WWE Extreme Rules 2016 results, recap, reactions: Fight forever

WWE went rolling right on through the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, last night (Sun., May 22, 2016) with Extreme Rules, the gimmick show that has been hit or miss in its history but delivered one of the best big money matches in recent memory. That's without mentioning the major return we got just after said match.

Let's not waste time with pleasantries and get right to reactions to the show. Click here for the live blog with full match coverage and here for all the fallout from the event.

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HE'S BACK

Seth Rollins has returned. He hit Roman Reigns with a Pedigree. His knee looked great. He looks great. Everything about it was great.

Wrestling is fun!

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A friend in need

To my eyes, Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles at Extreme Rules was the best match I've seen this year, full stop.

Here's what felt so good about it: The big fight feel was there all throughout, and WWE did well to facilitate that during the match, but they also closed out this story in the only way they could have.

They both left EVERYTHING out in the ring (and on the announcer's desk, and the barricade, and into the crowd).

At one point it looked like the WWE Network was broadcasting a murder, with Reigns literally throwing Styles head into whatever he could find. This was the time to get away from any moral dilemma and simply leave it all out there, and I'll be damned if there weren't multiple moments it looked over for the both of them only for each to climb back out of the casket to give it one more go.

It was a breathtaking display of brilliance by two wrestlers at the peak of their powers.

Even the finish felt right, like they didn't cheapen Styles with the way Reigns went over on him. That was always going to happen but they respected AJ as a top level guy the entire way, never once betraying the story in service of making Roman look stronger.

It absolutely felt like that mid-air spear as Styles was going for the Phenomenal Forearm was Reigns' last gasp effort, like if that didn't get the job done maybe he didn't have anything left in him and Styles could have capitalized on that. But even then, would AJ have had anything left himself?

That's what made this such an amazing match. It was as though the both of them absolutely killed themselves for this, and we learned that Reigns is the better of the two.

But just barely.

What an wonderful piece of business WWE pulled off here.

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A friend indeed

Count me in the camp who had a hard time enjoying the Charlotte vs. Natalya match if only because of the selling during submissions, particularly Nattie. Those sounds have me fearing sleep, for they will surely visit me in my dreams.

What's more, the match itself failed to live up to the body of work these two have built up. Part of why it was a good idea to have these two work together was because Natalya would put Charlotte over big while giving her great matches.

That isn't what we were given here.

Instead, they went back to gimmickry, this time in the form of another distraction via the introduction of a heater in Dana Brooke. This appears to be the answer to Emma's injury, and considering the circumstances it's probably a great idea. Brooke is best in a supporting role and with Emma out indefinitely, she needed to be paired with someone.

Putting her with Charlotte solves a few issues, or at least as the potential too. The biggest? This is the quickest route to get Ric Flair off television without completely leaving Charlotte on her own.

This didn't feel satisfying in the moment but did show obvious potential for what's to come.

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All the best to all the rest

Dean Ambrose def. Chris Jericho: They were up against it following the ridiculously hot Fatal 4-Way but this just wasn't entertaining. The only real fun to be found was the painfully long tease of Jericho taking a back bump on thumbtacks, which worked fine as the finish. But once they got there, we were supposed to feel like they had been through this brutal war with advanced weaponry when it was played for comedy at every other point. They didn't commit to either direction enough to make this worthwhile.

The Miz def. Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Cesaro: This was entirely too much fun. The action was great and made sense the whole way, which is difficult to pull off in 4-Way matches like this. Opening with Zayn hitting the Helluva Kick on Owens to get him out for a time while selling the rivalry between the two was a brilliant tone setter, and it took off from there. Speaking of which, they added another great chapter to said rivalry with Zayn having the Intercontinental title all but in his grasp if it weren't for Owens dragging him away at the last second and Miz taking advantage of Sami's work. I'm not sure where this leaves Cesaro, but considering the match no one looks worse coming out of it. Great story here, even if you're a massive Cesaro fan upset that he took a pin like this.

New Day def. The Vaudevillains: There was really never any chance Simon Gotch and Aiden English were going over here, and rightfully so. The act isn't getting over and there are better teams to be putting up against New Day. Xavier Woods trying to get ladies to slide up in his DMs was more entertaining than the match itself, but at least it's done with and they got a PPV match out of this brief little program.

Rusev def. Kalisto: This was exactly what it needed to be, a charismatic big guy getting a ton of heat for utterly decimating a champion fans like (even if they don't love him). That Accolade was NASTY but safe, and even if this leads to Rusev vs. John Cena, that's probably the best thing we could ask for right now.

The Club def. The Usos: A fun match that accomplished what they likely hoped it would, which was create some added doubt in the main event with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows establishing themselves as the clearly superior team here. The Usos left selling like they were badly hurt and The Club looked as good as they have since coming to WWE. It wasn't too long and aided in the main event story, at least going in.

Baron Corbin def. Dolph Ziggler: Corbin's main issue for a while now is the fact that he's too cocky and never taking advantage when he finds himself in a good situation. Here, that was completely reversed. No DQ? NUT SHOT into End of Days for the pin. Easy peasy. Good enough for what it was.

Big Cass: If the rumors are true that Vince McMahon loves him, we should all be happy for that. He's got it, and that gets clearer and clearer with every show.

The stuff they hit on with this show -- Rollins, the main event title match, and IC title match -- was out of this world good. The rest was mostly filler that didn't make much of an impact.

Grade: B-

Your turn.