Match Ratings For WWE Extreme Rules 2019, Podcast Notes From Sean Ross Sapp

WWE Intercontinental Championship
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Finn Balor (c)
5.75/10

• Nakamura and Balor tease each other.
• Balor goes outside and throws Nakamura off the barricades repeatedly. This is pretty vicious.
• Nakamura can’t get a solid offensive going, besides that offensive bodysuit he’s wearing.
• Nakamura knocks Balor off the top rope, stopping the Coup De Grace.
• Nakamura eats a Mushroom Stomp counter out of a Kinshasa, but avoids the Coup de Grace to hit two Kinshasas.
• Shinsuke Nakamura wins the WWE Intercontinental Title.
• Nakamura is now 4-0 against Finn Balor on TV. He’s beaten him on PPV, Smackdown, NXT and NJPW Cup.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship
Drew Gulak (c) defeated Tony Nese
6/10

• Gulak gets a great hometown reaction. He had an awesome showing.
• A lot of people complain, but this is the right place on the card for this show. Early, hungry crowd, hot, don’t care that they haven’t kept up with the storyline.
• Gulak and Nese are pulling out the stops early and getting really good reactions.
• Nese hits a cool moonsault that is stupid because Gulak has to hold onto the ropes to hold him up. Do the ring ropes have an electrical charge? Why can’t wrestlers just let go of them at certain points?
• Gulak plants Nese with a big powerbomb.
• Cyclone Crash wins it for Drew Gulak.
• This was good for what it was. The rope holding spots immediately take me out of almost any battle.

Undertaker & Roman Reigns defeated Shane McMahon & Drew McIntyre
7.5/10

• I think putting this match as the opener is a good call. Roman Reigns and The Undertaker both got outstanding reactions in Philadelphia.
• This is “No Holds Barred,” which is never explained how that’s different than anything else.
• Each man has a little interaction, Shane builds up some heat.
• Undertaker hits Old School. HUGE POP.
• Either Undertaker is closer to 6-7 or Drew McIntyre is closer to 7 feet tall.
• Taker runs off Shane McMahon with a chair and it’s left to Roman and Drew.
• Drew eats a Samoan drop and a post. Taker gets the hot tag, and beats up a returning Shane.
• Those Undertaker clotheslines aren’t hot.
• Elias shows up and cracks Undertaker with a guitar. He implies he’s gonna stab Taker with the broken end, but Drew end up having to save him with a Claymore.
• Shane elbow drops Taker through the table. I like how well the tables are gimmicked these days. It’s amazing that Shane McMahon can do this.
• All three heels set up the Coast to Coast on Undertaker. Also, amazing that Shane McMahon can still do this.
• Roman Reigns takes all the heels but Shane out, and Taker sits up. Chokeslams Shane and Elias. This got a massive pop.
• There’s an awesome shot of Drew behind Taker, but he gets Speared.
• I dunno about all that Shane push to have Taker beat him, but the match ruled.
• That might have been the best Undertaker match I’ve seen since 2015. Not surprised that Shane McMahon is objectively a better wrestler than Goldberg.
• This match went about four minutes over its alotted time.

WWE Raw Tag Team Championships
The Revival (c) defeated the Usos
7/10

• I lost all of my notes for this one (yay!)
• This was good, old school heat building work from the Revival, and great babyface work from Usos.
• There are a couple of fantastic spots here, including the Revival almost winning with a superplex into a splash, but the Usos just narrowly escaping.
• The Usos also narrowly land a pop-up Samoan drop. I mean NARROWLY.
• The Revival end up winning with a Shatter Machine.
• Excellent work that built and delivered.
• It was a tall task to follow that opener, and I think they did really well.

Aleister Black defeated Cesaro
7/10

• Cesaro trolls Black, and is rewarded with a moonsault.
• Aleister Black hits a couple of moonsaults and that is really the limit of his offense early on before he turns into his kicks.
• Amazing Meteora counter into a pop-up European uppercut from Cesaro. One of the best you’ll ever see. Black follows with a huge knee.
• Both men are selling knee injuries, and slugging it out. Theres a heel hook from Black countered into a Sharpshooter from Cesaro.
• “This is awesome” chants ensue, followed by a sick strike trade.
• After a little series, Black connects with Black Mass and wins. Fantastic.

