Brock-Cena was something special. Sure, Cena won, but like Taker-HHH
last year, all he won was the battle, and it took a chain and steps to
do it - Brock won the war. And Cena even did a concession speech
afterwards, although I doubt he'll leave and come back in 10 months
with vignettes of him watching footage from a throne. The Brock-Cena
match was unforgettable and Brock doing an MMA gimmick in a field where
he can be booked to be an ass-kicker is perfect. His physical charisma
really shined tonight, and if I wore a hat, it'd go off to him for
busting his ass in this match. He went through the motions in Japan and
I figured he'd do the same thing here since he's probably set for life.
But it looks like he'll give WWE the very best he can. Gotta give Vince
McMahon some credit too for allowing Brock, a guy HE SUED, to manhandle
Cena like he did. It could've have been easy for someone who's usually
so petty to do that. The show as a whole was pretty good, although the
middle portion was shaky. The Divas title thing was kinda stupid but I
like Layla so I'm glad she won, and they further killed the IC Title,
but put Punk over strong as the actual better man in a feud and he and
Jericho had a far better match here than at 'Mania. Sheamus and Bryan
also had an excellent match, and every match that needed to deliver
did.
Jeremey Peeples
Thumbs WAAAAAY up!
Best Match- Either Lesnar/Cena or Bryan/Sheamus
Worst Match- Nothing was bad, but the Show/Rhodes ending was dumb... So... That.
While I am usually a wordy fellow, I will keep this one brief. Extreme Rules 2012 was the best PPV since Money In The Bank 2011.
The first hour was pretty weak, but no one bought the show for any of those matches. So, how was the rest of the show? Well...
Was Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus awesome? YES!
Was Punk vs. Jericho pretty darn good? YES!
Was Lesnar vs. Cena EPIC and BRUTAL? YES!
Did they REALLY have Cena pin Brock in Chicago? YES!
Wait, really? YES!
Well, that is stupid. YES!
Did it ruin the show? ... no ...
So, the show was still great? YES! YES! YES!
Yeah, the ending of the main event was the booking equivelant of driving a dumptruck of cash off of the Empire State Building, but hey... The show was awesome. I am terrified for the financial future of the WWE afterward, but that is an issue for another day. Great show!
Wesley Dodd
Dave,
I bought this show, first time I’ve bought the post WM PPV in probably seven years and it was all because of Brock. I was pretty impressed with most of it up until the Bellas angle, which I thought was completely stupid. It’s one thing to throw away the angle that had been built for a year, it’s another to basically tell the fans that would’ve been most excited about it that you’re doing it. Just stupid. Then the main event started and for the first five minutes, I was completely blown away. I thought “this is perfect, the absolute perfect way to do this match”. As the match went on and Lesnar just kept beating on him and Cena kept coming back, less and less effective each time, I was getting worried but still thinking that there’s no way he’s winning and this match will end with a ref stoppage and maybe Cena’s taking some time off. And then, just like Bryan mentioned on the radio show, as soon as Cena wrapped the chain around his hand, I knew where it was going and I couldn’t believe it. When it actually happened, I was just dumbfounded. I don’t necessarily feel like I got ripped off or anything because the show was good and worth the money. And maybe I should be happy because I was fully prepared to plunk down my $54.95 for every Brock match during this run. Not now. So, I suppose I should thank Vince and his crew for saving me all that PPV money for the next year.
One other thing. Normally I get a kick out of crowds like this Chicago crowd but they kind of annoyed me this time out. The Ryback match in particular. I hope they didn’t kill him because I really think WWE might have stumbled into something there but hopefully they don’t overreact to a hot crowd shitting on him.
Thumbs up for the show, thumbs down for the future.
Best Match: Daniel Bryan v Sheamus (****)
Worst Match: Clay v Ziggler (1/4*)
Paul Fontaine
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