Three takeaways from Extreme Rules 2021
It wasn’t the most extreme of Extreme Rules shows, but WWE delivered us five different title matches for us. Who walked away a winner? What did we learn for what’s next for Raw & SmackDown. Let’s take a look at what happened at Extreme Rules 2021.
Results:
- Liv Morgan def. Carmella
- New Day def. Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles & Omos
- The Usos (c) def. Street Profits to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championships
- Charlotte (c) def. Alexa Bliss to retain the Raw Women’s Championship
- Damian Priest (c) def. Sheamus & Jeff Hardy to retain the United States Championship
- Bianca Belair def. Becky Lynch (c) by disqualification, Lynch retains the SmackDown Women’s Championship
- Roman Reigns (c) def. Demon Finn Balor to retain the Universal Championship
Rope Break!
The Demon had us all fooled. For just a brief moment, we thought that Balor may actually take down Roman Reigns. After fighting off the Usos interference and getting speared through the barricade, Balor was in a rough spot. Then, the lights began to pulse red and his theme began to play. That made The Demon rise, and he had Reigns on the ropes. When he went for a Coup de Grace among the incoming smoke, those same ropes decided to turn on Balor.
Wild ending at #ExtremeRules leads to Roman Reigns retaining against Demon Balor 🥴pic.twitter.com/qKdhjmdNfd
— Playerz Circle (@PlayerzCircle) September 27, 2021
Reigns took this opening to spear Balor and defeat The Demon. We all knew that Reigns wasn’t losing to Balor because he has a date at Crown Jewel (ugh) with Brock Lesnar. Kudos to WWE for giving us hope and tricking us into believing that Balor had a shot. It is a shame that the universe turned heel on him and made the rope snap.
Boss Has Clocked In
We knew Sasha Banks wasn’t going to be gone for long. Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch had a pretty good match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Before we could see Belair possibly get her title back after a KOD, Banks returned and took out Belair.
THE BOSS IS HERE.@SashaBanksWWE is taking her place back in the spotlight at the expense of his #SmackDown #WomensTitle Match!#ExtremeRules @BiancaBelairWWE @BeckyLynchWWE pic.twitter.com/3fqQyAmrmv
— WWE (@WWE) September 27, 2021
Lynch looked uneasy about Banks returning, and tried to give Banks a thumbs up as if to say “we’re cool, right?” The answer was simple: no, not cool. Banks had a backstabber for Lynch as well and hit Belair with another when she started to stir. The Boss is back, and we have a three-way feud on the horizon to close out 2021.
R.I.P. Lily
Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair had a really quality match for the Raw Women’s Championship. The match had fans firmly behind Bliss and they really wanted to see her dethrone Flair. Unfortunately, it was undone by spooky business.
Flair grabbed Lily, Bliss’s doll, and tossed it at Alexa’s face to distract her. That gave her the opening to hit a big boot and toss Bliss into a ring post. One Natural Selection later, Flair had retained the title. She wasn’t done there, as she then attacked Bliss and ripped Lily limb from limb. That will add some more heat to this feud, as Lily was maybe the most popular part of this feud.
Alexa Bliss freaked out after finding Lily destroyed. She had a tab in her mouth that was supposed to dissolve into foam, but never really did. Another spooky things miscue. Maybe it’s time to let Bliss just be the quality wrestler she really is?
Whoops. #ExtremeRules pic.twitter.com/WyrzaSpP79
— Fightful Wrestling (@Fightful) September 27, 2021
Evan Gomes is a freelance pop culture & sports writer. Follow him on Twitter at @ItsEvanGomes, and check out his two podcasts: Crossbody of Work and The Pop Capsule Podcast.