WWE Raw Women’s Championship
Handicap Match
Bayley (c) defeated Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss
6/10

• Alexa Bliss runs into R-Truth looking for Drake Maverick and tries to send him into the women’s restroom. Carmella doesn’t let him.
• Bliss gifts Nikki Cross a shirt, and they see Street Profits, who ask where the party is.
• I’ve really enjoyed the long-term story of Nikki and Alexa Bliss.
• Bayley runs through both opponents, before getting slowed down.
• Alexa is noticeably faster in the ring.
• Bayley gets caught up in a nasty tree of woe.
• After getting out, Bayley hits the Bayley to Back on Nikki, and slams Alexa on her.
• Bayley applies an Deathlock and a Banks Statement on both at the same time.
• Bayley gets knees up on Twisted Bliss, and catches Nikki with a knee off the top.
• Bayley pins Nikki Cross with a flying elbow drop.
• All three women were exceptional there. Especially considering Alexa was sick as hell for almost two weeks
• Nikki is upset with herself after the match.

Last Man Standing
Braun Strowman defeated Bobby Lashley
7.25/10

• Strowman mowed down Lashley, but Lashley spears him going for it again.
• Lashley uses stairs and chairs on Strowman.
• They brawl up to the concession area. I love seeing action spill out here.
• Production shits the bed on the shake and zoom when Lashley gets suplexed into the wall.
• Lashley spears Strowman through the barricade to ringside, and it looked like Strowman’s head bounced off the mats. FILTHY.
• Lashley mows down Strowman over the table, in a lame looking spot. Strowman has to get up from under the announce table.
• Strowman heaves Lashley into the International announcers row. This has been fun.
• Strowman powerslams Lashley off a concourse and escapes at 7.
• This ruled. The crowd loved it.

WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championships
New Day defeated The Planet’s Tag Team Champions (c) and Heavy Machinery
6.25/10

• I don’t know what happened with Heavy Machinery and/or WWE over the last month, but they’ve been great. I look forward to their work now.
• Bryan takes advantage of the No DQ aspect, which is great. Well within his rights.
• Heavy Machinery does a really nice slingshot belly-to-belly suplex on Bryan.
• Big E gets the hot tag and Yolo Dives Bryan, and Bryan grabs his head, which is always concerning.
• Everyone has to stand around looking like idiots waiting on Otis to not dive. Tucker does a good one, though.
• The Compactor hits on Big E, but Xavier makes the save.
• Bryan makes a blind tag before a Tower of Doom, and follows up with a diving headbutt and Lebell Lock on Big E. He turns it into a bow and arrow stretch.
• Big E cracks Bryan with a clothesline. Catches Bryan mid-air in a moonsault and the Midnight Hour wins it!
• New Day all celebrate backstage. Paul Heyman walks through Gorilla as he does.
• Heyman says Brock Lesnar is cashing in tonight, but implies that he might be lying.

WWE United States Championship
AJ Styles (w/ The Club) defeated Ricochet (c) to become champion
6.75/10

• Styles says he didn’t align with Gallows and Anderson again just because of Ricochet.
• Anderson and Gallows both jump Ricochet ahead of the match.
• Ricochet does a shooting star clothesline off the apron to Styles.
• Woops. Ricochet broke the LED panels on the ring apron. It looks like those two weeks when they decided to black out the decor for hour three and make Raw more “Raw.”
• Ricochet is on fire. Backflip dropkick to enziguri, a dive onto the Club, and Lionsault onto Styles.
• Ricochet’s dead lift suplex is always a joy. Styles’ big suplex into a tree of woe was even better. Ricochet took it perfectly.
• They’re dropping each other HARD, but they’re being allowed to go out and do what got them over — gutsy, bad ass, hard hitting wrestling.
• Ricochet hits a great shooting star press, but Anderson shows the ref that Styles’ foot is underneath the ropes.
• Ricochet gets distracted and ends up eating a backwards second rope Styles Clash. AJ wins. That was an amazing finish.

