Seven Ways WWE’s The Horror Show at Extreme Rules Could Be Great

WWE’s The Horror Show at Extreme Rules is shaping up to be a weird show (and we’re not just talking about that title). There could be as many as three cinematic matches, either Rey Mysterio or Seth Rollins is supposed to lose an eye and Drew McIntyre was able to knock out the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship with just one stiff punch on Monday night. There’s a very good chance WWE is saving their best ideas for SummerSlam right now, and all that’s in their way right now is getting through Sunday night.

But there’s also a chance this show could be excellent. The Raw Women’s Championship match could be one of WWE’s best matches this year, Bray Wyatt gets flex his storytelling muscles with another Cinematic match and that aforementioned Eye for an Eye match at least promises a crazy finish.

Below are seven ways The Horror Show at Extreme Rules could be a great pay-per-view!

So, About That Jeff Hardy vs. Sheamus Bar Fight…

Don’t do it. 

Just don’t book it. Forget about it. Act like it never happened. Have Corey Graves tell anybody who brings it up that they’re stupid.

Seriously, fans don’t want to see this. People have been uncomfortable with this storyline since that hit & run angle on SmackDown. Every segment the two have had since then has been panned, especially when pee is involved. Even Matt Hardy is out here publicly saying he’s got concerns about it.

So before anything else happens, let’s just drop this. 

Keep Up the Storytelling With Bray and Braun

Not everybody was a fan, but I actually really enjoyed the theatrical storytelling bits when Braun and Bray fought back at Money in the Bank, particularly that finish with the Black Sheep Mask. There was a lot of “show, don’t tell” storytelling in that final sequence, and hopefully that can continue with this Wyatt Swamp Fight.

The match itself probably won’t be as meta as the Firefly Fun House Match Wyatt had with Cena, but it does give Wyatt the chance to break down Strowman mentally by using his old cult leader gimmick and all of the iconography he had during that original Wyatt Family run. 

Basically, just don’t have this be two guys brawling in dirty lake water for 20 minutes. If you do more than that, you’ll be set.

Give Apollo the Visual of Holding Both US Title Belts

The fact that they’re doing anything with Apollo Crews right now is a surprise. And since they’ve introduced the new version of the US title, this gives Crews the chance to have the nice little visual of holding up both versions of the championship. It’s small, but it’s something — and he’ll get comparisons to that classic photo of Razor Ramon. 

Make Mysterio vs. Rollins a Cinematic Match

The moment they announced the “Eye for an Eye” stipulation for Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins I only had one question — “How the heck do they get around this?”

I’m not talking about the aftermath — either Rey is written off television or Seth gets an eyepatch — I’m talking about the actual ending where they have to make it look like somebody just lost an eye without this suddenly becoming a TV-MA product. 

The easy solution is to have the two fall behind something (maybe a crate or table), then the winner pops out with a fake eyeball while the other person screams off-camera. But that’s also a boring solution. The fun way to do it is to give these two a cinematic match where they’re free to do whatever they want inside the Performance Center. Plus that way you can use some camera tricks and props to get around the aforementioned eye removal.

Give Drew vs. Dolph a Bonkers Stipulation

At this point, a world championship feud with Dolph Ziggler is WWE’s version of an anime filler arc — some cool stuff might happen, but in the end, it’s meaningless. Such is the case here with McIntyre. But at least we know these two will go all-out for about 20 minutes against each other, so let’s get creative with that stipulation.

Give Asuka vs. Sasha Time

The Women’s Division has been absolutely killing it over the past two months, and a lot of that is owed to the outstanding work Asuka and The Golden Role Models have been putting in. Give the match between these two as much time as possible and you could get a Match of the Year contender. 

Take Another Step Towards Sasha vs. Bayley

The seemingly-eternal tease for a return of the Banks vs. Bayley might finally be nearing its end. The pair have been teasing a future match with bait-and-switches and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments for the past few months, but it feels like WWE is finally getting ready to pull the trigger and have The Golden Role Models implode. I’m not asking for a full break-up on Sunday, but adding another wrinkle to the feud where Bayley retains against Nikki Cross and accidentally costing Banks her match against Asuka in some way would be that next step fans are hoping for.