The 2013 edition of Extreme Rules, the one time of year WWE goes extreme, is in the books. There were some fluky finishes and impactful title changes.
WWE is building up The Shield in a big way with the two title changes. Brock Lesnar took the rubber match between himself and Triple H. Chris Jericho also evened the series between himself and Fandango. Some of these feuds will continue over the next month and onto Payback.
Now that the event is over, I’ll examine whose stock is rising and falling after the event.
Before I get into the list, I have a couple of mentions I need to make after Extreme Rules.
The Miz
Mr. Pre-show should be Miz’s new nickname. This is his second consecutive, and third this year, pre-show match. It’s surprising to know that he headlined a WrestleMania as WWE champion.
Despite the win over Cody Rhodes, Miz’s stock is at an all-time low. He got an average reception when he returned last week. Could he go back to feuding with Wade Barrett over the Intercontinental Championship? Possibly, but I don’t expect big things from The Miz any time soon.
United States Championship
It’s no secret that the secondary titles mean very little in WWE right now. However, that could all change, at least for the United States title, now that Dean Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston.
Previous champion Antonio Cesaro was losing matches on Raw and SmackDown during his reign. Kingston was just a transitional champion. Plus, he’s held the title many times.The United States title is around the waist of someone who is getting a big push and will look to bring prestige and notoriety back to the title.
Mark Henry is one of the few heels in WWE that is truly believable in his role. He’s 412 pounds of pure strength. Yet, it’s strange that WWE continues to bury Henry the way it has.
Henry defeated Ryback at WrestleMania in a surprising and unconvincing manner. However, Ryback challenged John Cena for the WWE Championship, and Henry was relegated to a strap match with Sheamus.
Henry lost a decently-fought match, but where does the feud go from here? The babyface won. It's over. Does he go after Henry could have faced Cena in the Last Man Standing match instead of turning Ryback heel. WWE is greatly mishandling Henry.
Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger in the I Quit match. At first, the referee believed Ricardo Rodriguez threw in the towel for Del Rio, which gave Swagger the win. Upon further review, it was Zeb Colter who tossed in the towel and the match was restarted.
Del Rio locked in the cross arm breaker, which forced Swagger to quit. As a result, Del Rio will get a chance to reclaim his world title from Dolph Ziggler.
However the rematch won’t be taking place at a pay-per-view, but at an upcoming Raw or SmackDown.
Despite the fans not showing interest in his character, WWE is still pushing Del Rio as a top babyface.
Wade Barrett and Antonio Cesaro are two talented athletes. Unfortunately, the WWE couldn’t find a spot on the card for either of them. This is especially disturbing for Barrett, considering he is the Intercontinental champion. However, we did hear from him during the pre- and post-shows.
Cesaro, on the other hand, was nowhere to be found.
With the absence of CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler, WWE relied on two part-time stars and its current star to carry the pay-per-view. If WWE wants to prepare itself for the future, they need to build a roster deep enough for the next five-to-seven years, because the current roster isn’t filled with stars.
That begins by building Barrett and Cesaro, along with many others, as future main event stars.
Having them lose multiple times each week isn’t helping anyone. It’s alright for Randy Orton and Sheamus to take a loss once in a while in order to get the young heels over.
I touched on this earlier, but The Shield’s stock keeps going up.
Dean Ambrose defeated Kofi Kingston to win the United States Champion. Later in the night, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns defeated Team Hell No to with the tag team titles.
Now that all three members of The Shield have titles, their futures are looking brighter than before.
They needed to win the titles to freshen their act. The six-man tag matches were getting a little predictable and stale.
Ambrose proved that he can handle one-on-one competition without the help of his teammates. Rollins and Reigns are now in the driver’s seat of the tag team division. This gives Ambrose an opportunity to break out on his own, while the other two stay relevant as tag team champions.
Ryback lost six pay-per-view matches in a row, going all the way back to Hell in a Cell in October. Could Ryback suffer another loss, or will WWE pull the trigger and give him the WWE Championship? After his match against John Cena, neither of those options happened.
Ryback speared Cena through the stage and the Last Man Standing match ended in a no-contest.
Although the decision didn’t hurt him, it doesn’t look to be helping him either. Ryback will most likely get another title shot next month at Payback, but could ultimately suffer the same fate as he did at Extreme Rules—leave the arena without the WWE title.
The WWE is in a tough situation with Ryback. They won’t pull the belt off Cena, yet Ryback can’t take another decisive loss. It will be interesting to see how Ryback is handled going forward.
Brock Lesnar evened up his record to 2-2 after his win on Sunday against Triple H. Another loss here and fans, including myself, would have wondered why WWE brought him back in the first place.
The cage match was really good as Lesnar sold a knee injury thoughout the match. With the help of two F5s, and a Paul Heyman low blow, Lesnar was able to pin Triple H in the middle of the ring.
The question now arises: what is next for Brock Lesnar?
It’s simple: have him return at SummerSlam and revive his feud with John Cena. They had a great match at last year’s Extreme Rules, but that was it. The feud only lasted a month. This time, however, Cena is a champ and will need another monster to feud with after Ryback.
Until then, Lesnar will probably disappear until late summer. When he does return though, expect big things.