Smark Out Moment

Welcome to another edition of Triple Threat from Smark Out Moment, where three of us get together to discuss three questions based on one big topic going down in the week of professional wrestling.

This week, Jordan Chaffiotte, Robert DeFelice, and Charlie Gregory will be giving their opinions on WWE Extreme Rules. With the number one contender to Brock Lesnar's Universal Championship set, Alexa Bliss' continued reign as the goddess of the women's division, and new tag team champions, we look at everything that happened on Sunday and what's to come.


CHAFFIOTTE: I have very few complaints about this match.While it might not be a match of the year contender, it was a very solid match that accomplished everything it set out to accomplish. Joe was a great choice. It'll put eyeballs on Great Balls of Fire and Joe can potentially take a loss after a hard-fought battle without it hurting his stock. The two wildcards for me were Finn and Roman, both of them have had inconsistent booking and needed to deliver on this show. Finn can be incredible, and they're really starting to lock in his character. He also has had a few losses since he came back and no real direction. Sunday was perfect, he dialed up the aggression, came to win, and acted like he'd been here before. It's exactly what the Demon ought to be when he puts on the body paint. I was even alright with him taking the pass-out defeat because he survived so much in that match and came within fingertips of it.

Roman Reigns isn't my favorite guy in the locker room, but his work this weekend was better than most. I loved watching him sit back as the other four guys went at it. He acted like he didn’t have time for the pettiness that they others, namely Joe and Seth, brought into it. In fact, they've been doing a good job the past couple of weeks with Roman, his promo about how he didn’t care about Seth Rollins was fantastic. I'm glad he ultimately didn’t win because it seems that he has an unresolved story with Braun, but he really performed.

DeFELICE: What stood out most to me was the decision to go with Samoa Joe. Last week, I said that Seth Rollins was my pick to win it all, but that I felt the company had pegged Finn. Both those people wound up on the losing end as Joe rose to the occasion and is now on a collision course with Brock. I really like this decision as a gives way to one of the only true dream matches left for Lesnar and I believe that Joe is somebody who will actually bring an intensity out of the Beast that not many competitors on the full-time roster can. This was actually a match I had fantasy booked for this year’s ‘Mania and I am beyond ecstatic that I will actually get to see this one in my lifetime.

As for the rest of the lineup in this five way. Bray and Seth seem to be on a collision course with each other which seems fine because unfortunately, they are the two with the least direction. I feel the same way about Finn as Jordan does about Roman, he's not by any means my favorite guy, but he works his ass off and the people love him and I'm sure he gets a crack at the championship real soon. Roman, who has been doing great since WrestleMania, is finding his edge which will be key in shaping his inevitable match with Brock and his overall career trajectory from here on out. I predict these two will have some sort of one-off match up the pay per view as well, maybe even a number one contender's bout. However, from my point of view, it is all eyes on Joe versus Brock and watching them tear the roof off come Great Balls of Fire.

GREGORY: The match in general for me was great and was a fantastic way to end the show. Samoa Joe winning was not what I predicted, although I'm more than happy with him being the new number one contender. Joe and Brock Lesnar are likely to put on a brilliant match for the belt at Great Balls of Fire and I personally look forward to it. Joe can be presented as a very viable threat to Lesnar and will no doubt come out looking tough regardless of the eventual outcome due to the way he has been treated so far by WWE. Joe can also afford to take a loss to Lesnar, as I doubt they'll take the title off him so soon. In fact, most competitors in the match came out looking strong. Finn, who I chose as my predicted winner of the match, looked strong in defeat despite passing out to Joe and was up for the fight and came so close to getting his championship shot.

Even Roman Reigns impressed me in this match and I'll admit myself that I haven't been the biggest fan of his. The former Shield man looked gutsy and full of heart as he tried to claim the victory and the moments in which he sat and waited while the other four men attacked each other was brilliant on his part. Every man in the match put in a great showing and it was an emphatic end to the night. I look forward to seeing Joe lock horns with Lesnar now.


CHAFFIOTTE: If you want to make a supervillain, you have to destroy the thing he loves most. Is Broken Matt Hardy a supervillain? He sure dresses like it. I don't think it's going to be a particularly quick process, but losing the championships was probably the first step. It's unclear if the legal rights have even cleared, but let’s be honest, they don’t have the rights to Bullet Club either. Hopefully, they will find a way to do something fun and similar, but unique to WWE. The important thing is that Matt Hardy has the vision and is enjoying the work that he’s doing. Without the titles, the Hardyz have something to chase and possibly a reason to split into two single runs. That could be just the motivation Matt needs to go a little bit insane, being left behind by his brother after doing everything he could to save that match up.

