The show is a professional wrestling pay-per-view that was produced by WWE, for Raw and Smackdown, which are their two popular brands. The event took place in Orlando, Florida, at WWE Performance Center because of gathering restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic COVID-19. The event was initially going to happen at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, but was canceled because of the current Coronavirus situation.
The show was pre-recorded on 16-17 July and was broadcasted on 19th July 2020. It was the first out of twelve shows hosted by the Extreme Rules, who’s name was modified and changed.
RAW AND SMACKDOWN VIEWERSHIP DROPPING DOWN:
The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was planned in accordance to increase the ratings of both, Raw and Smackdown. But like its inauspicious name, the show also failed to gain the viewer’s attention and they didn’t really meet the target they were aiming to achieve in the first place.
According to the previous statistics, Raw’s performance has been lacking in previous events and has affected their viewership to some extent. Raw has failed to impress its viewers in the latest events, due to which the viewers have lost interest and a big number of them have stopped watching their matches.
On the other hand, WWE’s Smackdown also failed to catch viewers’ attention in a recent event due to its unsatisfying performance on FOX. Drew McIntyre and Bayley, once again lived up to the expectations and successfully held on to their titles in the WWE event. Whereas, Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt failed to do so by not having any conclusive outcome at the end of WWE’s latest match.
EYE FOR AN EYE BATTLE:
Following the unfortunate and unsatisfying events, Rey Mysterio ended up losing his eye in his Eye for an Eye battle with Seth Rollins.
The viewers didn’t find this satisfying or eye-catching and were somewhat disappointed by the whole WWE event. The event lacked innovative strategies and movies, with little to no star power. The Summerslam ended with disappointing results.
BIGGEST HITS AND MISSES FROM THE DISAPPOINTING PAY-PER-VIEW EVENT:
Though WWE is clearly trying to make an effort to improve their viewership by setting up big matches with star power like Randy Orton vs. Big Show and Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus, their recent event, Extreme Rules still failed to meet the expectations of the viewers. While there were some big hits in the show, the flaws were also pretty much out in the open.
Few hits of the event:
The little viewership the event managed to get was due to the few hits of the show. Let’s look into some of the hits and successes of the WWE’s Extreme Rules event.
THE TALENTED DUO OF SHINSUKE NAKAMURA AND CESARO:
There's no slowing them down.#ExtremeRules @WWECesaro @ShinsukeN pic.twitter.com/Qxwzxdsrka
— WWE (@WWE) July 19, 2020
Both players make an unbeatable due and are very famous among the fans. But both the players have been underutilized. The New Day has always influenced the WWE’s Smackdown tag teams and the duo has always been dominated by the very popular trio of Xavier Wood, Kofi Kingston, and Big E. Despite their popularity, their title picture has become a little dull.
Seeing this, WWE has committed to the Smackdown tag teams and are devoted to building tag teams outside of the New Day. This step can have the New Day award the titles to the compatible and talented duo this time but the time will prove if their decision was right or wrong.
BAYLEY’S CHEAP WIN AT EXTREME RULES OVER NIKKI CROSS:
Another source of fame for the event was Bayley’s cheap win over the famous player Nikki Cross. Bayley was considered the John Cena of women’s community who had become one of the best players of WWE.
She became even more famous when she defeated the very well-liked, Nikki Cross with the help and guidance of Sasha banks. This proved to be a hit for the show as Bayley retained her title and Nikki cross, who is very much loved by the people, gained all the sympathy.
The title hasn’t been taken away from Bayley yet because she helped to make the show more interesting. On the other hand, Nikki believes that she belongs in the title picture.
BONA FIDE TOP STAR, DREW MCINTYRE’S VICTORY:
Though the match between McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler isn’t the most eye-catching event of Extreme Rules, McIntyre’s victory can still work in favor of the event by increasing their bookings and viewership.
With not the most popular position and title, Drew McIntyre managed to gain the viewer’s attention by his amazing performance. The way he defeated Ziggler by just one more Claymore Kick, increased his popularity. His long term presence in WWE can help them a lot in getting their viewers back. While this great win can get him to compete with a bigger and better rival for SummerSlam.
Misses of the WWE’s Extreme Rules event:
Contrary to the hits the event had, there were a number of misses and setbacks noticed in the whole game.
WYATT SWAMP FIGHT:
After the success of two famous events, Boneyard and Firefly Fun House, that took place in April at WrestleMania 36, McMahon said that he’s excited to bring more successful matches like these.
Because of the high expectations set by the WWE after WrestleMania 36, the viewers were disappointed by the Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman swamp fight, which ended with no conclusion. This was a major drawback for the viewers. The team showed no remarkable moves which finished the fan’s interest in it.
WWE CANCELS THE MVP VS. APOLLO CREWS MATCH:
Falling behind schedule and canceling the promised matches has apparently become a habit of WWE’s Raw and Smackdown.
This was a major setback for people as they were anxiously waiting for this fight to happen but it was canceled because allegedly, Crews was medically unfit to compete which led people to rule out conspiracies. They think that it’s just an excuse to put the US title on Lashley, rather than Crews. On the other hand, MVP has announced that he is the champion but it hasn’t been made official by the WWE itself.
The viewers who were paying $10 per match to watch the whole event were seriously disappointed by the WWE’s commitment issues.
THE UNSATISFYING ENDING OF BANKS VS. ASUKA BATTLE:
The matches between Banks and Asuka have always been interesting as they are a treat to watch, and the viewers love to watch them. Despite their ability to deliver good performance every single time, their recent match in Extreme Rules had a very unsatisfying ending.
Due to the few unfair decisions made by the referee, the viewers were left confused but Bayley and Banks knew what they were dealing with. Banks left the match as Raw Women’s Champion, which was very confusing for people because it made no sense at all. It seemed like the match was set up but this was not the first time that an undeserving person won the title. The viewers were still unsure if Banks was the real champion or not. WWE has used this cheap tactic several times to increase their bookings.
THE EYE FOR AN EYE GIMMICK MATCH:
The eye for an eye battle is the one where one of the opponents has to lose one eye in order to finish the match and declare the winner. The match was conducted between Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio, which succeeded to gain viewers attention until Mysterio ended up losing his eye and vomited at the end of the match.
This was a completely unpleasant sight for the viewers and was one of the reasons why the event lost half of the viewers by the end of the match.
