Finn Balor Earns Some Momentum With a Win at Extreme Rules

Finn Balor picked up his first pay-per-view win of 2018 on Sunday night, defeating Baron Corbin in a singles match at Extreme Rules.

Late in the match Corbin grabbed Balor from the top rope via the throat and dropped him with a chokeslam-backbreaker for a two count. Balor tried to gain the upperhand with a slingblade, but it was quickly countered into a Deep Six for another nearfall.

Balor finally broke free after countering a powerbomb, then nailed Corbin in the corner with a shotgun dropkick. He attempted the Coup de Gras but was yanked off the ropes. Corbin set up an End of Days, but Balor countered with a rollup for the win.

The win breaks an unfortunate losing streak that had haunted the former WWE Universal Champion for more than half a year. He was on the winning side of Team Raw during the main event of Survivor Series back in November, but had since been on a losing streak in pay-per-view matches. He lost in the Royal Rumble match after making it to the final four, was one of five men to get pinned by Braun Strowman at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, lost in the Intercontinental Championship triple threat match with Seth Rollins and The Miz at WrestleMania 34, failed to win the title a second time at the Greatest Royal Rumble in a four-way ladder match and came up short in the eight-man Money in the Bank ladder match in June.

Balor's win was just one of many big moments to take place early on in the Extreme Rules event at the PPG Paints Arena. The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curt Axel) captured the Raw Tag Team Championships for the first time by upsetting the Deleters of Worlds in the show-opener, followed less than an hour later by another shocking title change when Shinsuke Nakamura won the United States Championship by beating Jeff Hardy in six seconds.

As for other titles matches, Carmella successfully retained the SmackDown Women's Championship for the second month in a row against Asuka thanks to a distraction from James Ellsworth and the Bludgeon Brothers held on to the SmackDown Tag Team Championships against Team Hell No. The duo of Harper and Rowan walked in with the upperhand, injuring Kane's left leg in a backstage attack with their hammers.

Raw's roster offered up another big moment midway through the show when Braun Strowman chokeslammed Kevin Owens off the top of a steel cage through an announcer's table below. Ironically, it was Owens who was named the winner as he technically escaped the cage in the process.