DeFELICE: I'm gonna put this very bluntly, although Matt Hardy and his broken brilliance were a very fun time in pro wrestling last year, I have no desire to see him recreate that in WWE anymore. It wasn't a WWE creation and a good chunk of it relied on making fun of WWE too. Not to mention that there are plenty of people who don't even know what that was. This is a website for relatively clued in members of the audience, but I think all too often we forget that not everybody is into with anything outside of WWE.

As far as the match is concerned, I thought the decision to go with the foreign duo was not a very wise one. Sheamus and Cesaro are two of the most underrated and underutilized talents of singles competitors and I had hoped they would go their separate ways by now, but here we are. I hope they don't break or break up Team Xtreme just yet, but I am ready for that Jeff Hardy solo run because he is all money on his own.

GREGORY: I think it very well could be the first steps in breaking him. I thought that the Hardy Boyz might have held onto their championships here but having lost them, I think a return for Broken Matt could definitely soon be on the cards. I would be surprised if the Hardy Boyz were to split up already, with the Hardyz still very popular as a tag team. However, a singles run for both men would be great. A split up could affect Matt Hardy so much that he 'breaks' and then a singles run for him would be very intriguing to watch. As for Jeff Hardy, when he last went it alone in WWE, he was superb and I would love nothing more than to see him gunning for some singles championships again. Both men are certainly capable of doing well either together or individually and whether they decide to break them up now to bring back Broken Matt or keep them together, they’re sure to keep putting on a show in every match they are given. I do though think that a breakup could definitely signal the beginning of the end for the team and the beginning of some more 'broken' brilliance from Matt Hardy.

As for Cesaro and Sheamus, as much as I’d like them to go their separate ways again and for them both to be put back in the title pictures for singles belts, I do like how they have evolved as a team. I’m surprised they have been re-handed the belts, as I did expect them to perhaps split up soon.


CHAFFIOTTE: My initial reaction to this match was: "if you ask a stupid question, you'll get a stupid answer." At first, I thought it was pretty much as good as this was going to get. It was an awful concept to begin with, and in fairness, it was actually well worked on the part of the two competitors. Alexa's in-ring performances are a work in progress but I’m really happy with how she has progressed especially since becoming Raw Women's Champion. Bayley's always a good worker, and there wasn't much sloppiness in this match. On that metric alone, I was okay with it.

Make no mistake, the storytelling was terrible. Alexa had some good physical comedy going but other than that, there was absolutely nothing. No character development for Bayley, no Nia interference to further a future storyline, nothing. It made Bayley look cowardly but for what? She was afraid of hurting Alexa? You expect me to believe that a professional wrestler is afraid to hurt people? That's absurd. I don't know where they thought they were going with this, and frankly, I don't think they knew either. When we moved on to the next match I was moderately disappointed by it. Then the show ended 15 minutes early. They went off the air at 10:45 and couldn't give Alexa and Bayley more than 5 minutes bell-to-bell? If it didn’t feel lazy before, it certainly does now. I’m almost starting to wonder if they decided after This is Your Life to just cut their losses on this one.

DeFELICE: I think the major story coming out of this is the treatment of Bayley since heading to Raw. She lost a very short, very one-sided match that was designed for her revenge. A lot of people would call this a burial but I'm not going to say that somebody who was reigning champion coming in and out of her first WrestleMania is being buried just because the short attention span part of the internet can't handle that she's not always winning. Bayley is a big time player and will ride that momentum roller coaster as every member of the roster has, no matter how big of a star.

My expectations for this match were indeed low and I was still left expecting more. It was so short and so one-sided that it harkened back to the very heavy butterfly belt Diva days of just putting girls into a match to say that you did and getting it over with as quickly as possible. I hope that this doesn't become a pattern because we're still getting used to the modern day WWE woman and we don't need any confusion or throwback to when they literally meant less than a kickoff match.

GREGORY: I always expected this match to disappoint and in that respect...it didn't disappoint! Alexa Bliss has come on leaps and bounds. She is a great wrestler, her promo work and facial expressions are fantastic and she truly is one of the best women wrestlers on the roster right now, as is Bayley. Bayley has been just as good since coming up to the main roster and she's had a superb year and yet, judging off this match, you wouldn't think so. Both of them were mistreated here to be handed such an awful match and then to be given such little time with it. A kendo stick on a pole match was never going to be a five-star wrestling clinic and it certainly wasn't but for it to go the way that it did was dreadful.

I'm sure neither of them will be affected by it, as both of them are still very popular and both are able to put on brilliant matches. I just hope that something like this doesn’t happen again because, as Robert said, it harkens back to the days of the Divas, when they were given very little time to work with and weren't even treated as wrestlers. These women are brilliant and they need to be given better matches and more time to work with. Give them that and they will put on good matches. Please, don't make this mistake again WWE.