Tossing Salt Presents:
WWE Extreme Rules Thoughts & Predictions
June 2, 2017

Coming up on this Sunday night, live on the WWE Network and pay-per-view broadcasts everywhere, is WWE Extreme Rules. It’s a RAW exclusive event and is coming from Baltimore, Maryland. Of course, that means I’m ready to break out the “Sister Cleo” uniform and start speaking in a fake Jamician accent. But I won’t charge you tons of money for my sage wisdom and fortune-telling skills. I’m just going to throw it out there, getting all extreme like a sock-puppet in a shoe store and do that prediction thing. So let’s just get down, dirty and do the nasty, psychic style. Are you ready for some predictions cause here they come.

Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe vs. Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor in a Fatal Five to determine top contender to WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar.

What a strange and eclectic mix of characters with two heels, two tweeners and one actual face all matching off to see who will be going against Brock Lesnar at the upcoming “Balls of Fire” pay-per-view event. I’m actually looking forward to seeing this match and watching the contrasting characters and styles go to work. I don’t think that we’ll see either Roman or Seth as the winners here because they’ve both already had feuds with Brock in the past and there’s a same old / been there / done that feel with either of these guys as the top challenger for Brock. I like Balor’s chances, but the WWE should hold off and if Balor does end up going against Brock in the future, it should be on a major show instead of one of the secondary pay-per-views. That leaves Bray and Samoa Joe. Bray is just coming off a run as the WWE Champion and never got his rematch against Randy Orton for the WWE title so the WWE kind of owes him one here. Jim Cornette said on the new “Table For 3”, that was released this past Monday night and is available on the Network, that if he was booking Brock for Wrestlemania next year, he’d have him face off against Joe. I think I’ll go with Corny here because that’s a match I want to see too.

Winner and Number One Contender: Samoa Joe

WWE Raw Women’s champion Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley – Kendo Stick on a Pole.

That “This Is Your Life” segment on RAW this past week really, really sucked. Instead of making the challenger look stronger (Bayley) and building interest in this match, I think it just shot the whole build and interest to hell and back. Bayley looked like a total loser and Alexa looked stronger than ever. What the hell was the WWE thinking? I could really care less about this match now and that sucks because the women on RAW have been, up to this point, must see TV. Bayley needs to win or else she may as well just pack it in and go back to NXT. I think Alexa will win and retain.

Winner and STILL Raw Women’s Champion: Alexa Bliss

WWE Raw Tag Team champions The Hardy Boyz vs. Sheamus & Cesaro: Steel Cage match.

I am so ready to see Matt and Jeff be “broken” or at least slightly cracked. The nostalgia is wearing off fast and we need some character development here. That is best done by a title switch and some trauma. I think it’s time for new champions.

Winners and NEW RAW Tag Team Champions: Sheamus & Cesaro

WWE Cruiserweight champion Neville vs. Austin Aries: Submission Match

I am so torn here. I love the evil Neville character and having him as the champion and “King of the Cruiserweights” is probably one of the best things in WWE right now. But I like Austin Aries too and think he’s a tremendous character and wrestler. I want both to win, but alas, that can’t happen. Aries is going to eventually get the belt away from Neville, but will it be this Sunday night? I think this should be saved for a bigger event like SummerSlam before the title switch actually occurs. Look for Neville, with a little help from TJP, cheat and retain the gold.

Winner and STILL WWE Cruiserweight Champion: Neville

WWE Intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose vs. The Miz – Championship can change hands on DQ.

Ambrose has gotten so stale ever since losing the WWE title last year. The character and the performer is just boring and going through the motions and certainly isn’t doing anything to help or build up the IC title. Miz needs to win here and win convincingly, not via the DQ rule, but with an actual clean pin and victory. I think it will happen.

Winner and NEW Intercontinental Champion: The Miz

Sasha Banks & Rich Swann vs. Alicia Fox & Noam Dar

My, how the mighty have fallen. Sasha has gone from main eventing with Charlotte to this. Oh vey! Three out of four of the people in this match are damn good in that ring and Alicia is a great character when she goes all psycho so that works too. This should be a good match, but no one is going to give a damn or care. It’s true. It’s damn true. I think this will probably be placed early in the show to get it over with. If Sasha loses here, we know that someone way up at the top of the WWE food chain is pissed off at her for something. The faces win.

Winners: Sasha Banks & Rich Swann

R-Truth versus Goldust

And this final match has NOT been announced for the show, but given their break-up two weeks ago and the vignettes that they each presented this past week on RAW, I think a match between Goldust and R-Truth has to happen. And who wins all depends on how long the WWE decides that they want to run with this. If they want to cut it short, Truth wins. If they want to keep it going for a while and see what kind of legs it has, then Goldust should win. I think there is money to be made here and this should be drawn out a while, thus I’m going with some “Shattered Dreams” for R-Truth. Goldust wins.

Winner: Goldust

And I think that’s it. All the matches advertised for the big event, plus one more. I think it’ll be a solid and decent show, as most all WWE ppv events seem to be. My excitement for the show isn’t all that, but that pretty much describes my passion for the entire WWE right now. I’ll still watch and hopefully, they’ll deliver. It should happen. Anyhow, thanks for reading. Thoughts and comments are welcome. Follow me on Twitter at @doug28352. And now, I’m down and gone. Take care.

Ubuntu!