WWE Extreme Rules 2017 results: A contender is crowned

WWE Extreme Rules lived up to its name in a big way, with six brutally physical matches that all made the absolute most of each of their unique stipulations. Only one title changed hands on the night, but every match delivered on their promise and entertained. The headline, though, is who won the main event, the Fatal Five Way match between five of the best Superstars in the WWE today.

WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar has an opponent for Great Balls of Fire — yes, that really is the name of the next Raw pay-per-view — and his name is Samoa Joe.

He won a grueling Fatal Five Way match fought under Extreme Rules stipulations against Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Finn Balor, and Bray Wyatt, setting himself up for a huge match in July against the Beast Incarnate and reigning Universal Champion. That’s going to be a massive match, and hopefully Samoa Joe can recover quickly after the intense grind of a match he had to go through to get there.

The match quickly devolved into chaos, with fights breaking out all over the ring area as each of the five stars brawled in hopes of earning supremacy in the match. The Extreme Rules came into play in the form of Bray Wyatt and Samoa Joe forming a temporary alliance to take control, using the ring steps as a battering ram to take down all three of their foes. That alliance held firm as they ran roughshod over Reigns, Balor, and Rollins, until a dive through the ropes from Rollins saw Wyatt shove Joe into his path to save himself. That saw Joe turn on Wyatt in a hurry, breaking the match wide open again.

That eventually lead to a brutal sequence, with Reigns spearing both Joe and Balor through the barricade into the timekeeper’s area, quickly followed by Rollins Frog Splashing Wyatt through one of the announce tables. The two former SHIELD brothers were the only two on their feet for a long time, and Rollins and Reigns used that time to absolutely hammer away on one another chasing that match with Lesnar, with near fall after near fall coming as the one-time allies threw everything they had at each other.

But eventually the other three started working their way back into the match, and Rollins was dispatched before Reigns sent Wyatt packing. The return of Balor saw the Irish Superstar nearly beat Roman Reigns, hitting his Coup De Gras on the Samoan — but out of nowhere came the other Samoan in the match, with Samoa Joe snagging him and locking in the Coquina Clutch, quickly making Balor pass out to claim the number one contender’s slot for himself in shocking fashion.

Extreme Rules opened with a match carrying an interesting stipulation: with fiery Superstar and Intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose defending his title against an ever-frustrating opponent in The Miz, it would be understandable if Ambrose lost his never-stable calm and got himself disqualified. But unlike normal circumstances when he would keep his title if that occurred, if that happened in this match, The Miz would walk away the seven-time Intercontinental champ, just two reigns behind the all-time mark set by Chris Jericho.

Ambrose had several near-misses with that stipulation early in the match, including a long beating in the corner that nearly went to the referee’s five count before he backed off, then brandishing a chair at The Miz outside the ring. Ambrose got control of himself and of the match for a long spell, but an apparent knee injury after missing on a move from the top rope slowed him down enough for The Miz to sink in a Figure Four Leglock on Ambrose’s injured leg.

He nearly ran afoul of the match stipulation again when The Miz managed to get back to the ropes while Ambrose had a Figure Four of his own locked in, but he released the hold just before the referee got to five. The Miz tried to get Dean disqualified by having his wife Maryse slap him, which would typically have the referee calling for the bell. Referee John Cone ejected Maryse instead, but while she argued with him on one side of the ring, Miz swooped in and shoved Ambrose into Cone, forcing the referee out of the ring. As Dean pleaded with Cone to not disqualify him, Miz managed to slip in and hit his Skull Crushing Finale, earning himself a big win and the Intercontinental championship.

After weeks of Alexa Bliss harassing and humiliating Bayley, it came time for them to go toe-to-toe in the squared circle — with a kendo stick hanging over the ring, up for grabs and perfectly legal to use. Both women went for the stick repeatedly before it finally came free of the pole it was hanging from, landing in the ring and ultimately ending up in Bayley’s hands first.

