Extreme Rules (2011)

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Extreme Rules
St. Pete Times Forum
Attendance10,000[1]
Buy rate209,000[2]
Pay-per-view chronology
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The 2011 Extreme Rules was the third annual

St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. It was the first WWE PPV event to be held in Tampa since Survivor Series in 2000. This was the last Extreme Rules held under the first brand extension, which ended in August but was reinstated in July 2016. It was also the company's first PPV to be promoted under its shortened trade name of WWE, as following WrestleMania XXVII
the previous month, the company ceased using its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, although it is still the legal name of the company.

The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
.

The event received 209,000 pay-per-view buys, up from last year's event of 182,000 buys.

Production

Background

St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida.[5][6]

Storylines

The

promotion, WWE.[7][8] Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[7][8] while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown.[9]

Edge was originally scheduled to defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match. However, Edge retired on the April 11, 2011 episode of Raw due to a cervical spinal stenosis stemming from his neck injury. The match was scrapped and the title was vacated on the April 15 episode of SmackDown. Later, Edge's best friend, Christian, won a 20-man battle royal to face Del Rio in the ladder match for the title. In the interim, Del Rio was drafted to Raw in the 2011 WWE Draft.

On the April 11 episode of Raw,

R-Truth fought in a gauntlet match to determine the number one contender for The Miz's WWE Championship. Cena and Truth became the last two men remaining, but were attacked by The Miz and his protégé Alex Riley, resulting in a double disqualification. Afterwards, the anonymous Raw general manager announced that The Miz would defend his title against Cena and Truth at Extreme Rules, with the match later scheduled to be contested in a steel cage. The following week, Morrison (who had been eliminated by Truth in the gauntlet match) confronted Truth about his capability of competing in the match and challenged him to a match for his spot, which Truth accepted. Morrison won, thus replacing Truth at Extreme Rules. Truth then turned heel
by viciously attacking Morrison afterwards, then lighting a cigarette and blowing smoke into Morrison's face.

An ongoing feud involved Raw commentators

Jack Swagger, allowing him to team up with his former broadcast partner, Jim Ross, to face Cole and Swagger at Extreme Rules. Two weeks later, the Raw General Manager decided that the match would be a Country Whipping match
.

Another feud pitted the members of

Snooki from Jersey Shore. The following two weeks, the two attended couple's therapy sessions, but the latter session ended with McCool attacking Layla, solidifying their break up. During the 2011 WWE Draft, after Layla lost her match against Eve
, she attacked McCool for distracting her. On the April 29 episode of SmackDown, after fighting to a double count-out in their match, Layla and McCool agreed to have a No Count-out, No Disqualification match at Extreme Rules with the loser leaving WWE.

Another feud involved Rey Mysterio and Cody Rhodes. At WrestleMania XXVII, Cody Rhodes had defeated Rey Mysterio by using his protective face mask, followed by Cross Rhodes. On the April 22 episode of SmackDown, Rhodes and Mysterio would have a rematch; however, Mysterio defeated Rhodes. After the match, Rhodes attacked Mysterio from behind, performed a Cross Rhodes on a concrete floor, and put a paper bag on Mysterio. A Falls Count Anywhere match between the two was scheduled for Extreme Rules.

Two matches were added to the card during the event. SmackDown General Manager

WWE Tag Team Champions, Big Show and Kane, against Wade Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson
was added.

Event

Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
English
Commentators
 Michael Cole (Matches 5 - 8)
Jerry Lawler (Orton vs. Punk)
Booker T
Josh Mathews
Spanish Commentators Carlos Cabrera
Marcelo Rodriguez
Backstage
interviewer
 Todd Grisham
Ring announcers Justin Roberts
Tony Chimel
Referees Charles Robinson
Mike Chioda
John Cone
Scott Armstrong
Justin King

Before the event went on air, Sin Cara defeated Tyson Kidd in a non-televised dark match.[10]

Preliminary matches

The first televised match saw

GTS on Orton, who barely managed to stand. The match was moved back into the ring where Punk performed a scoop slam to Orton on top of a chair. Orton executed the RKO
on Punk, but Punk managed to stand. After going outside of the ring again, Punk put a chair around Orton's neck and drove him into the ring post. Orton then delivered an RKO on the broadcast table to Punk, with Punk again managing to stand. Punk then executed a variation of the GTS on Orton on the steel steps. Back in the ring, Punk ascended to the top rope only to be caught by Orton, who repeatedly hit him with a kendo stick. After abandoning the kendo stick, Orton managed to execute an RKO from the top rope on Punk. Punk could not answer the count and the referee declared Orton the winner.

Before the second match, in a backstage segment, SmackDown general manager

Brogue Kick and Kingston delivered the Trouble in Paradise but they both managed to not go through the tables. Kingston put Sheamus through a table with a Boom Drop
off the top rope, winning his second United States Championship and returning the title back to Raw.

The following match was a

low blow to Swagger, but was then pinned with a schoolboy
by Cole for the win.

The next match pitted

619 and a springboard splash
for the pin.

Main event matches

After that,

Kharma attacked McCool with an Implant Buster
.

The vacant

Brodus Clay ran down to ringside, preventing Christian from winning the match. Clay began to bleed after taking a shot from a ladder and then thrown to the outside by Christian. After this, Del Rio applied the cross armbreaker on Christian and began scaling the ladder. However, Del Rio was distracted by a car horn coming from a jeep driven by Edge. Christian took advantage of this and knocked Del Rio off the ladder onto Brodus Clay and Ricardo Rodriguez
at ringside. Christian went on to retrieve the World Heavyweight Championship. Edge then celebrated with Christian in the ring.

