Extreme Rules (2012)
Extreme Rules | |||
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Promotion WWE | | ||
Date | April 29, 2012[1][2] | ||
City | Rosemont, Illinois[1][2] | ||
Venue | Allstate Arena[1][2] | ||
Attendance | 14,817[3] | ||
Buy rate | 263,000 | ||
Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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Extreme Rules chronology | |||
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The 2012 Extreme Rules was the fourth annual Extreme Rules professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on April 29, 2012, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It included Brock Lesnar's first WWE in-ring match since WrestleMania XX in 2004. The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various hardcore-based matches.
Eight
The pay-per-view received universally positive reviews, with the main event and two world championship matches drawing high praise from critics and fans. The event received 263,000 buys, up 25.8% from the 209,000 buys for the
Production
Background
Storylines
The
On the April 2 episode of Raw,
On the January 2 Raw,
At WWE's
Another rivalry heading into Extreme Rules was between
On April 23, a rematch for the WWE Intercontinental Championship was scheduled between defending champion Big Show and Cody Rhodes. Big Show had won the title from Rhodes at WrestleMania XXVIII.[18][26]
Later that same day, a title defense by United States Champion Santino Marella against The Miz was scheduled for the pre-show.[27]
Also that same day,
Event
Role: | Name: |
---|---|
English Commentators
|
Michael Cole |
Booker T | |
Jerry Lawler | |
Matt Striker (pre-show only) | |
Spanish Commentators | Carlos Cabrera |
Marcelo Rodriguez
| |
Backstage interviewer
|
Matt Striker |
Ring announcers | Lilian Garcia (SmackDown) |
Justin Roberts (Raw) | |
Referees | Mike Chioda |
Charles Robinson | |
John Cone | |
Justin King | |
Scott Armstrong | |
Chad Patton |
Pre-show
On the pre-show, The Miz challenged Santino Marella in a singles match for the United States Championship.
Preliminary matches
The actual pay-per-view opened with Randy Orton facing Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The match started with Kane and Orton brawling into the crowd and then backstage, where
Next,
After that, Big Show defended the Intercontinental Championship against Cody Rhodes in a tables match.[31] Big Show had the upper hand early on, but Rhodes managed to escape being thrown into a table propped up in the ring corner by running up and pushing off it to deliver the Beautiful Disaster. Big Show then re-established the advantage with superior size and strength, but Rhodes later dropkicked his leg as he attempted to re-enter the ring from the outside. To regain his balance, Big Show stepped on and broke a table at ringside, thus Rhodes was declared the winner and regained the title as Big Show had gone through a table with his foot. An irate Big Show attacked Rhodes after the match.[2][32][33]
In the fourth match, Sheamus defended the World Heavyweight Championship against Daniel Bryan in a two out of three falls match. Sheamus held the early advantage, putting Bryan in a
The fifth match featured
Next, the Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship was contested in which CM Punk defended his title against Chris Jericho.
Then, a backstage segment occurred where Beth Phoenix was declared not medically fit to wrestle. As a result, Divas Champion Nikki Bella would have to make her first defense of her title against a mystery opponent.[31] The mystery opponent was revealed as Layla, who managed to counter Bella's Twin Magic switcheroo to a neckbreaker to win the title.[2][32][33]
Main event match
The main event for the night saw the
Reception
The event sold out the Allstate Arena with 14,817 people in attendance.[3] The official buy total for the 2012 Extreme Rules event was 263,000, up from 209,000 for the 2011 event and 182,000 for the 2010 event,[4][35] whereas the next Extreme Rules event in 2013 received 231,000 buys, a drop of 12.1%.[5]
Extreme Rules received universally positive reviews from critics and fans. The professional wrestling section of
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter awarded out of 5 stars, 4.5 for the Cena-Lesnar match, 4 for the Bryan-Sheamus match and 3.5 stars for the Punk-Jericho match.[36]
Benjamin Tucker of Pro Wrestling Torch rated the event 8.5 out of 10, stating that "with a solid under-card and three four-star-plus [out of five stars] matches, the show was a lot of fun to watch and had a lot of emotional highs." Tucker described the Punk-Jericho match as a "hellacious brawl that built really well and had a great emotional aspect to it".[37] James Caldwell, also of Pro Wrestling Torch, praised the event's strong matches and performances and the "nice pace with downs to follow the big ups". Caldwell described the Cena-Lesnar main-event as "super-intense", saying that Lesnar offered "physicality not seen in years". Caldwell described the World Heavyweight Championship match as an "excellent, excellent bout" with Bryan "phenomenal in defeat" and Sheamus "looking strong headed into the next chapter of his title run".[32] As 2012 drew to a close, Pro Wrestling Torch rated Extreme Rules as the best pay-per-view of all the WWE and TNA pay-per-views produced in that year with an average staff rating of 8.3 compared to the second best WWE PPV, WrestleMania XXVIII's 7.6 and TNA's best pay-per-view, Destination X's 7.0. The average rating across all of WWE's pay-per-views in 2012 was 6.1.[38]