After a brief chase that finally had Bayley corner Bliss, though, she hesitated before swinging the kendo stick, giving Bliss an opening to shoulder-charge her, knocking the stick free and and claiming it for herself. She wore out that stick on Bayley’s back, and despite the former WWE Raw Women’s champion fighting back into the match briefly, Bliss and the kendo stick to take control once more, before finally hitting a wicked DDT, pinning Bayley and successfully defending her title in a surprising hurry.

It’s been more than 15 years since any WWE tag team titles have been defended inside a steel cage, but what other stipulation could there be for Team Extreme to defend the WWE Raw Tag Team championship at Extreme Rules? The Hardy Boyz have been in steel cages as a tag team before, and they felt that experience would be enough to best the brutal aggression of Sheamus and Cesaro in this match.

Making this match even more unique is that both members of a tag team had to escape the cage to win — pinfalls and submissions would not end this match. Sheamus and Cesaro would try for a quick escape at the start of the match, but Matt and Jeff Hardy would take control early and often as they tried to defend their titles.

That momentum turned in the favor of the European bruisers, though, with Cesaro and Sheamus beating down Jeff Hardy before turning their attention to a suddenly-isolated Matt. Both teams would battle over escape attempts before Jeff managed to wriggle his way away from Cesaro and get out of the cage — but that left Matt all alone against both opponents. Sheamus and Cesaro threatened to break Matt in half as Jeff tried to help pull him over the top of the cage, but pulled him back in before working on breaking some of his bones.

Matt managed to get back to the top of the cage, but a huge Swiss Uppercut from Cesaro appeared to knock him out cold, leaving him vulnerable to a White Noise off the top rope from Sheamus, leaving him in agony in the middle of the ring. Knowing the situation was huge, Jeff Hardy climbed back on top of the cage and managed to unleash his Whisper In The Wind from all the way up top to knock down Sheamus and Cesaro — but Matt having to drag Jeff’s wounded body out of the cage gave Sheamus and Cesaro a chance to climb out, with the duo barely beating Matt and Jeff out of the cage to re-claim the WWE Raw Tag Team championship.

After narrowly working his way out of two potential wins for Austin Aries with his brutal Last Chancery submission hold, WWE Cruiserweight champion Neville had to figure out a way to avoid the move in a submission match at Extreme Rules that forced him to stay constantly aware of Aries’ ability to lock in that hold.

Neville gave himself an advantage long before the match began, with he and his disciple, former Cruiserweight champ TJP, constantly attacking Aries’ left knee, leaving him at less than 100% coming into the night. Neville focused on that knee at every opportunity during their match, but Aries fought back constantly, even doing damage to Neville’s own left knee in the process. His own injury cost him, though, making him lose his balance as he attempted a missile drop kick, slowing down the move and giving Neville the time he needed to get out of the way, then lock in his Rings of Saturn submission move.

Aries was able to escape the hold, though, and had Neville in danger by locking in the Rings himself — but Neville’s crafty approach managed to force Aries to let go or risk disqualification, giving him the opening he needed to go on the attack once more. Aries was able to fight his way out of a bad situation on the top rope, though, and hit a Sunset Flip Powerbomb before moving into the Last Chancery — but once more, Neville out-thought him, wriggling his way outside the ring before Aries could lock it in, knowing that when he tapped outside the ring, the referee would force Aries to let go of the hold as the match could only end inside the ring.

That gave Neville the opening he needed to sucker Aries into trying a tope suicida dive to the outside, getting out of the way again and letting Aries knock himself silly on the floor. One Red Arrow later, and Neville had the Rings of Saturn locked in once more, leaving Aries with no choice but to tap out and give up on his dream of being the WWE Cruiserweight champion, and leaving Neville still on his throne as the King of the Cruiserweights.

Sasha Banks and Rich Swann took down Alicia Fox and Noam Dar in a fast-paced mixed-gender tag team match that saw Swann competing in his hometown of Baltimore. Banks can tell you that competing in a big match at home is a hard thing to do — arguably her biggest title loss came in Boston — but with her help, Swann was able to overcome the odds and plant a huge 450 Splash on the dynamic Dar. Fox and Dar put up a good fight, but it wasn’t enough to upend the sheer talent and energy of Banks and Swann.