Review for WWE Extreme Rules 2021

This PPV is generally regarded as the one where 'No Holds Are Barred'. In the era of PG this has become less, but that is not to say there were not a few exciting and crazy moments.

One of the things I would want to address is that this PPV contained six matches (not including the Kickoff) and that of the near three hour PPV it consisted of approximately NINETY-THREE MINUTES of actual wrestling. I am stunned by this and the fact that none of the matches get passed twenty minutes is a little shocking.

We started with the New Day against AJ Styles, Bobby Lashley and Omos which was a fun match, nothing special, but a good way to show off these six performers. Another tag match followed with The Usos defending their Smackdown Tag Team titles against The Street Profits which was a great match as was to be expected. Both teams are very exciting and work so well together that I could watch these go at it many times over.

The wonderful momentum of Alexa Bliss was destroyed in her match against Charlotte Flair which did nothing for anyone involved and this was such a shame. It seemed like it was building towards something, but not to be.

The Triple Threat for the US Championship between Damien Priest, Sheamus and Jeff Hardy was again excellent. I was expecting more of a stipulation to this match such as elimination or maybe a table or ladder match, but it worked just as well without it.

Becky Lynch defending her Smackdown Women's title against Bianca BelAir was the match that I had been dying for them to have. It was a great way to show that The Man could still go and not just shock us with a quick victory and some great promos. This was a great match by the two of them and did much for both of them.

The PPV ended with Roman Reigns against Finn Balor for the Universal Championship. Balor had brought back The Demon for this match and this reminded me a great deal of his match against Brock Lesnar, in that he deserved to win, he should have won, he had all the momentum, the crowd, the gimmick to have the win... and well... That's not to say it was a bad match, it certainly was wonderful to see them both, but I just wish it had ended differently.

As expected, the only extra was the Kickoff match between Liv Morgan and Carmella. This was fine, and always great to see Carmella, but I do wonder whether anything will be made of this 'supposed push' of Morgan.

Only one match of the six is not great, but the PPV still felt a little odd. Maybe it was the lack of 'extreme' moments or the fact that only six matches were presented, but it was definitely a PPV I was happy to watch again.