June 12, 2017 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Extreme Rules and Best of the Super Juniors finals reviewed, tons of news
Samoa Joe won the five-way title shot eliminator at Extreme Rules on 6/4 in Baltimore to set up a WWE Universal title match with Brock Lesnar on 7/9 in Dallas.
Joe winning gives the match with Lesnar an interesting aura with the idea of two tough guys going for the championship and is something of a 2004 dream match that took 13 years for it to take place.
While the PPV didn’t appear to have that much interest as compared to usual Raw shows coming in, with Joe winning, clearly interest was there coming out as the first hour of Raw was way up, the best opening number in seven weeks and the overall rating for the show was up 14 percent from the week before. Plus, an angle where Joe choked out Paul Heyman, leading to a phone call where Heyman talked to Lesnar and said that he wanted the beast unleashed and to teach Joe to fear Lesnar was done to build up the 6/12 Raw in Lafayette, LA, which features Lesnar’s first appearance since the day after WrestleMania. Lesnar isn’t scheduled for the 6/19 Raw in Evansville, but is scheduled for 6/26 in Los Angeles and 7/3 in Phoenix to build the match.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.