Dot Net reader The Dean attended WWE Extreme Rules in Newark, New Jersey and sent the following report.
It was fun to be back attending a live WWE pay-per-view, as the last one I attended was the ’96 Survivor Series (and much like 20 years ago a member of the Anoa’i family underwhelmed the crowd and Pyscho Sid left as champion yet again…wait, uh no on that last one).
-The overall theme of the night was seemingly that this crowd absolutely hated Roman Reigns. Reigns’ boos far outweighed any other performer’s cheers. I’m not a big Reigns guy but some of it was pretty dumb, like the “you can’t wrestle” chants. The “you still suck” chants after a few of Reigns’ bigger spots were kind of funny, but there wasn’t the psuedo-warmth the anti-Cena contingent generates. To add insult to injury, as most of the crowd was filing out and Reigns was recovering in the ring and getting to his feet, they decided to play Reigns’ music one more time, as if to let the crowd get in a final boo on their way out. It seems like at some point the natural thing would be for him to just lash out at the crowd, but I guess the E is just gonna keep ignoring it.
-On the positive side, New Day is really over – they can do no wrong. Ambrose got a great reaction but the crowd wasn’t really into the match until the thumbtacks. All the IC guys (save Miz) were pretty over as well – lots of good Ole chants too.
-I tried avoiding any spoilers on Sunday, but I’m not sure if people were expecting Seth Rollins to show up. There were quite a few Rollins t-shirts in the crowd, abnormally so, being that he hasn’t been in action for so long and doesn’t have any overly iconic shirts (in my opinion anyhow). There were even some Rollins chants during the Chris Jericho vs. Dean Ambrose match. Lots of New Day, AJ and KO shirts as well. Conversely, I may have spotted four or five Roman Reigns shirts tops all night.
-Former NFL player Plaxico Burress was in attendance w/ his family (entering through a private side entrance as fans waited online…I also spotted him in a roped off area at the end of the night too). I guess maybe he still lives in the area from his Giants’ days. Also in attendance was a guy in a full unicorn suit as well as a decent Dusty Rhodes impersonator in full-on polkadot costume and fat suit.
-I feel like a real dork for saying this, but I’ll be dipped if those opening PPV fireworks didn’t scare me out of my seat (and I knew they were coming too).
-The crowd was very into the IC 4-way match as there were a lot of near falls, and you could sense them getting behind Sami Zayn at one point and Cesaro as well. The crowd was definitely most invested in this match (besides the main event).
-It seemed the crowd was willing to give the women’s match a shot as both entrances got good reactions. Sitting to the side of the entrance area, we could see the camera man moving around and it was obvious some shenanigans were coming soon. Most people in our section thought that the flair stunt double was Charles Robinson. When it turned out to be Dana Brooke, I think most people were a mix of confused/indifferent, as many didn’t know who she was. The match fizzled out pretty quickly.
-The highlight from the crowd was when the ten year old (I’m guessing) boy sitting with his parents told Roman Reigns not to be a pussy during the main event. This was followed by a very Christmas Story-esque moment with his parents (though I think the dad was trying to contain his laughter). Where did you hear that word? It was Schwartz!
-At the conclusion of the main event, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows were literally crawling on all fours to the back until they got to the end of the ramp. I’m sure this is TV related (maybe they weren’t supposed to let the cameras pick them up or something), but it seemed a bit goofy live.
-As we were descending the escalator leaving, I spotted Kofi Kingston (if he’s trying to be incognito, he’s doing a very poor job as he was wearing a bright red track suit, much like he has worn on TV). With him were Big E and Tyler Breeze, ruining kayfabe for me forever (a couple of babyfaces hanging around next to a despicable heel like Tyler Breeze…unfathomable!). Big E hung out with the crowd briefly before the three of them disappeared. Also, if New Day shows up tonight with Breeze in place of Woods, you heard it here first.
-On a side note, should any readers decide to attend an event at Prudential Center (they are doing Smackdown in November…presale code: SMACKDOWN. I guess ‘1-2-3-4′ was taken) be prepared to wait in unnecessarily long food/drink lines. All I’m saying, is If you’re gonna serve chicken and waffles, two waffle makers ain’t cuttin it. I missed half of the Jericho vs. Ambrose match because apparently it takes five whole minutes to prepare a single cup of Dippin’ Dots. But I digress.
-Overall this was a very fun event, and although not every match was a home run, the IC match and the Reigns/AJ match more than carried the show.
Biggest Pops
1. Seth Rollin’s return
2. AJ Styles
3. The IC Match and entrances
4. Dean Ambrose
Most Heat
1. Roman Reigns
2. Usos
They were in a league of their own on the boo scale.
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