‘Extreme Rules’ Breakdown: The Seth Rollins Show, Minute By Minute
The Raw Breakdown Project is an examination of WWE‘s Monday night show from a designer’s perspective. Each week, I track appearances, matches, segments and whatever else I find interesting and/or amusing, then compile my results in an infograph.
For this Extreme Rules Breakdown, I clocked the two segments from the Kickoff show, and the main show itself. Most of the matches on the card delivered, but this was hardly an “Extreme” PPV. Chris Jericho and Dean Ambrose’s supposedly insane “Asylum Match” was a dud, and was (unnecessarily) the longest match of the night. Credit to Jericho for taking those thumbtacks, but after an incredible IC title match, this caged catastrophe really dragged things down.
We also had two rematches on the card from Payback. Charlotte and Natalya once again fought for the Women’s Championship, and once again their match ended with interference – this time in the form of Dana Brooke dressed as Ric Flair, which certainly brings an interesting dynamic to the women’s title storyline.
And A.J. Styles got a second shot at Roman Reigns’ World Heavyweight Championship, with R.R. retaining after a tremendous, hard-hitting battle. But the Newark crowd didn’t get a chance to boo the champ for long, because soon after Roman’s win, they witnessed the majestic return of our Lord and Savior Seth Rollins, who Pedigreed Reigns and instantly made tonight’s Raw a lot more interesting.
Here’s a brief explanation of what was tracked last night:
Focus on Announce Team: Any time the camera is focused on Michael Cole, Byron Saxton and JBL, or the Extreme Rules Kickoff Panel (Renee Young, Booker T, Jerry Lawler and Corey Graves).
Video Packages: Any and all video packages promoting the card. I only counted specially made video packages of compiled footage, not simple recaps (for example, there was a recap leading into the Kalisto vs. Rusev match, not a video package).
In-Ring Action: The matches – can be scheduled or impromptu. Must have a referee present. Timer starts when/if the first entrance music hits, and ends when the camera cuts to the next segment. If the match is already in progress when we return from commercial, the timer will start then. Match timer is paused for commercial breaks.
In-Ring Segment: Any non-match segment that occurs in the ring. Promos before matches do not count (as they are considered part of the match segment). If there is a promo that results in a match, the segments are counted separately.
Backstage: Anything that happens backstage or “off-site.”
Recaps: I only time recaps when they are separate from the segment at hand. I consider the recaps within segments (the ones relevant to the one at hand) as part of the segment.
Commercials: Self explanatory. It was mostly Camp WWE commercials.
You can view more of my weekly Raw Breakdowns at Rawbreakdownproject.com, and follow me on Twitter @makeitloud.