Gimmick Matches Exceed Expectations and Hot Takes from WWE Extreme Rules 2020

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Credit: WWE.com

In reality, The Horror Show at Extreme Rules on Sunday could have gone one of two ways.

It could have been a colossal cluster, a laughably bad presentation that emphasized the creative slump WWE has found itself in for most of 2020 . Or it could have been a surprisingly entertaining effort from a company looking for anything to inspire a reaction out of its audience.

Thankfully for Vince McMahon and Co., it was latter.

The annual extravaganza of gimmick matches galore exceeded all expectations, including two highly suspect contests that were significantly more fun than they appeared on paper.

Coupled with another showstopping performance by Dolph Ziggler and a Kickoff Show that saw Kevin Owens and Murphy tear the house down, it was a successful event that set the table for SummerSlam in August while shining a light on the Superstars who figure to be prominently featured on that particular card.

And these are a few of the night's hottest takes.

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WWE has a long and frustrating history of overproducing gimmick matches to the point that they become laughably bad or mind-numbingly stupid, and with an Eye for an Eye match and Wyatt Swamp Fight on the card, there was plenty of reason to suspect Extreme Rules 2020 would become a Horror Show for all the wrong reasons.

But it did not.

Despite two incredibly ridiculous concepts on paper, both the grisly battle between Rey Mysterio and Seth Rollins and the taped cinematic bout between Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt far exceeded expectations and helped make Sunday's pay-per-view infinitely better than expected.

Mysterio and Rollins had an enjoyable, appropriately intense match with a finish that adhered to the rules of the Eye for an Eye match without needing to go too over-the-top as to include a CGI eyeball protruding from a wrestler's face.

Then there was the latest masterpiece from Wyatt, who took Strowman on a long and arduous journey into his personal hell. He manipulated the universal champion, haunted him with the ghosts of his past and pulled out The Fiend at the end to hammer home to torment that awaits post-Extreme Rules.

The Horror Show tagline was thrown on to this years Extreme Rules pay-per-view to reflect these two matches in particular, placing a ton of pressure on them to succeed. They did, and the result was one of the fresher, more enjoyable presentations by WWE in quite some time.

In this new normal as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, these kind of risque, outside-the-box type of matches are what the company should be doing to keep fans invested in a product that is incredibly stale without their participation.

Sunday's show was but an example of what can be. Now, it is up to WWE to examine what worked, realize why it did and go back to that well from time to time to help keep things fresh and the audience engaged. 

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Asuka and Sasha Banks were in the midst of one of WWE's best matches in 2020 when overthought booking ruined it.

A hard-hitting, physically intense match that showcased the best of the performers, it deserved better than the convoluted finish that dragged it to a confusing and underwhelming conclusion.

Yeah, we get it: Bayley and Banks talk a big game but routinely cheat to win. That has been covered every week since the beginning of the year. The worst part is that it still could have been an integral part of this particular match without having to become as messy as it did.

Bayley getting involved and caught. Banks getting caught with the tag title belt. Asuka blinding the referee. Bayley clocking Asuka and then ripping off the referee's shirt and counting the fall. The whole thing was overdone to the extent that it took away from everything that preceded it, which is the definition of a terrible wrestling finish.

And why did said finish exist?

Probably to set up a rematch.

Good luck getting people to be as invested in that one after they were badly burned by the horrifically unsatisfying conclusion Sunday.

Especially when just about anything else that was not this finish would have been a better choice.

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WWE's inability to follow up on Dolph Ziggler's main event pushes, having him lose in every match he has in and around it before leaving him to wallow in the midcard until the next time it needs him, is of no fault of his own. He cannot control what the crack creative team in Stanford, Connecticut, comes up with.

What he can control, though, is his performance in the rare opportunities he gets to shine near the top of the card.

Case in point: Sunday's stellar showing against Drew McIntyre.

The slimy heel who stacked the deck against the WWE champion, creating one-sided stipulations and doing everything in his power to take the title from The Scottish Psychopath. When he could not, emotions got the best of him and he left himself open for the Claymore Kick.

Like most of his flirtations with the main event scene, this one ended in defeat, but not before Ziggler again proved that he can hang at the top of the card alongside the best WWE has to offer.

He was so good, in fact, that a determined and obsessed Ziggler continuing his quest to dethrone his former tag team partner is an intriguing story that could make for entertaining television if WWE is not so sure about booking McIntyre vs. Randy Orton quite yet.

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If you were late to the party, you probably missed Kevin Owens and Murphy putting on a show-stealing performance on the Kickoff, just minutes before the start of The Horror Show at Extreme Rules.

KO and The Best Kept Secret had a match full of great strikes, quality reversals and some strong transitions en route to the former executing a picture-perfect stunner for the win.

Owens, like a few other notable stars, was left off Sunday's card for reasons that only a few people know. He made up for it, working alongside a familiar foe to deliver a hell of a match that set the tone for the show.

While some will argue that the Kickoff is meant to set the table for the PPV and give fans an idea of what to expect, Owens and Murphy was such a good match that it earned the right to be on the main card.

It was wasted on the pre-show presentation, which probably was not responsible for the sale of any more PPVs or WWE Network subscriptions.

Given the fact that MVP vs. Apollo Crews did not go down as scheduled, would it have hurt to throw the 10-minute barn-burner on the show and given Owens a quality win on the main card?

The answer? A resounding "no."