Previewing The Extreme Rules 2017 Main Event

Let's start by talking about the elephant that's not in the room. That would be Brock Lesnar, the Universal Champion. I had high hopes when Lesnar won the WWE Championship a few years ago. That did not work out like I would have hoped. Lesnar winning the title again was not something I was too eager for. Right now, moreover, the WWE has the brand split back and in full force. That limits their overall roster for Raw. If that isn't bad enough, it only takes one bad injury to really mess things up. That is what the WWE got when Braun Strowman got injured. Life would just be a little bit easier if the top titleholder of the brand was someone that can show up regularly to help take up some time with feuds revolving around the title. This just seems like the dumbest situation for the WWE to have given Lesnar Raw's top title.

I noticed someone point out on a message board recently that there has been only one successful title defense of a World Championship in the WWE all year. That would be Kevin Owens retaining the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. Hard to be believe, but true. We are now in the sixth month of the year and the belts have been going all over the place all year. We will have to wait a few more weeks for another successful title defense of a World Championship. That will likely be Jinder Mahal. Who would ever have believed that?

With no Universal Champion around, the main event is a 5-way Extreme Rules match for the #1 contendership. Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt. As I have brought up before, this match is in response to Braun Strowman getting injured. The WWE essentially combined Joe/Rollins and Balor/Wyatt, then tossed in Reigns.

I am still not impressed with the match type. Triple threat matches are no disqualification by default. Imagine if the WWE hyped a triple threat match as a "No DQ" triple threat match. Redundant. This multi-man match is already no disqualification. How "extreme" will it really get? And just in terms of drawing interest with a unique match type, this match isn't that unique. Could they have made it a ladder match? Too similar to Money in the Bank? I think this PPV would be an okay place for a ladder match. Elimination Tables Match? I'm sure there were things that were more interesting.

As for the winner, I see some wanting Roman Reigns to win just so the WWE can get Reigns vs. Lesnar out of the way. It doesn't work like that. Even if they wanted Reigns to win this and face Lesnar now, that will not stop them from doing a rematch down the road. But I don't think Reigns wins here.

Rumors are saying Finn Balor and I'm going Finn Balor. It just seems fitting for the guy that never lost the title to get the first title shot. Does that ruin the feud between Balor and Wyatt? Considering their gimmicks, that could have been an interesting feud. But the WWE can always get back to it after Balor/Lesnar.