WWE
Fan’s Enjoy WWE Extreme Rules
2018 Live, WWE Extreme Rules 2018 is
an upcoming professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network
event, produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It will take place
on July 15, 2018 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. WWE
Extreme Rules will begin at 7 p.m. ET with a kickoff show airing one hour
earlier at 6 p.m. The event should go 3.5 hours as the dual-branded
pay-per-view will likely have 10-12 matches on the card.
WWE Extreme Rules 2018 Match Card:
፠ The New Day vs. SAnitY (Tables Match on
KICKOFF SHOW)
፠ Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens (Steel
Cage Match)
፠ Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley
፠ Finn Bálor vs. "Constable"
Baron Corbin
፠ Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Seth Rollins
(30-Minute Iron Man match for the Intercontinental Championship)
፠ The Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs. Team Hell
No (For the Smackdown Tag Championship)
፠ Deleters of Worlds (c) vs. The B-Team
(For the Raw Tag Championship)
፠ Carmella (c) vs. Asuka (For the
Smackdown Women's Championship with James Ellsworth suspended above the ring in
a Shark Cage))
፠ Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax (Extreme
Rules match for the Raw Women's Championship)
፠ Jeff Hardy (c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura (For
the United States Championship)
፠ AJ Styles (c) vs. Rusev (For the WWE
Championship)
WWE
Extreme Rules 2018 full match card and predictions:
Tables
Match on KICKOFF SHOW:
The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods) vs SAnitY (Eric Young,
Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe)
Pancakes. Tables. It'll all be happening on the pre-show
when The New Day take on a riled up SAnitY with a load of furniture involved.
This was the very last match added to the bill, but could
end up being the most fun of the whole night.
SAnitY have been on the SDLive roster for a short while
now but have yet to REALLY make an impact, so will be looking to do just that
with the bodies of The New Day early on.
And The New Day have been off doing their own individual
things recently with Gauntlet and MITB Ladder matches and the like, but haven't
had much success.
It's been less than nine months since The New Day were
tag champs (since they were dethroned by The Usos at Hell in a Cell), but it
feels like longer.
With so many new kids on the block, they feel like
they're a way away from the titles. They need a big win or some sort of moment
to change things up, but it won't come this weekend.
PREDICTION: SAnitY (Eric Young, Killian Dain and
Alexander Wolfe) [Tables Match]
WWE Raw
Women's Championship:
Alexa Bliss (c) vs Nia Jax [Extreme Rules Match]
Alexa Bliss seemed to have snuck under the radar while most
fans had their eyes on the Four Horsewomen, so well just remind you: Little
Miss Bliss is a TWO-TIME WWE SmackDown Women's Champion and now also a
THREE-TIME WWE Raw SmackDown Women's Champion. A five-time champ at the age of
26. Over 460 days and counting in total.
So Alexa Bliss is no pushover, despite the massive size
difference between her and her former Team Rude best friend Nia Jax. After
backing her diminutive pal, Nia finally broke through and won her first
championship last month, only for Alexa to snatch it back via a same-night
cash-in of her Money in the Bank briefcase.
That moment came during Nia's title defence against Ronda
Rousey, whose reaction to the shenanigans left her with a 30-day ban from Raw.
She'll be ringside as a paying punter, but we can't imagine that she won't make
her presence felt.
But without a Briefcase of her own, the UFC Hall of Famer
isn't walking out champion. And despite her antipathy towards Alexa, her
hot-headedness will mean she won't be thinking about the consequences when she
gets involved.The Extreme Rules stip
precludes a DQ, but Alexa will still benefit.
PREDICTION: Alexa Bliss
WWE
Championship:
AJ Styles (c) vs Rusev
After months of predicting that Shinsuke Nakamura would
overthrow AJ Styles, here we are at Extreme Rules with AJ still standing
oh-so-very tall (despite all those punches to the nadgers).
While Nak seemed to get endless title opportunities after
his initial loss at WrestleMania 34, Rusev has absolutely earned this match,
coming out on top in a Gauntlet qualifier.
You may quibble about the influence of the Bludgeon
Brothers on Daniel Bryan's chances (more on that later), but who could begrudge
the Bulgarian a bit of luck on Rusev Day?
