Extreme Rules (2017) — BrandWiki

Extreme Rules (2017)

Overview

Extreme Rules

promotion	WWE
brand	Raw
date	June 4, 2017
venue	Royal Farms Arena
attendance	11,769
city	Baltimore, Maryland
wwenlast	Backlash
wwennext	Money in the Bank
event	Extreme Rules
lastevent2	2016
nextevent2	2018

The 2017 Extreme Rules was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the ninth annual Extreme Rules and took place on June 4, 2017, at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw brand division. This was the second Extreme Rules held at this venue after the 2010 event, when it was formerly known as 1st Mariner Arena (renamed in 2014). It was also the only brand-exclusive Extreme Rules event to be held during either of WWE's brand extension periods. The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various hardcore-based matches.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. Only three of the main card's matches were contested under a hardcore stipulation. In the main event, Samoa Joe defeated Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, and Bray Wyatt in an Extreme Rules fatal five-way match to earn a Universal Championship match at Great Balls of Fire. In other prominent matches, Cesaro and Sheamus defeated The Hardy Boyz (Jeff Hardy and Matt Hardy) in a Steel Cage match

Production

Background

Extreme Rules was an annual professional wrestling event produced by WWE since 2009. The concept of the event was that it featured various matches that were contested under hardcore rules and generally featured one Extreme Rules match.[1] The defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, which WWE acquired in 2003, originally used the "extreme rules" term to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term, using it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules". Announced on February 27, 2017, the 2017 Extreme Rules event was the ninth Extreme Rules and was held exclusively for wrestlers from the Raw brand, following the reintroduction of the brand extension in July 2016, where WWE again split its roster between the Raw and SmackDown brands, where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform.[2] The event took place on June 4, 2017, at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, marking the second Extreme Rules event to take place at this venue after the 2010 event, when it was formerly known as 1st Mariner Arena (renamed in 2014). The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was livestreamed on the WWE Network. Tickets went on sale on March 4 through Ticketmaster.[3][4]

Storylines

The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw brand,[5][6] while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.[7]

At Payback, Seth Rollins defeated Samoa Joe, giving Joe his first loss since debuting on the main roster. The following night on Raw, Rollins stated that his business with Joe was done. He then turned his attention to Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, however, Finn Bálor came out and stated that he should be the next person to face Lesnar as Bálor was the inaugural champion and never lost the title. The two then participated in an Intercontinental Championship number one contender's triple threat match, also including The Miz, who won following interference from Samoa Joe, who attacked Rollins, and Bray Wyatt, who performed

Event

Pre-show

During the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show, Kalisto faced Apollo Crews, who was accompanied by Titus O'Neil. In the climax, as Crews argued with O'Neil, Kalisto performed "Salida Del Sol" on Crews to win the match.

Preliminary matches

The actual pay-per-view opened with Dean Ambrose defending the Intercontinental Championship against The Miz, with the stipulation that if Ambrose was disqualified, he would lose the title. During the match, Maryse slapped Miz in front of the referee in an attempt to get Ambrose disqualified, however, the referee knew Maryse's actions and opted not to disqualify Ambrose and in the process, Maryse was evicted from ringside. In the end, Miz shoved Ambrose into the referee, who considered disqualifying Ambrose. Whilst Ambrose was distracted, Miz performed a "Skull Crushing Finale" on Ambrose to win the title for the seventh time.

Next, Rich Swann and Sasha Banks faced Noam Dar and Alicia Fox in a mixed tag team match. The match ended when Swann performed a "Phoenix Splash" on Dar for the win.

After that, Alexa Bliss defended the Raw Women's Championship against Bayley in a Kendo Stick-on-a-Pole match. Bayley was able to grab the kendo stick, but Bliss ducked the shot and knocked Bayley down. Bliss then struck Bayley with the kendo stick multiple times. Bayley was able to perform a Bayley-to-Belly suplex on Bliss, but couldn't capitalize. Bliss took advantage with more kendo stick shots and performed a Snap DDT on Bayley to retain the title.

