Extreme Rules 2009 Review

Kofi vs. MVP vs. Matt Hardy vs. Regal
Just a bunch of spots that you’ve seen a million times. Not bad per se but not anything that I’d want to watch again.

**

Jericho vs. Rey
A little better than last month’s match. Really fast paced with a nice ending. I think just saw this particular ending somewhere not too long ago but for the life of me I can’t remember where. I’m all for another match between these two.

***1/2

Punk vs. Umaga
Standard strap match. These guys have enough chemistry to where even their “standard” stuff is at least watchable…and this was.

**1/2

Dreamer vs. Christian vs. Swagger
The term “fun match” gets thrown around a lot, but I thought this was exactly that. They played with the hardcore elements well and the finish was satisfying, even for me, someone who has never been a fan of Dreamer. The smart mark fans in attendance on camera were, in general, annoying as shit, but here they made the moment a little more cool because when Dreamer left I thought that no one would really care, but those guys did.

***

Santina vs. Vickie
Fast forwarded and never saw it. Really couldn’t care less because Santino has never been that funny to me. I’d assume this was negative a billion stars or something.

Batista vs. Orton
Wow. Hope these guys never have another match. Both guys need someone great to carry them, of that I have finally come around on. Going 6 minutes or how ever long it was didn’t help, but I’d rather see that then them going 20 in a kid friendly WWE. No idea where Orton goes but his reign was just strange and forgettable. I’d assume we get the same from Batista. Just put the title back on Cena at Summerslam and be done with it I say. Cena/Batista II would interest me more than anything Raw can pump out. This show is starting to spiral.

*1/2

Cena vs. Big Show
I’m basically the only person alive that liked their match last month. I think Invincible and Bo Bo both thought it was good, but I loved it. I was actually really looking forward to this, although having only submissions hinder the match I think, especially since neither guy is known for that style. You could pretty much guess the formula they were going to use before the match even started, but I’m homo for that formula so this still was interesting to me. Not even close to being as good as last month’s match for me, but it was still solid. Really dull middle portion with one of the deadest Cena crowds I can remember. Finish would have been cool if Show’s foot didn’t slip out. Again, solid but I could have lived without seeing it and not cared.

**1/2

Edge vs. Jeff Hardy
Again, what you’d expect from these two. Not a huge story but it worked well enough. That TOF counter of the super ladder spear was swank as Hell I must admit. Edge losing the title again boggles my mind. I thought he should have at least gone until Survivor Series.

***1/4

Punk vs. Hardy
2 for 2! That being that I saw what happened before I saw the match. When Punk cashed in the first time I was FF through Raw and saw Punk run down and cash in in just seconds. Still marked out though. I’m pretty solid at keeping away from spoilers now, but sometimes I go to a site with usually no spoiler match ratings, and this time it had the Punk/Hardy rating as – BOW DOWN TO HEEL PUNK~! I was not pleased at seeing a spoiler but fuck it, Punk is the champ. Not sure he’s even heel either, but needless to say I hope he does. No matter what, I’m glad he’s getting a push.

Overall, I'd say the ending pushed this PPV into "good" territory, but for some reason I still feel a little dissapointed with it. Not awful, but lackluster.