WWE Championship [Last Man Standing]: John Cena (c) vs. Batista
Makes sense. I don't see how they'd have Cena drop the title this quickly, but these two could have a good match with these stipulations. The main problem I have with LMS matches is that they're drawn out and tiresome. On paper it seems fine but when you have the ref count to 9 and stop the action quite a bit, it really drains the energy, especially since you know it has to end with something particularly big and if it isn't, then you're just waiting for them to continue.
PREDICTION: John Cena retains.
World Heavyweight Championship [Extreme Rules]: Jack Swagger (c) vs. Randy Orton
I hate when they do this and just have a no disqualification match, classify it under "extreme rules", and multiply it. Remember how they used to have different things, like a cage match, a Falls Count Anywhere, etc? Orton and Swagger, without a doubt, has potential to be a good match, but it's going to be a disappointment when it comes to the ppv because they assuredly will not do anything with the stipulation. What this means is we'll have a normal match between the two, but they might punch each other on the outside for longer than 10 seconds. That's it.
PREDICTION: Swagger retains via some cheap method of exploiting the no disqualification stipulation.
Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk [Hair on the Line]
Am I missing something, or does this NOT translate to extreme rules? I'd rather them abandon the hair concept and give them, you know, something hardcore-based instead.
PREDICTION: Hair matches always end with the person losing their hair. Mysterio wins. I'd rather see Punk beat the piss out of him, but it won't happen.
Street Fight: HHH vs. Sheamus
Another generic no DQ match with a different label. C'mon, Creative. A "street fight" isn't different in any way from "no disqualifications" or "brawl" or "unsanctioned match" or "extreme rules".
PREDICTION: HHH is in the match. Henceforth, HHH wins. What else would you expect?
Steel Cage: Chris Jericho vs. Edge
This is really thrown together at the last minute. It wasn't even announced on Smackdown and there isn't much of a reason for this to be the steel cage match. Wouldn't that have better served the Orton/Swagger match, seeing as how Edge/Jericho is more of a personal feud and they could've built a rougher gimmick around them? Then again, this whole ppv isn't shaping up to make much sense when it comes to Extreme Rules. It's beginning to feel more like a footnote that they forgot about and are too confused and lazy to fix it. Anyway, this match should be ok, but not a classic by any means, so I wouldn't be getting my hopes up for Adam and Chris to blow our minds.
PREDICTION: Jericho won at WrestleMania, so Edge wins this.
Women's Championship [Extreme Makeover]: Michelle McCool (c) vs. Beth Phoenix
This ppv...ugh. Last year we had ladder matches and shit. This year, they classify "extreme makeover" as some sort of violent match? What the fuck, WWE?
PREDICTION: Beth wins and Michelle ends up looking like she isn't smoking hot and all the kiddies go "yaaay" and the WWE thinks they pulled off a good angle rather than wasting our fucking time.
Strap Match: JTG vs. Shad Gaspard
Wait, what? This came out of left field. No tag team title defense, but these two are randomly in a strap match? Lol. Alright, whatever. Short match that probably opens the show. I guess this means they're splitting up on the draft and they wanted to make sure they got at least one match between the two beforehand.
PREDICTION: Shad either squashes JTG or he loses because JTG is too quick for him, because when you're booking a match like this, you've always got to overdo everything and make it seem like just because Shad is stronger, somehow he's slow as fuck and can't catch a guy that isn't particularly fast.
I'm surprised there's no tag team match between ShoMiz and the Hart Dynasty, but I'm sure they'll get around to it. This ppv doesn't have me extremely excited as it used to back when all the matches were different and truly interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if this card, coupled with the poor build and the travel issues, led to a very poor buyrate. Hopefully if that happens, they don't decide to just abandon the concept all together, but rather go back to when it was successful.
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