WWE Battleground 2017: Ranking John Cena vs. Rusev Matches

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4. Russian Chain Match – Extreme Rules 2015

So outside of a match on RAW between these two that took place about 2 months after the program ended, the duo’s only television matches took place on 4 consecutive pay per views.  This match at Extreme Rules was number 3 of 4 and quite frankly, did absolutely nothing for a show that was pretty lackluster overall.  At just under 14 minutes, this was the shortest of their 4 matches and that was probably a good thing.

Believe it or not, the build up to this match was actually pretty good.  Rusev, still fuming over losing the U.S. title to Cena at Wrestlemania 31, announced that he was invoking his rematch clause at Extreme Rules by attacking Cena with a Russian Chain on the April 13th RAW, thus signifying the stipulation for the bout.  And when the match physically began, the crowd actually seemed pretty into it, although to be fair, a lot of the noise seemed to be for Lana.  But about 3 or 4 minutes into it, the energy just seemed to drain from the 14,000 fans at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.

There was nothing inherently wrong with this match but what made it so ineffective was that it went down like any other chain match in pro wrestling history.  It was too formulaic and predictable.  Come on, how many times can a guy get stopped trying to touch all 4 corners before it becomes ridiculous?  Not long.  And for what was only 14 minutes in length felt like an eternity.  Luckily for these two, this wasn’t the end of the rivalry.  Because this would’ve been a brutal way to go out.