Extreme Rules 2021: A Good Wrestling Show Buried by One Spectacularly Bad Ending

The Kickoff match is simple and mostly effective because the crowd already wants Liv Morgan to succeed. Carmella leans into vanity-driven heel work, Morgan wrestles with urgency and the announce-table sequence gives the short match enough texture to avoid feeling like a television rerun. The springboard flatliner finish is clean and gives Morgan a useful pay-per-view victory. There is not enough time or complexity here to make the match memorable, but the seven minutes are productive and the audience response does most of the heavy lifting.

A match added on the day of the show should not feel this essential. Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods bring the New Day chemistry, Styles handles much of the connective wrestling, Lashley gives the match main-event weight and Omos functions as the obstacle everyone must solve. The final stretch is especially good because the tags become increasingly desperate rather than random. Lashley accidentally spearing Styles creates the opening, and Big E pinning Lashley with the Big Ending gives the new WWE Champion the exact visual he needs. The match is long enough to feel substantial without dragging.

The Usos and Street Profits have a clear target from the opening minutes: Montez Ford's injured ribs. That gives the champions a coherent control strategy and gives every Ford comeback a built-in question about how much pain he can absorb. Angelo Dawkins provides the power changes, while Ford's frog splash nearfall lands because the crowd has been waiting for him to break through the damage. The Usos' superkick-and-splash finish is familiar but effective. Nothing revolutionary happens, yet the structure is clean enough that thirteen minutes feel considerably shorter.

There are pieces of a solid championship match here. Bliss' size disadvantage gives her counters urgency, Flair's moonsault sequence creates a strong nearfall and both women are experienced enough to keep eleven minutes moving. The problem is that the match exists inside the Lilly story, and Lilly eventually becomes more important than the championship. Flair using the doll as a distraction leads to Natural Selection, then the post-match destruction of Lilly consumes the segment. Bliss crying over the pieces is the image WWE wants viewers to remember. That choice makes the wrestling feel like setup for supernatural character material rather than the point of a title defense.

This is the kind of three-way match that does not need to solve the geometry problem because all three wrestlers are over enough to create movement on demand. Sheamus supplies blunt force, Hardy provides instant crowd energy and Priest looks increasingly comfortable working as the champion who can survive both styles. The match strings together Whisper in the Wind, White Noise, Twist of Fate and the Swanton without becoming a move exhibition because each sequence changes who controls the next exchange. Priest rolling up Sheamus after the Brogue Kick catches Hardy is a smart escape finish that preserves every participant.

For most of seventeen minutes, this feels like WWE repairing SummerSlam. Belair gets the time to demonstrate why the 26-second title loss did not define her, while Lynch works increasingly desperate counters instead of simply overpowering the challenger. The hurricanrana into the steps, powerbomb counter and repeated Kiss of Death escapes build toward a genuine conclusion. Then Sasha Banks returns and attacks Belair, forcing a no contest before laying out Lynch too. The return is a major star moment and sets up Crown Jewel, but it also denies this event the finish its strongest singles story had earned.

For nineteen minutes, WWE gets nearly everything right. Balor's Demon presentation makes him feel distinct from ordinary Finn, Reigns sells the threat without losing his champion swagger, and the Extreme Rules stipulation finally gives the event the furniture and crowd brawling its name promises. The Usos interference appears to end the challenge, then the heartbeat begins. Red lights flash, Balor rises and the crowd erupts as though a supernatural comeback has actually become possible. That sequence is ridiculous in a way wrestling can make wonderful. Then Balor climbs for the Coup de Grace and the top rope snaps. He falls, injures his knee and is immediately speared. The problem is not simply that Reigns retains; it is that the match stops being a contest at the exact moment it reaches maximum emotional investment. A very good main event becomes famous for the wrong thirty seconds.