Kevin Owens defeated Dolph Ziggler
SQUASH

• Kick Wham Stunner. That’s it, and it was perfect.
• Owens says nobody can cut his mic now, so says he’s sick of Shane McMahon and the like.
• Owens was very over with this crowd.

WWE Championship
Kofi Kingston (c) defeated Samoa Joe
6/10

• Kofi doesn’t have New Day with him.
• Kofi comes out aggressive, and Joe brings it right back to him.
• Joe sweeps Kofi’s leg, and it hyperextends. Kofi was lucky to not get messed up here.
• They’re really slugging it out, but Joe keeps coming out on top.
• Joe stomps Kofi’s fingers in the stairs. A really awesome heel spot for him.
• Joe connects with a powerslam and a powerbomb, then into an STF.
• Kofi Kingston ends up hitting the Trouble in Paradise and getting the win.
• I was really fearful this match would slow the pace of the show to a crawl, and it didn’t. This was good stuff.
• No Brock Lesnar cash in as of yet. I’m of the belief that Kofi Kingston vs. Lesnar is the biggest match on the men’s side of things right now.
• Samoa Joe is now winless in eight televised WWE World and Universal Championship matches, all in the last two years.
• It’s all down to the main event to wrap everything up, because we’re over four hours into this show and everything still seems pretty good and is delivering well.

Winner Take All
WWE Universal & WWE Raw Women’s Championship
Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch (c) defeated Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans
Extreme Rules
6/10

• Lacey Evans has “Seth” across her ass, and keeps showing it. She gets pushed out of the ring for that one.
• “EXTREME RULES, BUT THEY HAVE TO TAG IN AND OUT.”
• Rollins and Lynch wear Corbin and Lacey out with Kendo Sticks.
• Corbin slams Rollins on a couple of chairs and hits a DDT.
• I still don’t know why people are just standing around on the apron waiting to be tagged. The only thing a tag affects here is the legal person to pin or be pinned.
• Becky tags in and beats Lacey’s ass pretty well. A facebuster into the chair is taken really well by Lacey, as is a Bexploder onto a pile of chairs.
• Rollins hits a Vandaminator and clotheslines Corbin out of the ring. For some reason this also takes Rollins out.
• Lacey has some good offense in the form of a leg sweep, slingshot elbow and a Merosault. She has a busted lip.
• Becky responds with a reverse DDT and tags Rollins, but Corbin is still out, so Seth just grabs some tables.
• If Brock Lesnar cashes in during this match and wins, does that mean Sable is Raw Women’s Champion?
• Double chokeslams from the heels, double suplexes from LOS CARA DE BEBES. We also see back to back jumps from the ropes through tables by Becky and Seth.
• Becky saves Seth after a Deep Six.
• Corbin hits Becky Lynch with End of Days!
• Rollins uncorks an ass whipping on Baron Corbin. Three stomps and that’s it.

WWE Universal Championship
Brock Lesnar (w/ Paul Heyman) defeated Seth Rollins (c) to become champions
SQUASH

• Brock Lesnar comes out and suplexes Rollins twice.
• Brock Lesnar has cashed in his Money in the Bank contract and won the WWE Universal Championship.
• I’m willing to bet that no rematch clause gimmick isn’t gonna apply here.

Rating guide

10- Perfect, 9- MOTY Territory, 8- Excellent, 7- Great, 6- Good, 5- Average to above average, 4- Slightly below average, 3 or below: Poor

Each match starts at a 5 and slides up and down based on entertainment, execution, time, environment, reaction and stakes. The ratings are in no way an indication of a “star rating,” which is a completely different system. A standard, non-offensive “TV match” lands at a 5. The gap between 5.75-6 is generally the largest, with anything reaching 6 being recommended viewing.
These are opinions, and incredibly inconsistent ones. Don’t take them too seriously, and have (and share) your own!