When it comes to a show like WWE’s Extreme Rules last night, it was expected a lot would stay the same as the big shift occurs tonight with Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff fully taking on their new spots on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown LIVE. Instead, Extreme Rules had the most title changes since WrestleMania, as #AndNEW was the common saying in the company last night. It should have been expected considering how the show kicked off on the preshow with the Intercontinental Championship.
#AndNEW: WWE Extreme Rules Resets Landscape
#AndNEW: Shinsuke Nakamura Wins the Intercontinental Championship
Shinsuke Nakamura was seemingly reborn as a WWE competitor this week. On SmackDown LIVE, he finally returned to in-ring competition to take on the Intercontinental Champion, Finn Balor. Nakamura destroyed the reigning Intercontinental Champion and looked like the “King of Strong Style” of old rather than “The Artist”. With the victory over Balor he managed to earn an Intercontinental Championship match on the Extreme Rules Kickoff show as a last-minute addition. It was an uber physical match between he and Balor with reversal after reversal on one another. As the match was close to its end, Nakamura would find himself behind Balor after reversing him, hitting him was a huge Kinshasa to the back of the head. He knew Finn would have enough to survive that, so he hit a Kinshasa once again, this time with Finn Balor on his feet, to win his first ever Intercontinental Championship.
#AndNEW: The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods) Win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships
In 2015, The New Day won their first tag team championships together at the Extreme Rules PPV. At that time, they were hated and dislike by the WWE fans as no one felt that should be champions or even together. Fast forward to 2019 and you would laugh at that idea. Big E and Xavier Woods have shown great chemistry any time they have teamed up in tag team action and that was seen here. The now former tag team champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan had to defend their titles against not only the New Day, bit also Heavy Machinery in an incredible entertaining match. It all came to and end for the defending champions when Big E showed a serious side fans had been clamoring for. Bryan would get caught by Big E allowing Woods to hit the Midnight Hour and become six-time tag team champions.
#AndNEW: AJ Styles Wins the United States Championship
“WWE’s Resident Superhero” and defending United States Champion Ricochet took on the task of AJ Styles and the newly reformed club as Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were by ringside for the entire match. Styles dominated early, including The Club attacking Ricochet before the bell, beating the life out of Ricochet but not enough to shut him down at any stretch. The resilient Ricochet was nowhere close to being finished as he did all he could to keep down Styles but also The Club. Ricochet would do a Springboard Crossbody to both Gallows and Anderson, allowing him to focus on Styles.
Ricochet hit an incredible Springboard Shooting Star Press onto Styles which looked to be the end. Styles would have his foot under the rope, however. Ricochet would then go for the 630 Splash, but The Club would be involved. Karl Anderson would do all he could to disrupt Ricochet, including getting the referees attention. Gallows would then knock Ricochet down to hung him up on the turnbuckle, allowing Styles to hit a Styles Clash from the top rope and become a three-time United States Champion with his Club brothers by his side. What is next for Ricochet is a serious question that fans will begin to be asked, but its hard to think he moves on from AJ following this.
#AndNEW: Brock Lesnar Cashes In, Wins the Universal Championship
The Winners Take All Extreme Rules bout between Universal and Raw Women’s Champion Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch vs Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans had all the physicality you could expect and even more. When Corbin hit an End of Days on Becky Lynch, Rollins snapped and had no other focus but to destroy Baron Corbin. Not only did he hit him with a dozen kendo stick and chair shots, but also hit him with three Stomps to put and end to Corbin.
As soon as Rollins went to check on Becky Lynch, the music of Brock Lesnar hit. It didn’t only hit, but Brock Lesnar was there in the flesh with referee, Paul Heyman, and briefcase in hand as it looked to be the end of Rollins and his reign. Lesnar would hit two German Suplexes on the champion before officially cashing in Money in the Bank. It would take just one F5 to put an end to the title reign and have The Beast Incarnate back on top as a three-time Universal Champion. A moment that upset fans around the world and inside the arena. With Heyman set to take over tonight, it is interesting to see the situation heading into SummerSlam with Brock.
The excitement is in the air as the new regime comes into power tonight and the build up to SummerSlam begins. The reset has been done and the excitement can be truly warranted as WWE had an incredible weekend as a company. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the Raw Rundown!
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.