In the next match, The Hardy Boyz defended the Raw Tag Team Championship against Cesaro and Sheamus in a Steel Cage match, which could only be won if both members of a team escaped the cage. In the end, Jeff performed "Whisper in the Wind" off the cage on both Cesaro and Sheamus. As Matt attempted to pull Jeff through the cage door, Cesaro and Sheamus climbed and narrowly escaped the cage before The Hardys to regain the titles for a second time. This was also The Hardy Boyz first loss since their return at WrestleMania 33.

In the penultimate match, Neville defended the WWE Cruiserweight Championship against Austin Aries. In the end, Neville performed a "Red Arrow" to Aries' back and forced Aries to submit to the "Rings of Saturn" to retain the title.

Main event

In the main event, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Bray Wyatt, Finn Bálor, and Samoa Joe competed in an Extreme Rules match to determine the number one contender against Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at Great Balls of Fire. After Wyatt and Joe attacked Reigns and Rollins with the steel steps, Wyatt performed a DDT on Rollins onto the steel steps. Joe applied the "Coquina Clutch" on Bálor, who escaped. Wyatt performed a side slam on Reigns onto an announce table. Joe applied the "Coquina Clutch" on Wyatt, but Bálor struck Joe with a chair. Reigns performed a spear through the barricade on Bálor and Joe. Rollins performed a frog splash on Wyatt through an announce table. Bálor performed a "Coup de Grâce" on Reigns, but as Bálor attempted a pin, Joe applied the "Coquina Clutch" on Bálor, who passed out, giving Joe the win by technical submission and becoming the number one contender for the Universal Championship.

Aftermath

The following night on Raw, Samoa Joe confronted Brock Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman. Joe said that unlike many others, he did not fear Lesnar and wanted to face him. Joe then applied the Coquina Clutch on Heyman to send a message to Lesnar,[23] who returned the following week and brawled with Joe.[24]

Also on the post-Extreme Rules Raw, the other four participants of the fatal five-way were scheduled to face each other in singles matches. Roman Reigns defeated Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins was scheduled to face Finn Bálor, but General Manager Kurt Angle instead booked Rollins to face Joe due to Joe's attack on Heyman. In the climax, Wyatt's music played and distracted Rollins, giving Joe the win,[23] and beginning a feud between Rollins and Wyatt.[24]

Dean Ambrose attacked Elias Samson during his segment and demanded a rematch against The Miz, who appeared on the TitanTron and said that Ambrose would not be getting a rematch as Miz was having a celebration. Samson then attacked Ambrose. Later, The Miz had his celebration on becoming a seven-time Intercontinental Champion, which was crashed by Ambrose, who attacked Miz with Dirty Deeds.[23]

After defeating Heath Slater and Rhyno, new Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro and Sheamus taunted The Hardy Boyz for picking a stipulation that they thought would give them the advantage.[23] The Hardy Boyz then invoked their championship rematch for the following week in a two-out-of-three falls match. After tying the match 1-1, it ended in a double countout, thus Cesaro and Sheamus retained the titles.[24]

TJP confronted WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville about their agreement, and Neville said that TJP deserved a title shot. Later, after TJP defeated Mustafa Ali, Neville attacked TJP and said he would get his title shot the next night on 205 Live,[23] where Neville retained.[25] This would be Austin Aries' final PPV match with WWE as he was released on July 7.[26]

After retaining her Raw Women's Championship, General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled Alexa Bliss to defend her title against Nia Jax that night on Raw, as she had promised Jax a title shot after she defeated Bayley. The match ended in a disqualification win for Bliss after she intentionally got Mickie James and Dana Brooke, who were at ringside, to attack her.[23] The following week, Bayley said in a sit-down interview that she had never been in a match like that before, but she would eventually recapture the Raw Women's Championship.[24]

Titus O'Neil, accompanied by Apollo Crews, decided to face Kalisto himself, but was defeated.[23] The following night on 205 Live, Titus tried to recruit Akira Tozawa, as per recommendation from Crews, to "The Titus Brand".[25]

The 2017 Extreme Rules would in turn be the only Extreme Rules event during the second brand split to be brand-exclusive, as following WrestleMania 34 the following year, brand-exclusive pay-per-views were discontinued.[27]