by Hanley! » Apr 27, '15, 1:15 pm
I liked it pretty well. I thought (yet again) that it was better than Wrestlemania. The matches were better, and while I always look forward to the pageantry of Wrestlemania, the time wasting and the pandering and the fan service tend to drag the show down in my estimation, and that was definitely the case this year.
Extreme Rules started out really strong, but sadly failed to keep that momentum going. Barrett & Neville killed it on the pre-show. I'm looking forward to Neville's first proper angle on Raw. This guy is so good in the ring, that I'm really hoping they don't screw things up with him. This match made for a cool highlight reel, but I thought they actually had some good tension going by the end too.
Ambrose vs Harper was a fun angle. The match wasn't amazing by any means, but I liked the idea to break the match up, and there were a few really sick looking bumps. Enjoyable for sure.
Sheamus vs Ziggler was another great match. They have good chemistry together, and this was just fun to watch. I thought the post-match stuff was even better than the match though. Sheamus is playing a terrific heel at the moment, that was some great acting by him after the match. I was laughing my ass off. The post-match angle here was my highlight of the entire show. Brilliantly performed by both guys.
The tag team match was really good too, which kinda surprised me to be honest, because I saw this match at a house show recently and it was fucking coma-inducing. I guess they really didn't give a damn about giving the house show fans a good match. But here on pay per view it was electric. Kidd kept the match moving at a good pace, and Cesaro's occasional feats of pure strength were awesome. They're a good team. I like that they're doing a double turn, but I don't think New Day should have been given the belts until they were actually over as heels, rather than just not being over as faces.
So the first hour of the show is the best I've seen in ages. I was thinking this show would turn out to be completely amazing at this point, but things quickly went downhill. Rusev vs Cena was a snore. It's not a great stipulation anyway, but they did nothing with it and it seemed to just suck all the energy out of this match. The finish was stupid too. This was a real dud, which I wasn't expecting from these two.
The Divas match was good. Some people have said it was the worst of the night, but this was more than passable. There were a few nice looking moves used, and it never got boring. Though if people found it hard to care about the match because of the nonsensical booking in this division, I wouldn't blame them. Why are the Bellas acting like faces all of a sudden?
Reigns vs Big Show started very slow and I thought it was going to suck, but it picked up as time went on and I thought it was pretty good by the end. Not as good as anything from the first hour, but there were some cool spots and I liked the finish. Made for a nice visual too.
The main event was good in parts, but overbooked. The way this was laid out was pretty stupid really. Not the best way to start Rollins title reign.
I'll give it a 7. Though I hope next month we get a better main event.