WWE Extreme Rules 2018 review: What we learned, highlights, takeaways, future projections

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match (30-Minute Iron Man Match)

Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Seth Rollins

What we learned: So this didn’t go like I thought it would. I didn’t go into thinking that this needed to be 0-0 as the 30 minutes expired in this Iron Man Match between Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Intercontinental Championship but going the route they did was a bit strange.

Seth Rollins took the first fall less than five minutes in, which was a surprise in itself that the IC champ could be pinned so easily, but then he got a second fall just over three minutes later to take a quick 2-0 lead. Ziggler’s partner Drew McIntyre didn’t take too kindly to what was happening and took it upon himself to get involved, which cost Ziggler yet another fall, making it 3-0 Rollins. But McIntyre didn’t stop and although he was eventually thrown out, the damage he’d done let Ziggler sneak in a fall to make it 3-1 and then he tacked on another a minute later and another a minute after that to tie things at 3-3 with 17:30 to go. Two minutes after that, Ziggler went up 4-3 with his feet on the ropes. Okay then.

Finally, we got a stretch of action without a fall and the next one wouldn’t come until there was 3:08 remaining and Rollins tied it with a roll-up. It looked as if he was going to get the win as he hit The Stomp with about 10 seconds to go but couldn’t cover in time as the clock expired. Unsurprisingly, Kurt Angle came out and called for sudden death but then that only lasted about 20 seconds as McIntyre made his way back down to the ring and interfered, allowing Ziggler to pick up the win as the show went off the air. Huh?

I’m not going to go as far as saying that I didn’t like the match because it was still good with two of the best athletes in WWE getting after it. The stretch without falls was by far the best stretch of the match and all of those falls really took something away from what could have been a Match of the Year candidate. But that’s the way it goes. And don’t look now but Dolph Ziggler just headlined and won the main event match on WWE pay-per-view.

What’s next: This certainly isn’t over, I wouldn’t think. Rollins has no contractual claim left for the Intercontinental Championship but McIntyre’s involvement at the end will give Kurt Angle a reason to give us this match again.

This pay-per-view certainly wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen but it was far from the worst. I liked some of the surprises in there, especially the Bobby Lashley win and The B-Team capturing the RAW Tag Team Championship. The Carmella-Ellsworth deal was the worst thing to happen on Sunday night and the Styles-Rusev bout was the match of the night. We’ll see you next month for SummerSlam.

NEXT: 10 who deserve to be in the WWE Hall of Fame

What were your favorite moments from WWE Extreme Rules? Please feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below.