WWE’s next pay-per-view, Extreme Rules, takes place this Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show is headlined by a “Winner Take All” Extreme Rules tag match between Universal Champion Seth Rollins & Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans, and also features the return of The Undertaker as he teams up with Roman Reigns.
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As always, we’ve assembled our team of ComicBook.com wrestling writers — Connor Casey, Ryan Droste and Matt Aguilar — to break down the biggest questions heading into the show and predict who will come out on top.
Check out the full predictions below!
Between WWE, AEW, Evolve and New Japan, what will be the best match of the weekend?
Connor: This is a tough one. Based on pure storytelling, I’ll go with Cody and Dustin Rhodes vs. The Young Bucks. But there will be some strong competition from Ricochet vs. AJ Styles, Aleister Black vs. Cesaro, Matt Riddle vs. Drew Gulak and Juice Robinson vs. Shingo Takagi.
Ryan: Hard to complain as a wrestling fan this weekend – we’re blessed with some awesome matches. I’m going with Styles/Ricochet as the match of the weekend. The reinvigorated Styles has been awesome to watch and this is still a pretty fresh match despite their television match recently. Bucks vs. Cody/Dustin is my second choice.
Matt: I’m going with Kofi Kingston vs Samoa Joe on this one. Their contrasting styles should help both of them shine, and it’s a matchup that we haven’t seen done to death either. Joe’s been treated as a superior threat (rightly so) but so often doesn’t get a chance to show it off in a full uninterrupted match. If WWE can leave this alone, this could be best of the weekend.
The main event mixed tag match has three stipulations. Is that too many?
Connor: Oh dear god yes. Look, I get wanting to capitalize on Seth and Becky as a couple. But throwing in all of these stipulations makes it look like WWE was confident enough in Lynch and Rollins vs. Corbin and Evans as a top-drawing match, so they threw as many bells and whistles on top of it as they could.
Ryan: Yes. This match is all kinds of mess. Long term storytelling meant this match had to happen, but it really would have been nice to seem them pivot away. The crowd is just not accepting Corbin in this position right now (which is not to say they won’t eventually). The three stips just make an already unappealing match more convoluted.
Matt: Yes, yes it is. I’m all for the mixed tag match as a central premise and even love Seth and Becky being utilized as a couple in certain instances, but I pay attention to WWE on a regular basis and it’s consistently hard for me to recall every stipulation at play. I’m ready for this rivalry to be over for all involved and sincerely hope this is the final entry in this series.
Who do Seth and Becky face at SummerSlam, respectively?
Connor: I still want Rollins vs. Reigns even though Brock Lesnar is still lurking in the background. As for Becky, let’s have her face Alexa Bliss just to shake things up.
Ryan: I’d save Rollins/Reigns for WrestleMania. I’ll go with Drew McIntyre against Seth. On the women’s side, there really aren’t too many options that would be intriguing outside of a returning Sasha Banks. Perhaps the promise of a high profile SummerSlam title match could get “The Boss” back in action. I’d be fine with Alexa Bliss too, but I feel like she and Nikki Cross will have something else in the works.
Matt: It seems Kofi Kingston could be in for a program with Samoa Joe, otherwise I would pick Joe for that role. If not, it could be time for a proper Rollins AJ feud, especially now that he’s full-on heel. As for Becky, it might be the perfect time for her to take on Alexa Bliss. The thinking here is that the end of the Bayley feud will end up with Nikki finally seeing the light and turning on Alexa, leaving Nikki on Smackdown to feud with Bayley one on one and Bliss to take on Becky over on Raw. You could also swap that around, but seeing Becky duel with Bliss on the mic would be fire.
Does Undertaker redeem himself for that Super ShowDown match?
Connor: Barring any more shocking mid-match injuries, I think this one will go off without a hitch. Reigns can take most of the bumps, Taker can make the hot tag and hit his usual moves, and the crowd will love seeing him nail Shane with a Tombstone.
Ryan: Absolutely. Connor is on to something here. Reigns will carry most of the load and help make ‘Taker look like a million bucks.
Matt: To be fair he wasn’t the issue in that match (sorry Goldberg), but think he’ll put on a good show, especially with Reigns and McIntyre there to take the brunt of the physical contact.
Is it too early to take the United States Championship off Ricochet?
Connor: Yes, but I think there’s more money in him chasing a heel AJ Styles for the title so I’m fine with him cheating to win it on Sunday.
Ryan: Styles and The Club are fresh right now and could benefit from some gold. I don’t see any harm in taking the belt off of Ricochet at this point. Styles could carry it with Ricochet chasing for a bit before you insert a heel Styles back into the Universal Championship picture.
Matt: According to WWE I would say no, as they treat that thing like dirt most of the time, but in my mind yes, it would be. Having him go against The Club will only continue to build sympathy for him as a babyface while the mainstream is simply entertained by great matches, so he at least needs to retain through Extreme Rules.
Is this finally Joe’s time to become world champion?
Connor: Sadly, no. As much as I absolutely love Joe’s work both on the mic and in the ring, there’s still plenty of steam left in Kofi’s run as world champion. Now give me a Kingston vs. Orton match at SummerSlam!
Ryan: Nope. I’d love to see him feud with Rollins (after all, he technically is a RAW star….) at some point and maybe get a Universal title run. But Kofi needs to keep the title until SummerSlam, minimum.
Matt: YES! Over time, but if you’re asking whether they will give it to him, I will say yes only if Kofi’s injury is substantial and he needs time to recuperate. Otherwise no, but by the end of this feud, I hope they put the title on him.
Which match steals the show?
Connor: Aleister Black vs. Cesaro. I feel like this repackaging with Black shows WWE has the confidence to give him more than an eight-minute match, and Cesaro can have a great bout with pretty much anyone.
Ryan: Styles/Ricochet will probably be the best match, but that’s also what everyone expects going in. If we’re looking for one that might surprise some of the non-hardcores, it’s Black/Cesaro. Of course all the die hard wrestling fans are looking forward to this, but some of the more casual fans might not expect the awesome contest they should get here.
Matt: I’m still going with Kofi vs Samoa Joe, but if anyone is going to upset that it will be Aleister Black vs Cesaro. These two should burn it down and I hope they will get a full program going forward.
Has Raw done enough to get you excited for Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Lashley?
Connor: Surprisingly, yes. I could not have cared less about this show a month ago, but to WWE’s credit they gave some ramifications to Strowman driving Lashley though the entrance ramp wall rather than just have it be his latest feat of incredible strength. Now I’m actually looking forward to see what crazy spot they come up with as the finish for this one.
Ryan: Yes. This is probably the most interesting Strowman has been since his ill-advised heel turn killed off a ton of his momentum.
Matt: Being that I couldn’t possibly care about this matchup before Raw and now I’m at least intrigued to watch it, I’ll say yes. Strowman is one of the few on the roster that Lashley can really unleash against, and I hope they are both on their A-Game.
