WWE Extreme Rules 2018: Live Review, Results, Highlights, and Grades

Photo Source: WWE.com

Raw Women’s Championship Extreme Rules Match

Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax

Result: Alexa Bliss defeated Nia Jax via pinfall

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

This was a star-making match no matter how you slice it. But the star coming out of this is Ronda Rousey, who wasn’t even booked in the match. Not sure how I feel about booking a division around a single person, regardless of that person’s involvement in the match.

Don’t get me wrong, Ronda is doing great work in her young career. And it’s abundantly clear the crowd loves her. But if there’s a multitude of complaints about Roman Reigns always being the center of attention, then that same focus needs to be placed on criticizing how Rousey is handled, fair or not.

To get Rousey over like WWE did tonight, the match turned into a giant overbooked mess. The extreme rules stipulation definitely came into play, which is nice. And Nia Jax’s power allows for the stipulation to be utilized in a way unique to the women’s division. The press slam onto the garbage can? Great idea, because no one else in the division would be able to really pull that off.

Of course, there’s a lot wrong with this whole situation. Why are these superstars allied with each other? What do Nia Jax and Natalya have in common? Why did Natalya even bother to come out to ringside if she was going to be less than ineffective? Where was security when Rousey hopped the guardrail?

It was obvious what the end game was in the match, but the steps to get there were poorly thought out. Just because you get to your destination doesn’t mean it was a smooth journey.