But despite this match also taking place on Rusev Day,
and the inevitable involvement of Aiden English at some point, we think that
Rusev's luck will run out at Extreme Rules.
AJ Styles is slowly building an air of invincibility, and
we've got a sneaking suspicion that he'll not only hold on to the title all the
way through SummerSlam, but even until next year's Royal Rumble and maybe even
beyond.
PREDICTION: AJ Styles
WWE Raw
Tag Team Championship:
'Woken' Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt (c) vs The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel)
An intriguing match-up for all sorts of reasons. Matt
Hardy and Bray Wyatt have gelled remarkably well since their surprise union at
WrestleMania 34. It feels as though they're hitting their stride without really
being seriously challenged.
With Jeff Hardy still over on SmackDown, it's up to Bray
to play a 'Woken' foil to his brother. Speaking of brothers, there's a
startling fraternal similarity between the former Wyatt Family patriarch and Bo
Dallas that we can't quite put our fingers on…
Ignoring such trifles, the question is whether the Deleter
of Worlds' first real threat will come from this most unlikely of sources. The
B-Team are on a roll, and have even had some joy against Hardy and Wyatt.
Despite that, we just can't see the B-Team coming away
with the gold, much as we'd love the shock of it all. Wyatt and Hardy have just
too much between them for Dallas and Axel.
PREDICTION: 'Woken' Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
WWE
SmackDown Women's Championship:
Carmella (c) vs Asuka
Few would have imagined this a couple of years back. Enzo
Amore sacked. Big Cass sacked. Their former hairdresser Carmella is your WWE
SmackDown Women's Champion, having chased in on Charlotte Flair after a record
287 days holding the briefcase.
What's more, she shocked the world by defeating Asuka to
retain the belt, with a little help from a returning James Ellsworth. The
Chinless Wonder is the wildcard factor here.
As she's shown on SDLive, Asuka is more than capable of
dealing with Ellsworth. But when she's one-on-one with Carmella, JE somehow
manages to succeed in distracting her time and again.
But it's a lesson you'd hope that Asuka has now finally
managed to learn, and with such a big prize up for grabs, she should be
suitably prepared this time around for any further trouble from Ellsworth or
anyone else.
PREDICTION: Asuka
WWE
SmackDown Tag Team Championship:
The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan)
(c) vs Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane)
Well, we didn't see this coming. The Bludgeon Brothers
had been happily bludgeoning allcomers since their post-Wyatt Family rebirth,
and even started a fight with ex-SDLive GM Daniel Bryan, prompting the return
of Kane.
Team Hell No was the unlikeliest of reunions, and not
only because the last time both members were on active service they were busy
trundling each other around on forklift trucks and the like.
In a parallel universe, Kane is running for Mayor, and as
a Republican in GOP country he's appropriately the Red hot favourite. Surely he
can't be Mayor AND Tag Team champ at the same time?
Well, the election's not till after SummerSlam, which
feels far enough in the future to not be a distraction. That said, we can't
help but feel that Team Hell No just haven't been on the same page long enough
to beat a machine as well-oiled as The Bludgeon Brothers.
PREDICTION: The Bludgeon Brothers
WWE United
States Championship:
Jeff Hardy (c) vs Shinsuke Nakamura
This has to be one of the hottest match-ups on a pretty
exciting card. Jeff Hardy made his return alongside his brother Matt at
WrestleMania, but after he picked up an injury Matt went his own Woken way.
Jeff returned with a bang to become US Champ and get a
little Woken himself, while his brother buddied up with Bray Wyatt to get tag
gold over on the Red brand. Now, he's facing Shinsuke Nakamura, still on the
dark side after his war with AJ Styles.
Nakamura has presumably recovered from being bitten by a
police dog (no, really), but has he recovered from a series of devastating
losses against his long-time rival for the WWE Championship?
Despite our repeated failure in predicting he'd win the
big one, we're suckers for punishment. We're going to go for Shinsuke to
finally win some main roster gold, even if he has to use every dirty trick in
his book to do it.
