Extreme Rules 2014 was the first proper 'special event' of the new WWE era, a night in which the new generation of stars had their chance to shine, and in most cases, this proved to be what happened - Cesaro, Paige, Rusev, Bray Wyatt, The Shield and Daniel Bryan all proved successful. WWE is all about 'in with the new' and 'out with the old' right now, which made for an entertaining night, although this was hardly an event that we will still be talking about a year from now. Extreme Rules 2014 was solidly in the upper-mid region of event quality. The opening match in New Jersey was Cesaro vs Rob Van Dam vs Jack Swagger. Previous to this, there had been a pre-show on the Network of Hornswoggle vs El Torito in a WeeLC match. As you would expect from a midget contest, it was ludicrous, made more so by the miniature ladders and tables. Nevertheless, the live audience got into the spirit of it, with loud chants of 'this is awesome'. Cesaro, Van Dam and Swagger thankfully delivered real wrestling in the official opener, which was sloppy in places, but for the most part good. Van Dam in particular looked great; he is so versatile in the ring, it is a shame he doesn't want to progress beyond a mechanic role in his latest WWE run. One big problem with the match was the announce team, who clearly had an old script, they didn't realize the stipulation had changed from a one fall triple threat into an elimination triple threat. As such, there was huge confusion when Van Dam first eliminated Swagger, the commentary initially selling it like it had been a two count. Cesaro ended up winner after pinning RVD following various trash can spots. Those trash can bumps looked painful. The Rusev vs Woods and Truth match was what you would expect: Lana opened proceedings with a good promo in which she dedicated the match to controversial Russian President Vladmir Putin. She also stated that Rusev is now residing in Russia. Clearly WWE are going to go down the storyline route of capitalising on current East vs West hostilities over Ukraine, which inevitably is sure to be a heat generator and could even pick up some mainstream press given how serious and quick to escalate the Russian / West relations could prove to be. Rusev squashed Woods before the match even began and then dispatched of Truth in three minutes. When he does get action in, Rusev looks a good athlete. Barrett beat Big E clean with the Bull Hammer elbow. It was a short match, nothing memorable, enjoyable for what it was. Barrett was immensely over the crowd, which is unsurprising considering his entertaining promo work and brawling match style. If you want to get cheered in WWE these days, you are almost better off being a heel it seems. The main event of the show was Evolution vs The Shield, yet it ended up being placed in the middle of the card. It was an excellent contest, with every man contributing toward the action. The biggest star was Seth Rollins, even before his 'spot of the night' balcony jump out in the arena, he had been the stand-out wrestler in the ring too. The Shield went over big, a Reigns Superman punch and triple power bomb on Batista nearly had it won but for Evolution interference. Reigns himself kicked out of a pedigree and survived an Orton RKO. The winning pin came off a Reigns spear on Batista, which clearly marked Reigns out as the star of the group. The cage match with Cena and Bray was good, however, it suffered way too much interference and had a very gimmicky ending. The biggest issue was that it was all too obvious, and the interference was too contrived; when Cena went for the door you knew a twist would be coming. This ended up being a little boy who stood in front of the cage door. Rather than just step out and win the match, Cena froze in fear. Waytt then hit sister abigail for the pin. The implication was clear that Wyatt has got in Cena's head by turning children to 'the dark side', but this was just too daft for many fans to stomach. Paige vs Tamina Snuka was in a real death spot just before the main event. It wasn't very good. Snuka has no star-perception, Paige meanwhile is over solely on being new. The jury is still out on if Paige can remain over long term, judging from Extreme Rules, she has several aspects of her game which she will need to work on - she tried too hard at times, her selling was off and she didn't look the part of a champion. This being the Diva division, that may not be a problem, none of the women are really very good. Paige won with her scorpion crossface submission hold. Bray had a backstage promo which was just the usual. He called the kid 'little Johnny', which unfortunately conjured up memories of Heidenreich's first WWE run for this long-term fan. The closing match of Bryan vs Kane ended up good. It went backstage and lost steam a bit with contrived spots such as bumps against cars. This led to Bryan knocking Kane out and wheeling him back to the ring in a forklift truck. Bryan did a flying headbutt off the truck on to Kane which should have gone over huge, but the crowd didn't pop half as much as you might have expected. Kane recovered and we got some compelling action such as Bryan being choke slammed through an announce table. The finish was Kane lighting a table on fire only for Bryan to knock Kane through it. This was a cool spot and finished with Kane stumbling back into the ring where Bryan delivered the knee for the end. Embarrassingly, the fire extinguishing stage-hand was clear on TV way before Kane lit the table up. This telegraphed the ending and according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio "Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn would have been furious." Ultimately, Extreme Rules 2014 was a satisfying slice of entertainment. It made for an enjoyable three hours for a Sunday night but the hope will be that WWE can do a better B-level show before SummerSlam. Fan reactions seem to reflect this, no one really hated the show, no one really loved it either. Did you watch Extreme Rules? Share your thoughts on the event in the comments thread below.
