Extreme Rules live blog

01.02am
Pyro follows the usual quality promo to hype the night. Following this is a Fatal Fourway, apparantly.

01.05am
Kofi out first, followed by Regal. Sounded like a decent cheer for Matt next. Might be just his music, though. Big pop for MVP. New Orleans loves Montel.

01.09am
Uh-oh. Not long into the match and a major collision between MVP and Kofi. If it was deliberate, it looked like shit.

01.10am
Oh my, a tower of doom spot now goes awry. They have gone at a strong pace througout. Need to slow it down a little.

01.14am
Kofi retains, so its one to me for predictions, but the match just seemed off the pace. The finisher didn't hit right, and the whole match just felt like four guys were trying to hard to get stuff in. Poor opener I'm afraid.

01.16am
So Show is confident because Cena can't apply the STF? Are everybody idiots because no-one seems to realise that Cena is allowed to do more than just the STF.

01.23am
Nice little intro from Jericho from the merch stand to the ring, but can't help but think that was a TV promo not a PPV one. I like Grisham talking up Rey for being "Nice"

First couple of minutes start outside the ring with a bit of a brawl. Exactly what I asked for. Well done.

01.33am
Great stuff so far, but just a little question - why are the fans supposed to hate Jericho for removing the mask. Wouldn't they be curious as to what Rey looks like?

01.40am
Gotta love that. Crisp action throughout, terrific series of counters, and a very creative finish.

My big problem with it, though, is that the unmasking means nothing because no cameras bothered to follow the guy trying to hide his face, but instead looked at the guy doing very little in the ring.

That doesn't detract from the match too much, though. It was a typically great effort from these two. Normally I'd hate to see a third go on PPV between the same guys, but if they have a further PPV contest I won't complain.

01.45am
Why must we watch that long recap? Surely if someone has purchased this show then they know all about what happened on Raw. And if they don't, well they bought it anyway. Don't waste precious time that could have been given to the opening contest.

01.59am
No complaints from me there. I felt it was telegraphed that Punk would win when they started going on about how stacked in Umaga's favour it was, though.

Decent enough match, though, considering the limitations of that kind of match. I don't really care for strap matches, much like with Last Man Standing contests (and often cage matches - we'll see later) they are limiting rather than exciting. Glad Punk won, he needs that boost. Umaga is terrific to watch I think, but to me he really needs a manager or at least an ally who can talk to help him out. I miss Arrrrmando......alejandro......estrrrrrrrrrrada.

02.03am
Backstage to Gregory Helms (terrible interviewer, by the way) who interviews \Christian, who cuts a heel promo. Lame acting from the interupting Dreamer, and then corny dialogue as Swagger enters. The segment is saved, though, as Dreamer and Christian just walk away from Swagger. That was pretty funny.

02.17am
Well, that I wasn't expecting. Dreamer wins and pins Swagger to do so. Terrific, meaningful call by Striker on the bell. Some sections of the crowd felt that. Others didn't. Felt like that match should have taken place in Phillie. Would have been nice to see some ECW originals cheering him on. I'm aware that Rhyno, the Dudleys and so on can't appear, but I would have liked to have seen some ECW alumni on hand to celebrate with Tommy.

02.20am
Oh great. Hog Pen match. Time to get a snack. It's a bit late for a bacon sandwich I guess.

Seems that rules for this match are different to the original Hog Pen match. I recall Henry Godwinn backdropping Hunter Hearst Helmsley (yes, him) into the pen for the win. They didn't wrestle in it, you won by getting your opponent in there.

02.29am
I am not going to analyse that. It was pathetic.

02.30am
Perhaps that was designed to be so terrible that it would make Cena v Show seem awesome by comparison.

02.32am
I'd just like to say, for the benefit of my friend RD Reynolds, we may have a Gooker nominee.

02.37am
Video hyping Batista and Orton. Holy shit, that went on forever. Nice logical meeting of Vickie and Edge. Trouble is, that was virtually a babyface promo for Edge.

02.54am
Batista has the title, thats three out of four title changes tonight so far, and it came suddenly. No Legacy assistance for Randy, and very few close finishes, before a powerbomb ended it.

I'm still looking at a gradual build to, at Summerslam perhaps, Orton v Batista v Triple H, with Flair as the referee.

03.02am
Actual, proper insight from King as we are about to start the submission match. He talks about how every time he went into a match thinking he might lose, he lost. That's what the colour guy should do, add insight from his career.

Big Cena chat early on. Sounds like The Big Easy likes Cena.

03.24am
Pretty much what we were expecting, wasn't it? Typical slow Cena match, with a vaguely logical story about Cena applying his hold.

I'm sick of two things tonight. One is that the usual reference to "skull" rather than "head" has gone into overdrive and is sounding completely ridiculous. I mean staggeringly annoying. Saying something too often lessens its impact, not that saying skull is that impactful anyway.

The other petty annoyance is the predictions by the commentators being completely wrong. Wrong to the point that their insistance that Big Show or Umaga, for example, are guaranteed to win shattered any doubt about who the winner would be. They even did it with Orton and Batista.

03.53am
Exciting, breathtaking, exhilarating and terrifying in equal measures, Edge and Jeff Hardy, one the whole, deliver in the main event. Jeff wins after a very creative finish trapping Edge inside a ladder and ......wait. As I type, here is Puink.

03.56am
Hmm.....interesting stuff. Firstly, credit for the Jeff kick out and inside cradle near fall. Suddenly it seemed that Punk's cash-in might backfire.

My biggest doubt would be that the moment of Jeff winning was big, and the crowd loved it. They did not go crazy for Punk, because he is a lesser babyface than Jeff.

Punk heel turn possible? Remember Edge will deserve a rematch, so perhaps we'll see a triple threat soon.

Back to the Ladder match, I thought it was very good. Not amazing, not five stars, but it didn't disappoint. What you absolutely cannot fault is the commitment level which Edge and Jeff Hardy asipire to. I would suggest they will be seriously banged up after that one.

Overall an ok show. I don't think anyone will hate the fact that they missed it, but Jericho v Rey and Edge v Jeff were both quality matches, and the Punk cash in was a shocking moment.

I look forward to Smackdown far more than Raw this week.