PREDICTION: Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE
Intercontinental Championship:
Dolph Ziggler (c) vs Seth Rollins [30-minute Iron Man Match]
Without wanting to put a jinx on this, it has MOTN
contender written all over it. Dolph Ziggler's bizarre sacrifice of the US
Title a few months back built up more excitement around him than any time since
Sting dragged his broken body as a prop during that Survivor Series WWE debut.
If it felt like that promise was squandered by his limp
appearance at number 30 in this year's Royal Rumble, it's been recaptured by
his unlikely partnership with Drew McIntyre. For his part, the former 3MB man
has gone from WWE reject to indie superstar, NXT Champ to your new old next big
thing on the main roster.
While his return to the light side was a little
unconvincing at first, Seth Rollins has flipped and dived his way back into our
hearts in recent months, and as a fighting custodian of the IC title became THE
highlight of Monday Night Raw.
This match promises chess-like strategy, thrills, spills
and surprises. What seems certain is that McIntyre won't sit by idly if Seth
gets the upper hand early on. But despite the involvement of the Scotsman, we
think that Rollins will regain the belt to be a fighting champion once more…
and with Roman Reigns tied up with Bobby Lashley, we'd absolutely love to see
Dean Ambrose evening up the numbers.
PREDICTION: Seth Rollins
Roman
Reigns vs Bobby Lashley
Originally, these two men were to be the first of a
clutch of wrestlers duking it out for a shot at Brock Lesnar and his WWE
Universal Championship. The Beast's continued and relatively unexplained
absence (Paul Heyman's excuses don't quite cut it) means that currently there's
very little at stake here.
Lashley is coming off the back of a relatively lacklustre
return and a forgettable feud with Sami Zayn. Reigns is still dividing
audiences the way he has continued to do since that Royal Rumble win.
For all his ups and downs in the past few years in the
WWE, one thing that Reigns has shown is that he can shrug off the occasional
loss. Lashley on the other hand has precious little momentum, and desperately
needs to build on his win over Zayn.
We think that extra bit of drive and hunger will make all
the difference, and the arrogance of Reigns will prove his downfall, as Bobby
Lashley gets a relatively shock win. Oh, and expect Brock Lesnar to pop by on
the night, similar to his recent UFC appearance, to set up a SummerSlam match
with Bobby.
PREDICTION: Bobby Lashley
Finn Bálor
vs Baron Corbin
The much-underrated Baron Corbin is on a roll. An excellent
haircut and great role as The Constable of Monday Night Raw has piqued interest
in the football-playing-hard-hitting-indie-hating-End-of-Days-ing wrestler.
Finn Bálor has proved in the last six months or so that
no matter where he is on the card or what he's fighting for, that he is, and
will always be, absolutely OVER with the WWE Universe, and for good reason.
There's not a vast amount at stake here, for sure, but
two Superstars who are in a very solid place at the moment going at it to prove
their superiority with a dash of classic big guy vs little guy, athlete vs
indie star underpinning it.
We're going to opt for Constable Corbin to edge this one,
if only because of his lack of reluctance to twist and bend the rules to get
exactly what he wants. This won't be the last of this feud though, and we fully
expect Bálor to learn from a defeat here and come back swinging and winning.
PREDICTION: Baron Corbin
Braun Strowman vs Kevin Owens [Steel Cage
Match]
Poor Kevin Owens, many of you have been saying in recent
weeks. The former champ has spent the last month or so running away from Braun
Strowman, not that it's done him any good.
So what does Kurt Angle do? He sticks him in a match
where running away is all-but impossible.
But for those of you shedding a tear for Kevin Owens and
asking what has he, what has he, what has he done to deserve this, a quick
refresher is in order.
He BETRAYED Sami Zayn, BETRAYED Kevin Owens and tried to
MDK Daniel Bryan. Braun Strowman may not be your typical good guy, but really
he's not a bad guy either.
He's an Avenging Angel, meting out some overdue natural
justice. The only problem is, Braun isn't always that smart.
If he was clever, he'd be banging Kurt Angle's door of
its hinges to get Brock Lesnar back in the building. Instead, he's wasting his
time and his briefcase year fannying about with Kevin Owens.
For that reason we predict a surprise win for Kevin
Owens, probably by having Braun fling him right through the cage on to the floor
outside.
PREDICTION: Kevin Owens
