MORE LIVE NOTES AND THOUGHTS FROM WWE EXTREME RULES IN CHICAGO
By Gregory Davis on 2012-04-30 18:39:50
Here is my live notes from the Extreme Rules PPV.
The show was sold out for at least a week before the show, and the building
looked to be packed. I'd say the "CM PUNK" and "YES!" chants were about equal,
along with the occasional "Woo."
The doors opened around 5:50. Since the start time on the ticket was 6:45, which
had been the traditional start time live at PPV events, a good amount of people
arrived late, missing the preshow match.
Most of the preshow footage and discussion was not broadcast to us live in the
arena.
Lilian Garcia performed the national anthem. As always, one great benefit of
seeing WWE live.
Allstate Arena never had good ventilation, so I felt the post-pyro smoke really
took away from certain parts of the show.
Billy Corgan and the Resistance Pro braintrust were sitting right behind the
announce table. Got to admit, promising a huge appearance, moving some tickets,
being forced to cancel the appearance a couple days later, and telling those
ticket buyers that they can only get a refund in person, a great carney move.
A video featuring comments from CM Punk aired promoting WWE's Chicago return on
September 3 with the Raw Supershow. Again, I like how you could buy tickets
after the show.
Having Randy Orton vs. Kane go in the crowd and backstage was kinda annoying as
a paying fan, but we got a good amount of visible wrestling, so it wasn't too
bad. Fun brawl.
The crowd loved the dancing of the Funkasaurus, but once they realized that
Dolph Ziggler was being fed to him, they quickly turned on him.
The tables match wasn't much, but I loved the "Oh s***" look when he stepped on
the table.
It feels like WWE wants their cake, and to eat it too with Daniel Bryan. They
want him to be a heel, and for the fans to stop cheering him, so he cuts these
promos against the crowd. But, they see the sales of his T-Shirt, and they don't
want them to end, so he keeps saying YES, which the crowd will keep on chanting.
They need to go one way or the other.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of the YES chant, there were a fair amount
of Sheamus fans, so it was a mixed reaction.
Great World Title Match. I had a feeling they really wanted to show the world
what they could do after being figuratively bumped from WrestleMania. While I
was personally upset that Daniel lost, I was not pissed that Sheamus left as
champion. Both guys looked great, and it was a great match. Fine by me!
Jay Hatton is actually Heath Hatton, and Aaron Relic is actually Ace Hawkins.
Hawkins was the PWI Magazine Rookie of the Year for 2011, while Hatton has been
making waves in AAPW and OVW. Obviously, they both had their roles, and filled
them. Man, I wasn't really thinking about it, but those Goldberg chants are
quite true, and it was brutal.
I'd say the reaction to CM Punk was a bit lesser than what was at Money in the
Bank, but man was it loud. And I didn't hear one person cheering for Jericho.
Against any other opponent, he probably would have been cheered. Another great
match. This will be one to remember, especially the elbow drop through the
table.
In my section, we didn't really hear that the mystery opponent won't be Kharma,
so that's why there was a further letdown when Layla came out, as the Bellas
promo really seemed to fit around Kharma coming out. Despite that
disappointment, it was great to see her back.
I wasn't feeling Brock vs. Cena at first. Once again, Brock had forgotten that
he wasn't really suppose to hurt Cena, and with the referee stoppage, that
really ruined the flow for me. But then it really picked up. And in the end,
this match did the one thing that no match had been able to do recently... the
crowd became firmly behind Cena.
When Cena gave his post match speech, I thought he was being suspended. I hope
it's just a case of him taking some time off, because he deserves it.
Overall, a fun night of wrestling, and a great end to a fun wrestling weekend.
