By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Great promo from Ryback to kick off the show. This was the best mic work Ryback has shown since turning heel and garnered good heat from the live crowd. He challenged WWE Champion John Cena to an Ambulance match a WWE Payback next week while also targeting the audience, which was long overdue. The feud between Cena and Ryback was lacking something prior to Extreme Rules, so here's hoping this segment was a sign that the rivalry will be improving from this point forward.

Throwaway tag team match with The Miz and Chris Jericho defeating Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett and Fandango. If my memory serves me correctly, this was the first time Jericho and Miz have teamed together in over three years, so I was excited for their pairing. However, the in-ring work left a lot to be desired, as Fandango's distraction at ringside was more obnoxious than it was effective in getting him heat. Miz pinning Barrett was logical in putting him back in title contention, but the thought of Barrett being buried and treated as an afterthought once again this week is disconcerting. Speaking of Barrett, the intro to his new entrance music is awesome, but the rest of the theme sounds rather generic.

Nice match between Sheamus and Titus O'Neil. It looked like it was going to be a squash match from the start, but O'Neil more than held his own against Sheamus. Not only that, but the fact that O'Neil also received an entrance made him look like an equal to The Celtic Warrior. Sure, the former NXT Rookie ultimately came up short, but he definitely had an impressive showing against the former World Heavyweight Champion.

Brilliant booking with Paul Heyman revealing Curits Axel as his latest client. I realize that many people (myself included) were hoping that the newest client would be a returning Rob Van Dam, but what good would that have done? As great as that would have been, RVD is a veteran and doesn't need Heyman to get over in WWE. There's always another place and time for RVD to return, whereas putting Axel in this role helps build towards the future. The repackaging of the former Michael McGillicutty has been highly anticipated for a number of years now, so I'm happy to see it finally come to fruition in such a fashion. We weren't able to hear from Axel all that much during his confrontation with Triple H, but any issues he has on the mic (similar to Brock Lesnar) can be covered by Heyman.

Decent match between Big E Langston and Alberto Del Rio. The match wasn't anything special, but highlighted Langston's in-ring abilities nicely. I was pleasantly surprised to see Langston score the upset victory over Del Rio, which should be treated as a major deal. Being a former World Champion, Del Rio loses nothing from losing to Langston and has enough to credibility to quickly rebound from it.

By Carson Koschik

While it was almost impossible to follow the Extreme Rules/WrestleMania wombo combo that WWE put on last year, this year's "extreme" event definitely put on one hell of an effort. With no filler and a lot of good wrestling, this year's Extreme Rules surprised many in just how good it was. And while every match and wrestler was great, it's time to focus on who did it best.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Decent pre-show match between The Miz and Cody Rhodes. The two work well together, but they simply weren't given enough time to shine. Nonetheless, they made the most out of the time they were given and provided a quality contest. Miz recently returned, so his victory shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Nice opening match between Chris Jericho and Fandano. The two kept a consistent pace throughout the bout and set the tone for the rest of the night. Honestly, I found this bout to be better than their initial encounter at WrestleMania aside from the one minor botch. Fandango winning would have made more sense, but it's rare that Jericho wins on pay-per-view, so I'm fine with Fandango's loss as long as he bounces back with a victory over Y2J at some point in time.

Good match with Dean Ambrose defeating Kofi Kingston to win the United States Championship. They developed excellent chemistry with one another and had an enjoyable exchange. Ambrose winning the match in clean fashion was a very nice touch, as it gives him credibility as a singles competitor. Kingston wasn't doing anything with the strap anyway, so I have hope that Ambrose will finally be the one to restore lost prestige in the star-spangled prize.

Physical Strap match with Sheamus defeating Mark Henry. The concept of a Strap match is a bit lame, but Sheamus and Henry managed to have an exceptional match. The crowd popped for the hard-hitting action and looked on as the two behemoths traded blows. I would have liked to see Henry score a victory here, but Sheamus winning was what I should have expected.

Solid "I Quit" match with Alberto Del Rio defeating Jack Swagger to become the new number contender to the World Heavyweight Championship. They have had some great matches in the past, but I felt as if the "I Quit" stipulation hindered the bout more than helped it. The Swagger swerve was nicely done, but the restart could be seen coming from a mile away. Why did the referees wait until now to finally use replay instead of all the other times heels cheated to win matches?

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Standard segment to kick off the show featuring Randy Orton, Big Show, Jack Swagger, Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry and Sheamus. Everyone played their roles well and respectively hyped their matches for Extreme Rules. It was a paint-by-numbers promo, but it served its purpose in setting up the main event match for later in the night. The only person who didn't seem to belong was Miz, who hardly spoke at all during the course of the segment.

Brief match with Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns defeating The Usos. It was only a mere minute long and was nothing more than a glorified squash match. I would have liked to see the match go a bit longer, especially since The Usos were made to look like equals on WWE Main Event this week. The post-match run-in from United States Champion Kofi Kingston was a logical way of building towards his title defense against Ambrose at Extreme Rules.

Throwaway match with Tons of Funk defeating Prime Time Players. Similar to their match on this week's Raw, the bout wasn't given enough time to truly mean anything. The sole purpose of this match was to give Tons of Funk their win back, which is unfortunate. The in-ring action wasn't bad at all, but it simply felt like an unnecessary waste of time.

Great match between Chris Jericho and Antonio Cesaro. These two work well together and developed awesome chemistry over the course of the contest. It featured excellent action that concluded with Jericho forcing Cesaro to tap out to the Walls of Jericho to score the victory. Fandango's post-match attack on Y2J was a nice way of hyping their upcoming match against one another.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Effective opening segment featuring Hulk Hogan, Joseph Park, D'Lo Brown and Television Champion Devon. It wasn't anything special, but it served its purpose in setting up a match between AJ Styles and Kurt Angle at Slammiversary and a match between Joseph Park and D'Lo Brown for later in the evening. If nothing else, this was a standard segment that set the stage for the rest of the show.

Forgettable match with Bobby Roode defeating World Tag Team Champion Chavo Guerrero by disqualification. The match wasn't necessarily bad, but it was far too brief to mean anything. I understand that James Storm interfered to attack Roode after what happened last week, but it draws back to the feud these two already had. I liked how it was reminiscent of when Roode turned on Storm in late 2011, but I do not wish to see them face another at any point in the foreseeable future.

Nice segment featuring Kurt Angle, AJ Styles and Mr. Anderson. Everyone played their roles well and gave viewers something to look forward to next week. I doubt Styles ends up joining Aces and Eights, but I continue to be intrigued by his character, regardless. I'm sure Angle vs. Styles at Slammiversary will be the match of the night, but I simply can't get excited about a bout we've seen one too many times in the last five years.

Fine match with Jay Bradley defeating Christian York in a Bound For Glory Series Semi-Final match. York has tremendous potential, but this was not one of his better outings. The same can be said for Bradley, who also failed to impress. Nonetheless, we've seen far worse matches involving Gut Check competitors before, so I'll take this bout for what it was worth. I like the idea of holding a tournament to see which Gut Check contestant qualifies for the Bound For Glory series, as it gives the series more meaning.

Decent match with Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky defeating Gail Kim. We've seen face one another countless times before, so this was nothing out of the ordinary. Sky isn't the best worker in the ring, but she held her own here and Kim mostly carried her to a exceptional match. Here's hoping that Sky's title match with Mickie James next week results in a heel turn for James, as she is in desperate need of a change in character at this point.