Next,

WWE Tag Team Championship against Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson in a lumberjack match. In the end, Barrett tagged himself in once Jackson had Show down but was caught by Big Show and then suffered a chokeslam
for the win.

In the last match of the pay-per-view

R-Truth came to ringside and attacked Morrison. He then took Morrison back into the ring and began repeatedly attacking him, finally ending the assault with the What's Up. Truth went on to deliver a Truth Axe on Cena before climbing over the cage. The match ended as Cena executed an Attitude Adjustment
on The Miz from the top rope for the pinfall victory, winning his eighth WWE Championship.

Reception

Extreme Rules 2011 received extremely positive reviews. In his review for The Sun, Rob McNichol reported that the event was "a stunning return to form by WWE." CM Punk and Randy Orton's opening Last Man Standing Match was deemed a very strong opening bout. The Country Whipping match was described as "unsatisfying and slow" while Rey Mysterio vs Cody Rhodes was hailed as "a high quality wrestling match". Kharma's debut was heralded as a special moment sorely lacking from recent WWE PPVs. The Smackdown main event Ladder Match between Alberto Del Rio and Christian for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship was given praise, "The crowd's genuine elation and the celebration with his [Edge] former partner and best friend made it a very special moment. Both were great and Christian's title win was something that should have happened a long time ago". John Morrison's performance was praised as "stunning". "The high-risk moves and Starship Pain of the top of the cage proves why Morrison is a future star in WWE." The Sun gave praise in some matches calling them outstanding and "Extreme", McNichol said that the event lived up to its name, the Last Man Standing match was rated 9 out of 10, the World Championship Ladder match a 9.5 out of 10 and the WWE Championship Steel Cage was rated 9 out of 10, and rated the show 9.5 out of 10 overall.

Aftermath

See also:
Reactions to the death of Osama bin Laden

The president has just announced that we have caught, and compromised to a permanent end, Osama bin Laden.
–John Cena

Following the conclusion of Extreme Rules, news was breaking worldwide that

Pledge of Allegiance
.

After attacking Michelle McCool at the event,

Kharma
would attack female wrestlers on both the Raw and Smackdown brands with Layla fleeing.

The night after Extreme Rules, The Miz invoked his rematch clause the following night on Raw. He originally won the match by hitting Cena with the WWE Championship belt due to outside interference from Alex Riley, but after referee

"I Quit" match. 13 days later at Over the Limit
, Cena defended the WWE Championship against and defeated The Miz in an "I Quit" match after the match was restarted due to the referee noticing interference from Alex Riley.

This would be the last Extreme Rules event held during the first brand split, which ended in August, but was reinstated in July 2016.

Results

No.ResultsStipulationsTimes
dark match
  1. Tyler Reks, Vladimir Kozlov and Yoshi Tatsu
    .

References

  1. ^ Gerweck, Steve (May 4, 2011). "Attendance for 5/1 WWE Extreme Rules PPV". WrestleView. Retrieved May 4, 2011.
  2. ^ "WWE Reports 2011 Second Quarter Results" (PDF) (Press release). WWE. 2011-08-04. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-18. Retrieved 2011-11-21.
  3. ^ Sacco, Justine; Weitz, Michael (April 7, 2011). "The New WWE" (Press release). Connecticut: WWE. Retrieved November 25, 2021.
  4. World Wrestling Entertainment. Archived from the original
    on 2011-08-07. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
  5. ^ "Extreme Rules". WWE. Archived from the original on 2012-07-31. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  6. St. Pete Times Forum. Archived from the original
    on 2012-07-23. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  7. ^
    Discovery Communications. Archived from the original
    on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  9. ^ "WWE to make Raw and SmackDown! distinct TV brands" (Press release). WWE. March 27, 2002. Archived from the original on April 17, 2010. Retrieved April 5, 2012.
  10. ^ a b Parry, Josh (May 11, 2011). "WWE News: Extreme Rules dark match result – Sin Cara warms up the crowd prior to live PPV from Tampa". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  11. ^ Parry, Joshua (May 1, 2011). "WWE News: John Cena addresses Osama Bin Laden's reported death after the Extreme Rules PPV went off-air (updated w/VIDEO)". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved March 25, 2015.
  12. ^ "Randy Orton def. CM Punk (Last Man Standing Match)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  13. ^ "Kofi Kingston def. Sheamus (Tables Match; New United States Champion)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  14. ^ "Michael Cole & Jack Swagger def. Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler (Country Whipping Match)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  15. ^ "Rey Mysterio def. Cody Rhodes (Falls Count Anywhere match)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  16. ^ "Christian def. Alberto Del Rio (World Heavyweight Championship Ladders Match)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  17. ^ "Big Show & Kane def. Wade Barrett & Ezekiel Jackson (WWE Tag Team Championship Lumberjack match)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  18. ^ "John Cena won a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match (New WWE Champion)". WWE. Retrieved 2011-05-02.
  19. ^ Caldwell, James (May 11, 2011). "Caldwell's WWE Extreme Rules PPV Results 5/1: Complete "virtual time" coverage of live PPV – three title changes and a host of gimmick matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved March 28, 2014.

External links

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