WWE Extreme Rules - Ranked From Worst To Best

After all the excitement and hoopla that surrounds WrestleMania season, May can often seem a  little bit mundane in comparison. World Wrestling Entertainment's attempt to spice up this lull comes in the shape of Extreme Rules, a night where WWE harks somewhat back to the long-lost years of gimmick matches and violence.

The first edition of the show came in 2009, and every year since WWE has indeed gone extreme. Stipulations are the name of the day, and in the seven editions of the event a total of 21 different stipulation matches have taken place, not including those standard matches of course. Variations of the cage have featured the most, with a total of six cage matches happening over the years.

The quality of WWE Extreme Rules has varied from 'Show Of The Year' to 'Oh Yeah, That Show Happened'. Following WrestleMania is either the hardest or easiest task, If the big show hits the right notes, whatever follows it is going to be tough. If Mania disappoints, Extreme Rules has the chance to be the perfect pick-me-up.

So if you're watching the show live this Sunday and are thinking of watching a past Extreme Rules to warm up, let me do the work for you in choosing which one. Here are the seven Extreme Rules events ranked from worst to best.

Last year's edition of WWE Extreme Rules wasn't a bad show in truth. The card looked interesting enough, with a number of developments post-WrestleMania being moved to the next level. Dean Ambrose and Luke Harper opened the show with a brawl that took to the streets of Chicago, Ambrose eventually picking up the win some 56 minutes after the opening bell sounded.

The New Day clambered to the top of the tag team mountain for the first time, defeating the duo of Tyson Kidd and Cesaro (K-Swiss? Swisskers?) for the WWE Tag Team Championship, and Roman Reigns managed to drag a more than enjoyable match out of the Big Show of all people, a match contested under Last Man Standing rules.

Even so, the show failed to rise to anything above underwhelming. John Cena continued his destruction of Rusev by besting the previously unbeatable Bulgarian in a Russian Chain match, and Seth Rollins defended his newly won WWE World Heavyweight Championship in a steel cage against Randy Orton with 100% of the stipulations on his side.

The biggest crime of the night came in the shape of the Dolph Ziggler/Sheamus bout, a match that was billed as a 'Kiss Me A*se' match. What this mean, in theory, was that the loser was to kiss the bottom of the winner, a stipulation that most likely amused Vince McMahon and no one else. Ziggler won the match, yet a post-match attack by Sheamus left the Show-Off's lips in close proximity to the buttocks of the Celtic Warrior. That is a sentence I never wanted to type.