The Baltimore Sun summarized the "terrific" event being engineered by "a 'perfect storm' of a stellar Chicago crowd, excellent matches with several clever finishes, refreshing commentary and WWE rarities including violence, blood and referee assault". The Baltimore Sun also felt that "all four rematches on this card from WrestleMania exceeded their matches one month ago", while reserving special praise for Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler, saying that although "Bryan doesn't hold the World Heavyweight title, he proved that he is a champion in terms of someone who can be counted on to always be one half of a fantastic match in big-stage situations", while Ziggler "made Brodus look like a million dollars in his offense".[39]
Patrick Lennon of the Daily Star described the main-event as "compelling" while perceiving a "discrepancy" between WWE's TV-PG approach and "Lesnar elbowing Cena repeatedly in the face until he bleeds profusely".[40]
The International Business Times rated Extreme Rules as the best pay-per-view of the year and listed both the Cena-Lesnar and Bryan-Sheamus matches in the top five WWE matches in 2012. Cena-Lesnar was described as "as brutal as anyone could have hoped for" while Bryan-Sheamus "stole the show". Bryan was also spotlighted as the "greatest in-ring performer that WWE has at the moment".[41]
Fans also praised to the event's match quality, but raised concerns about Cena's win over Lesnar in Lesnar's first return match.[42][43][44]
In 2013, WWE released a list of their "15 best pay-per-views ever", with 2012's Extreme Rules being ranked at #11.[45]
Extreme Rules was released on DVD by WWE Home Video on May 29, 2012,[46] including a DVD extra of Matt Striker interviewing CM Punk. DVD Talk gave a "Recommended" rating to the DVD, stating that the release was "right on target with other recent WWE DVDs (for better or worse), from the decent technical presentation to the lack of bonus features".[47]
Aftermath
Extreme Rules saw the culmination of most of its feuds, some of which started before the previous pay-per-view, WrestleMania XXVIII. The Cena-Lesnar, Punk-Jericho, Sheamus-Bryan, and Orton-Kane feuds ended at Extreme Rules; the only feud to continue on after the event was the Rhodes-Big Show feud, which ended before the next pay-per-view, Over the Limit.
Immediately after Extreme Rules on the April 30 Raw, WWE's Chief Operating Officer Triple H refused to give in to Brock Lesnar's unreasonable contract demands, starting a feud between the duo and resulting in Lesnar attacking Triple H and (in storyline) breaking Triple H's arm.[48][49] This led to Lesnar defeating Triple H via submission at SummerSlam.[50] At WrestleMania 29, with Triple H's career on the line, Triple H defeated Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match.[51] The feud ended in the main event of 2013's Extreme Rules, where Lesnar (with his manager Paul Heyman's interference) defeated Triple H in a steel cage match.[52]
Also on the April 30 Raw, General Manager John Laurinaitis, unhappy that his hand-picked star Lesnar lost to Cena at Extreme Rules, revealed himself to be Cena's next opponent for Over the Limit.[48][49] In the storyline, WWE's board of directors declared that as a condition of the match, if Laurinaitis lost, he would be fired, and any wrestler who interfered would be fired.[48][53] At Over the Limit, Laurinaitis defeated Cena after Big Show interfered on Laurinaitis' behalf.[54] Big Show was free to interfere in the match because he had already been fired the week before Over the Limit by Laurinaitis after he mocked Laurinaitis' speech mannerisms.[48]
To determine the #1 contendership for CM Punk's WWE Championship, a
At Over the Limit, Punk retained his title in controversial fashion when Bryan rolled back onto his shoulders as he applied the "Yes!" Lock on Punk, Punk tapped out immediately after the referee counted a pinfall win for Punk.[54] Punk would continue to hold the WWE Championship until January 2013 when he was defeated by The Rock at the Royal Rumble, a title reign of 434 days.[55]
Before Extreme Rules, Alberto Del Rio defeated World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus via disqualification on the April 6 SmackDown to earn a future title shot.[11][24] After Extreme Rules on the May 7 Raw, Sheamus and Randy Orton faced Del Rio and Chris Jericho, with Sheamus accidentally delivering a Brogue Kick to Orton followed by Jericho hitting the Codebreaker on Sheamus and pinning him. Orton then gave Sheamus an RKO after the match. Due to this, the World Heavyweight Championship match at Over the Limit was made a fatal-four way match.[48] Sheamus pinned Jericho at Over the Limit to retain his title.[54] Sheamus remained as World Heavyweight Champion until October 2012, where he lost his title to Big Show at Hell in a Cell.[31]
Cody Rhodes' feud with Big Show continued after Extreme Rules, ending on the May 7 Raw when Show defeated Rhodes in a title match via count-out, but this meant Rhodes retained the title.
After Nikki Bella lost the Divas Championship to Layla at Extreme Rules, both Bella Twins (Nikki and
After Extreme Rules, both
Results
No. | Results | Stipulations | Times Extreme Rules match[63] | 17:43 | |||
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References
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