WWE Extreme Rules - Ranked From Worst To Best

3. 2009 - A Perfect Finish And The Perfect Finish

Daniel Bryan Kane
wwe.com

2009 was the very first edition of WWE Extreme Rules, and in many ways it was the prototypical Extreme Rules. It had a load of rubbish on the show, matches that were more gimmick that anything else. Some matches got little time, feeling rushed in the process. Batista defeated Randy Orton for the WWE Championship inside a steel cage in just 7 minutes, before forfeiting it the next night due to injury.

John Cena defeated Big Show for the 23753th time in their 'Best of 24001' Series, Santina Marella continued ahead with a joke that wasn't funny to begin with, humiliating the Guerrero family further in the process. CM Punk also defeated Umaga, but it was a strap match, which pretty much guarantees thumbs down in this day and age.

Still, there was a whole lot of excellence on the show. Chris Jericho defeated Rey Mysterio for his 9th Intercontinental Championship in the show opener, with a finish that was absolutely perfect in its creation and execution. Whilst going for the '619' Rey was stopped mid-spin by the hand of Jericho ripping off the luchador's mask. It was enough to distract Rey and allow Jericho to pick up the win. The timing and execution was perfect, to say the least.

The show also ended on an immensely memorable note. Jeff Hardy and Edge put on the ladder match you would expect from two ladder match aficionados, with the Extreme Enigma coming out on top. Before he could celebrate his newly-won World Heavyweight Championship however, CM Punk came out, kneed him twice in the face and took the belt home, via the magic of Money in the Bank.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.