Views From The Turnbuckle: Extreme Rules Review, WWE Delivers With Their Best Show Of 2016

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc its staff

Extreme Rules had a lot of potential to be a very good show heading into Sunday. Most WWE shows have that same potential, but many of them fall short of it. While Extreme Rules had its low points, I think it had enough very strong moments to be considered the best WWE main-roster show of 2016.

AJ Styles vs Roman Reigns-****3/4

Probably the most physical match you will see in a WWE ring. There were rumors that AJ Styles had a banged up back and that he was less than 100 percent heading into this match, but god, that didn’t look like the case tonight. People love the Attitude Era because of the unpredictable chaos of the main events and how a million things could happen at the end of a show and you never knew exactly what was going to happen. This match got as close as possible to that nirvana that fans experienced during the late-90s and early-2000s, it was absolute madness towards the end of the match. Neither Styles nor Reigns had any business kicking out of some of the moves at the end and yes you can argue that the match buried some finishers; that Reigns kicking out of two Styles Clashes, one of which was one a chair, cheapens some of the psychology behind the finishers. However, you cannot argue that it was not incredibly entertaining to watch.For the second straight PPV in a row, Styles was absolutely sensational in the main event. I was a ton of professional wrestling, but the only two wrestlers who consistently blow me away in matches are AJ Styles and Kota Ibushi. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are best wrestlers in the world (although they are right up there) just that they never fail to impress me during big matches. AJ’s brilliance comes not only in his athleticism, but his timing and his selling of the moves. He takes a back-body drop better than anybody else in wrestling and he took a huge one tonight. He consistently pulls off such difficult moves, like balancing on the tope rope after taking the Superman Punch or selling Reigns knee-strike early, that it makes it more difficult to appreciate his brilliance. He even showed some unseen intensity at the end of the match, unloading on Reigns and The Usos with a steel chair. While AJ is an incredible worker and deserves the bulk of the credit for the match, Reigns was also very good in the match. It’s unclear if he can have a really good match with a lesser worker, but he has proven that he can have a Match of the Year contender with the right opponent. He is athletic enough and intelligent enough to be effective in piecing together a high-quality match with a worker like AJ Styles. You may not like the way he is booked, but so far Reigns’ matches have delivered in the ring and have been very entertaining. The match was superb, but it was missing a crucial element that kept it from being a full-fledged five star match. Going into Extreme Rules I figured Reigns would win the match, probably relatively cleanly, and I was right. Despite all of that chaos at the end of the match, the …

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