By demons be driven

The match

Roman Reigns defends the Universal championship against The Demon in the main event of tonight’s (Sun., Sept. 26, 2021) WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

The story

In a much wider sense, this is simply a continuation of Roman’s dominance over the entirety of WWE. He’s on a great run as champion both in terms of work in the ring and work as a character. In fact, It does not appear as though there are any legitimate challengers to unseat him.

That’s why John Cena was brought in to wrestle him at SummerSlam, but he met the same fate as all those before him. Following Cena’s defeat, Brock Lesnar made his return to step up as the next name who at least has SOME potential to defeat “The Head of the Table.”

The real story here may well be the fact that Finn Balor has all but gotten completely lost in the shuffle here.

He was originally scheduled to wrestle Reigns for the title at SummerSlam when Cena straight up stole the contract and signed his own name. Then Lesnar came back and laid down a challenge, one Reigns accepted, and a match was booked for Crown Jewel in October in Saudi Arabia.

That left Balor with a date at Extreme Rules, sandwiched between two legendary wrestlers, a forgotten man the world fully understands has no chance to win.

So what’s the appeal?

If you’re WWE, your answer to this was “bring back The Demon.” It’s been a couple years since Balor used his alter ego and he rarely loses when he dons the paint. In fact, on the most recent episode of Friday Night SmackDown, Paul Heyman referred to him as “undefeated.”

Not technically true but it hardly matters, does it?

In fact, one could argue it would be more interesting to debate the merits behind WWE bringing The Demon back for this match than the actual match itself. That’s unfortunate, to say the least. Under better circumstances, this could have been a lot more intriguing.

Ah well.