Extreme Rules featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines which will play out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers portray villains or heroes as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
On the April 2 episode of Raw, John Cena spoke about his loss to The Rock the previous night at WrestleMania XXVIII. After concluding his statement, he asked for the Rock to come out and talk. Instead, Brock Lesnar made his WWE return after being away since 2004. Lesnar deceived Cena by teasing a handshake in order to execute his F-5 maneuver, dropping Cena onto the mat. The next week, General ManagerJohn Laurinaitis revealed that he signed Lesnar to bring "legitimacy" and for Lesnar to become the "new face of the WWE;" Laurinaitis also announced that Lesnar would face Cena at Extreme Rules. On April 16, it was announced on WWE.com that the match will be an Extreme Rules match.
Both Lesnar and Cena have a long history between each other. On the February 6, 2003 edition of SmackDown, Cena called out Brock Lesnar with a rap freestyle and challenged him for a match. On February 13, 2003, they had their first match in which Lesnar defeated Cena with the F-5. After the match, he hit another F-5 onto the ring post, injuring Cena. After returning, Cena used a modified version of the F-5 as his finisher, which was then known as the F-U, a pun on the name F-5. Cena won a tournament to earn a WWE Championship match at 2003's Backlash pay-per-view against Lesnar, in which Cena was defeated.
At WWE's Royal Rumble PPV event on January 29, Sheamus won the Royal Rumble match to earn the opportunity to face either WWE ChampionCM Punk or World Heavyweight ChampionDaniel Bryan for their respective title at WrestleMania XXVIII. Sheamus elected to wrestle Bryan and defeated him in 18 seconds to win the championship at the event. On the April 10 episode of SmackDown, Bryan used his rematch clause as ex-champion to announce a 2-out-of-3 Falls match for the championship at Extreme Rules between him and Sheamus. The stipulation was due to Bryan wanting to prevent Sheamus from scoring another quick victory.
On the January 2 edition of Raw, Chris Jericho returned to WWE He made it clear that he wanted to reclaim his title as the "best in the world," which CM Punk had claimed to be since winning the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank 2011. Punk defeated Jericho at WrestleMania XXVIII, but since then, Jericho attacked him several times. On the April 16 edition of Raw, Jericho announced that he will face Punk in a Chicago Street Fight at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship.
Another rivalry heading into Extreme Rules is between Randy Orton and Kane. In July 2011, Kane lost in a Street Fight to Orton, and the two shook hands after the match as a sign of respect. In 2012, a newly re-masked Kane now viewed this event as a sign of weakness, hence Kane started a feud with Orton and defeated him at WrestleMania XXVIII. Yet, on the April 6 episode of SmackDown, Orton defeated Kane in a No Disqualification match. On the April 10 episode of SmackDown, Kane attacked Orton and his father "Cowboy" Bob Orton. On the April 20 episode of SmackDown, it was announced that Kane and Orton would face off at Extreme Rules in a Falls Count Anywhere match. On April 23 edition of "Raw" Orton attacked Paul Bearer who is Kane´s father, but Kane seem not to care about it proofing he has no humanity.
On April 26, it was announced that Nikki Bella would be defending her WWE Divas Championship against Beth Phoenix after Bella defeated Phoenix on the April 23 episode of Monday Night Raw. Despite Phoenix suffering a sprained left ankle during the aforementioned match, she hasn't been medically cleared to compete.
Event
Pre-show
On the pre-show, The Miz challenged Santino Marella in a standard match for the United States Championship. Before the match, Miz complained about being in the pre-show after he was in the main event a year ago at Extreme Rules 2011. The title match ended with Marella pinning Miz after hitting the Cobra.
Preliminary matches
The first match on the show had Randy Orton facing Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match. The match started with Kane and Orton brawling into the crowd and then backstage, where Zack Ryder made an appearance to attack Kane and allow Orton to deliver an inverted headlock backbreaker for a two count. Orton and Kane eventually headed back into the ring, where Orton was unable to beat Kane despite multiple pin attempts after repeated chair shots, an elevated DDT onto the floor and a superplex. However, Orton managed to survive a chokeslam from Kane to counter the Tombstone piledriver into an RKO on a steel chair for the pinfall victory.
The second match on the show had Brodus Clay facing Dolph Ziggler in a standard match.
The third match on the show had Big Show defend his Intercontinental Championship against Cody Rhodes in a Tables match.
After the first main event, the fifth match on the show had Ryback facing Aaron Relic and Jay Hatton in a handicap match.
After the second main event, the seventh match on the show had Nikki Bella defending the Divas Championship against a returning Layla in a standard match.
Main event matches
The first of the three main events was the fourth match on the card, a 2-out-of-3 falls match for the World Heavyweight Championship, where Sheamus defended his title against Daniel Bryan.
The next main event was the sixth match on the card, a Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship, where CM Punk defended his title in his hometown against Chris Jericho.
The final main event for the night saw John Cena face Brock Lesnar in an Extreme Rules match; this was Lesnar's first match in WWE since 2004. They started the match with Lesnar quickly causing Cena to bleed with a vicious elbow strike to Cena's head after a double leg takedown. Lesnar continued to dominate the match with his hard hitting offense, delivering punches, clotheslines and knee strikes to Cena, while the match had to be paused twice while a medic attended to Cena to clean up the blood. After the match restarted for the second time, Lesnar continued to brutalize Cena, hanging him from the turnbuckles and throwing him into the steel steps and the guardrail. Then, Cena desperately went for his finishing move, the Attitude Adjustment, but Lesnar countered into his own finishing move, the F-5. However, while throwing Cena to the mat, Lesnar inadvertently caused Cena to hit and knock out the referee, so by the time another referee got to the ring to make the count, Cena was able to kick out at two. Lesnar then brought the ring steps into the ring and slapped on a kimura lock on Cena while on the steps, but Cena eventually lifted and slammed Lesnar to break the hold. After Lesnar avoided a Cena diving leg drop bulldog, Lesnar then charged and leapt off the ring steps and over the top rope onto Cena, sending both men to the floor. When Lesnar tried the same move again, Cena countered by hitting Lesnar in the head with the metal chain that he brought to the match, bloodying Lesnar. Cena then fired up, delivered an Attitude Adjustment to Lesnar onto the ring steps and pinned him.
Aftermath
Reception
The PPV was mostly well received by critics and fans alike. The Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section described the event as "outstanding" and "a show where all the big matches delivered in spades", rating the entire event a 9 out of 10, while also rating each of the main events 9 out of 10. Benjamin Tucker of Pro Wrestling Torch rated the event 8.5 out of 10, stating that "with a solid undercard and three four-star-plus matches, the show was a lot of fun to watch and had a lot of emotional highs." James Caldwell, also of Pro Wrestling Torch, described the PPV as "excellent", praising the strong matches and performances, the "nice pace with downs to follow the big ups" and "an intense main event". Fans also praised the event's match quality, but raised concerns about Cena beating Lesnar in Lesnar's first return match.
Results
Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
(c) refers to the champion(s) heading into the match.