Extreme Rules 2017: Samoa Joe Saved a Show That Wasn't Extreme Enough

Kalisto and Apollo Crews give the Kickoff show a competent athletic match with a simple story built around Titus O'Neil's influence. Crews has the power advantage and controls several stretches without making the pace feel heavy, while Kalisto supplies the sharper movement and most of the crowd-friendly bursts. The action is clean enough, but the rivalry lacks the kind of stakes that make a pre-show match feel essential. The finish comes when Crews argues with Titus and walks directly into Salida Del Sol, giving Kalisto a clear victory. It is functional television wrestling with solid execution, yet little about the nine-minute match demands a full pay-per-view rewatch.

The Miz and Dean Ambrose wrestle a long opener around a stipulation that turns disqualification into a weapon against the champion. That idea gives Miz and Maryse several clever ways to bait Ambrose, and the referee's awareness prevents the match from collapsing into an obvious trick finish too early. Ambrose supplies the more physical offense while Miz keeps dragging the contest back toward technicalities and outside manipulation. The twenty-minute runtime is longer than the action really needs, but the closing sequence pays off the stipulation when Ambrose is distracted by the referee and eats the Skull Crushing Finale. Miz winning his seventh title is meaningful, even if the match never reaches the level its length suggests.

Rich Swann and Sasha Banks against Noam Dar and Alicia Fox is energetic enough to avoid becoming dead space, but it still feels more like a television feud than a pay-per-view attraction. Banks gets the strongest reaction and adds urgency whenever she enters, while Swann provides the cleanest athletic sequences against Dar. Fox and Dar work effectively as antagonists without ever creating sustained danger for the babyface team. The match is short, easy to follow, and finishes with Swann landing the Phoenix Splash on Dar. Nothing is especially wrong with it, but six minutes of straightforward mixed-tag action cannot compete with the title matches and stipulations surrounding it.

Alexa Bliss and Bayley are trapped inside one of the weakest stipulation concepts of the year, and the match makes Bayley look worse at nearly every turn. The central idea is that Bayley must prove she can become aggressive enough to use the kendo stick, yet she retrieves the weapon and immediately hesitates. Bliss takes advantage, beats her repeatedly with the stick, and wins after a DDT in barely five minutes. There is no meaningful comeback, no cathartic moment, and almost no chance for the crowd to invest in a competitive title match. The result strengthens Bliss, but it damages Bayley's character so badly that the booking failure overwhelms any individual wrestling performance.

Cesaro, Sheamus, Matt Hardy, and Jeff Hardy use the cage stipulation to create a genuine race rather than simply staging a normal tag match inside steel. Because both members of a team must escape, every climb matters and every save changes the geometry of the finish. The Hardys provide the biggest spectacle when Jeff dives from the top of the cage with Whisper in the Wind, but that risk also leaves him needing help to escape. Cesaro and Sheamus exploit the delay and narrowly beat both Hardys out, winning the titles in a finish that feels earned rather than cheap. The structure is clear, the crowd is engaged, and the result advances the heel champions without making the returning Hardys look weak.

Neville and Austin Aries deliver the best pure wrestling match on the card by leaning into the submission stipulation instead of treating it as decoration. Aries repeatedly targets openings for the Last Chancery, while Neville attacks the injured leg and uses positional control to keep the challenger from sustaining momentum. The match builds through escapes and counters without abandoning the cruiserweight speed that made the rivalry work in the first place. Neville's Red Arrow to the back creates the decisive opening for the Rings of Saturn, forcing Aries to submit after more than seventeen minutes. The clean finish finally gives Neville an unambiguous victory, and the match gains extra historical weight as Aries' final WWE pay-per-view appearance.

The Fatal 5-Way main event gives Extreme Rules 2017 the chaos its branding promises everywhere else. Five credible contenders rotate through pairings without turning the match into a sequence of obvious waiting spots, and the weapons are used to escalate rather than replace the wrestling. Reigns spears opponents through the barricade, Rollins crashes through an announce table, Wyatt and Joe weaponize the steel steps, and Bálor's late surge creates a believable winning sequence. The finish is excellent: Bálor lands the Coup de Grâce on Reigns, only for Joe to trap him immediately in the Coquina Clutch and force the stoppage. Joe wins cleanly, decisively, and in a way that launches his Brock Lesnar program with instant credibility.