE Title match just about deserving of the pay-per-view stage. Rusev’s excellent selling really helped immerse the otherwise unenthused crowd into the match, and elevate this beyond the TV realm.
Star Rating: ***3/4