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, Robert DeFelice, Ben Guest, and Callum Wiggins will be giving their thoughts on WWE Extreme Rules 2018!

It’s the most dangerous night of the year. There will be a lot on the line, especially everyone’s careers. It’s Extreme Rules. Who is the alpha on Raw? Can Team Hell No recapture tag team glory? What championship match will steal the show? Let's discuss…


GUEST:On the one hand, I love Bryan and I love Kane. On the other hand, do we really need Kane back? I’m okay with a short tag title run, but if this goes much further than SummerSlam, it could get stale.

WIGGINS:I feel that Kane's return to WWE feels like it will be a brief one, with his potential mayorship impending. Still, I'll enjoy the reunion of Team Hell No while it lasts, even though I don't believe it will result in them capturing the SmackDown Tag Team Championships at Extreme Rules from The Bludgeon Brothers.

In fact, I believe this reunion could be short-lived for another reason - Daniel Bryan doesn't yet have a SummerSlam plan mapped out, so if they don't want to throw him in the WWE Championship picture or the long-awaited feud with The Miz, Kane might betray him in this match and relaunch their feud from 2014 that couldn't be concluded due to Bryan's injuries.

DEFELICE: I'm so excited for this comeback. One thing that it has reminded me of is just how good of a character Daniel Bryan was while he was tagging with Kane. Their comedic timing the last several weeks has been fantastic, and I'm so happy with the ultra-talented performer that Daniel Bryan has become during his WWE tenure. Overall, I think this is a smart move for his comeback tour. Remind fans of a great time in his career and put him in the ring with two people that he had great chemistry with, Harper and Rowan. This movie is great for them as well because they can recapture some of the glory that they had while being in the Wyatt Family and also up their game by being associated with the hottest act just off the injured reserve.

Whether or not they win the championships depends on how long Kane is planning on being around. However, I don't think that they actually win the belts, I think that Miz distracts Daniel leading to Kane eating the pinfall and going back to the campaign trail.


DeFELICE: I think without a doubt the best championship match on this card is the 30 Minute Iron Man Match for the Intercontinental Championship. Now, there are plenty of reasons why I think this should be an hour long and not 30 minutes, but I'll let that slide for now. Seth Rollins is on the biggest role of his career, and Dolph Ziggler has had a chip on his shoulder since at least 2009. With this match, both men have the opportunity to show why they are the absolute best in-ring performers in that company right now. I don't think that either man is going to miss out on this opportunity to show why they have earned their spot and I think this is going to be a sleeper candidate for WWE Match Of The Year.

GUEST: Nakamura vs Jeff Hardy could be a lot of fun and AJ Styles vs Rusev is a real fan-favourite. But I’m excited to see Bliss vs Nia Jax in an Extreme Rules Match. I think it could be a lot of fun and really add a lot to the feud. I hope it’s the end of the feud and the winner faces Ronda Rousey at SummerSlam, but for now, this is the right match.

WIGGINS: I'm fairly confident the match of the night will belong to Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins in their Iron Man match for the Intercontinental Championship. Both of them are on top of their games right now, so there is no reason they can't tear the house down at Extreme Rules again.

But, as a massive fan of the Bulgarian Brute for many years now, I can't help but be excited about him competing for the WWE Championship against AJ Styles. The match should be very good based on their abilities, and even though I know Rusev's chances are slim-to-none, until that final bell rings I'll keep on holding out for a miracle.


WIGGINS: If I had my way, neither of them would walk away from this match the top guy on Raw. But if WWE has any plans for Bobby Lashley beyond the midcard, he should win his first encounter with Roman Reigns and cement himself as a real force in Raw's main event scene - up until now he's only beaten lower card guys and a victory over Sami Zayn at Money in the Bank, so he needs a win over an established, top-level star.

Having said that, Roman Reigns will win at Extreme Rules in another match that will be completely hijacked by the fans to potentially set up another ball-achingly bad match against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam for the Universal Championship, because we WWE fans are gluttons for punishment and don't deserve nice things!!!

Sorry, had to let that out quickly. But if Brock Lesnar does end up competing at SummerSlam, I imagine Reigns will be his challenger.

GUEST: First of all, I really hope Brock is at SummerSlam, if you want this to be your second biggest PPV, then you need your ‘biggest star’. As for Reigns and Lashley, I’m really not sure which way this goes, we know they want Reigns as the top dog (pun intended), but I feel like they’ve accepted he needs a break from the top. I hope they have Lashley vs Lesnar at SummerSlam and Strowman cashes-in to take the title away from that feud so he can feud with Roman later in the year.

DeFELICE: This is one match that really needs a No Disqualification stipulation and, as of right now, does not have one. There's actually quite a few things I like about this rivalry. One thing is that they've made an attempt to make it very personal and I think it's actually worked to some degree. I think it's a smart move to have Roman attack Bobby for having the whole world handed to him and still walking away from the business. On the other hand, it's smart for Bobby to say that if he was still around Roman would have never been the guy. There are quite a few similarities between these two gentlemen and their rise to the top of the card. Both were skyrocketed and both are actually used an on-screen feud with the chairman to get that extra boost. Also, both have never connected with the crowd the way that they were meant to. The main problem with this match is going to be the Pittsburgh crowd. Nobody cares about Bobby Lashley, nobody cares about Roman Reigns, and I'm pretty sure that nobody cares anymore about whether or not Brock Lesnar actually fights. I think fans just want a new Universal Champion. That's all really a shame because I actually think Brock Lesnar is very entertaining in the room I just think WWE has exhausted his novelty in every sense.

If I had to pick a decisive winner, I'm going with Roman, however, here's what I think will happen. These two men will fight to a draw and then both will get awarded a championship match with Brock Lesnar via a triple threat at SummerSlam. There's no clear-cut winner there because Braun Strowman will just cash in his briefcase and become the new Universal Champion.