WWE's Extreme Rules 2018 Match Card

WWE is stumbling into their 2018 Extreme Rules pay-per-view tonight with fan expectations low.

They're coming off a very successful Money In The Bank PPV, where fans were rocked by unexpected wins, a MiTB contract cash in, and the first singles match from Ronda Rousey.

However tonight doesn't carry that much promise.

We know that we'll see Ronda Rousey's face on the broadcast tonight, but in story line, she's suspended, so her plan is to buy a ticket and sit in the front row. Wait, didn't we just do this bit at Wrestlemania with John Cena? Eh, close enough.

But that kind of seems like WWE's biggest problem right now, they have about 4 different kind of story lines they can use, and they keep overlapping them, or running them together.

Don't believe me? Let's look at the one draw that fans are excited for tonight, the return of Team Hell No.

Daniel Bryan's return earlier this year was already a big enough story, now you give him a chance to reunite with Kane, a man who's currently running to be Mayor of Knoxville, TN? Awesome.

But the whole "Team Hell No" thing was built through a series of stories told years ago, about anger management classes, and constant bickering between the two "friends". It's cool that they just brought Team Hell No back, but at the exact same time, they're telling the SAME STORY with Sasha Banks and Bayley.

After weeks of infighting between the two friends, Banks and Bayley, they finally blew up, and were sent to anger management. Which just so happened to be with the EXACT SAME DOCTOR that Daniel Bryan and Kane used in their story.

I don't think anyone would see a problem if the Banks and Bayley story was being told the same way, if not for the fact that Daniel Bryan and Kane are literally reuniting at the same time. It's like the writing team forgot that they were able to do the "anger management story line" until they started with the two women, and then thought, "hey, lets call Kane and do that one too!".

Anyway, tonight has slight promise, but when we're just getting another Roman Reigns punch-fest without anything worth it on the other side, what do you have to be excited about? Oh, because that's right, the current "champion" Brock Lesnar is not scheduled to appear, meaning his Bruno Sammartino type streak will stay in tact.

Some, including WWE, are considering Brock Lesnar's current WWE Universal Title run as "the longest in modern history", but that's a load. Sammartino's record is FAR longer, but they don't like to include it, because he only had to defend it once ever 30 days. But that's actually a shorter time in between matches than Brock is enjoying. Brock Lesnar has appeared in the ring only 5 times this year for WWE. Two of those were house shows, one was in Saudi Arabia (which ended the wrong way based on their rules), and then at the Royal Rumbler and Wrestlemania. That's it.

Ok, back to the Extreme Rules PPV for tonight. Here's the card:

AJ Styles vs. Rusev (WWE Championship)

Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax (Raw Women's Championship)

Carmella vs. Asuka (SmackDown Women's Championship; James Ellsworth suspended above the ring in a shark cage)

Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins (30-Minute Iron Man Match; Intercontinental Championship)

Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley

Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (United States Championship)

The Bludgeon Brothers vs. Team Hell No (SmackDown Tag Team Championship)

Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt vs. The B-Team (Raw Tag Team Championship)

Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (Steel Cage Match)

The New Day vs. Sanity (Tables Match)