WWE Extreme Rules PPV live report
The Legitimacy & The Extreme: the live WWE Extreme Rules experience
April 29, 2012
Chicago, Ill.
By Alex Roberts, PWTorch specialist

Last July, in the same Allstate Arena that hosted WWE Extreme Rules Sunday night, I witnessed what may end up being remembered as the greatest match of pro wrestling’s current era. John Cena and C.M. Punk’s Money In The Bank showdown is a classic that has held up every bit for me after many viewings. In the ring, Punk and Cena told an epic story of struggle that was believable and beautiful in its execution and unpredictability. It’s impossible not to acknowledge that they were helped in their endeavor by a Chicago crowd as boisterous, passionate, and excited as I’ve ever witnessed. All this came together to create a unique, once-in-a-lifetime wrestling moment.

I think I might have witnessed another once-in-a-lifetime moment Sunday night, too, but in a far different way. Without heavy use of outside weapons or spectacular aerial dives (other than Lesnar attempting to fly off ring steps), Brock Lesnar and John Cena delivered perhaps the most extreme of all “Extreme Rules” matches. Up until this match, the Chicago crowd was once again uniformly loud and joyous throughout the entire night. Once the main event started - once Lesnar began his brutal ground-and-pound, once Cena began gushing blood just seconds in - the moments of silence were intense. When Lesnar grabbed Cena’s chain to continue the punishment, the haunting clanking of the weapon resounded throughout the building for all to hear. The brawl was quite literally unlike anything I had ever seen. Cena has participated in many gimmick matches that have showcased a real sense of physical torture, but none have felt as downright grisly as Lesnar’s assault on Sunday.

Perhaps it’s helpful to contrast these two great Chicago wrestling moments. Cena and Punk’s showdown at Money In The Bank was a pro wrestling match through and through. As cutting edge as the crowd’s contrarian attitude or Punk’s worked shoot promos leading up to the match may have been, the true triumphs of the match were all decidedly old-school. It succeeded as countless other classic matches have - with two talented, professional athletes willing to work together to bump, sell, and make each other look as good as possible. It felt perfectly fine - healthy, even - to cheer for Punk or boo for Cena as WWE, in building the feud, had given the crowd that choice. When Punk finally claimed victory and ran off with WWE Title in tow, the excitement and joy in the arena was contagious and moving.

Sunday night’s main event, meanwhile, felt like anything but an artfully worked wrestling match. For all the talk in the buildup about “legitimacy,” though, it didn’t feel like a legitimate MMA-style fight, either. It felt like a public execution. I doubt even Roland Barthes, who over 50 years ago connected the psychological impact of pro wrestling with that of bull fighting, would have believed how prescient his words were as the crowd witnessed Lesnar lick Cena’s blood after cutting him open with a legitimate elbow to the forehead.

What made it all the more haunting was the inherent understanding that Cena wasn’t a wild animal fighting for his life - he was in fact a willing participant in his own dismantling. By the end, the idea of cheering for Lesnar and his actions felt downright ghoulish. While the storyline, in the eyes of many, called for Lesnar to go over, it truly felt Sunday night that the very humanity of the crowd on-hand required that Cena somehow get the win. A Cena loss, on top of the brutality he had already undergone, simply felt too dark to handle. Perhaps there was a bit of the old-school in this match after all. Despite its unconventional execution and physicality, in the end the match was about the evil heel getting his comeuppance at the hands of the heroic babyface.

What made Cena and Lesnar’s match a triumph, more than anything, is that it accomplished the extremely rare task of reflecting and complimenting completely the build-up that preceded it. In the month leading up the match, the explicit storyline centered around the contrasting styles and backgrounds of the two competitors. While Cena represented WWE and its colorful Superstars, Lesnar was a no-frills “ass kicker” looking to bring UFC-style legitimacy to the company. During the actual match, these contrasts came to full life. Lesnar - donning the gloves and sponsored boxers associated with modern MMA - displayed a brutally physical, aesthetically unpleasant cage-fighting style that is almost never seen in pro wrestling. Cena, meanwhile, fought back with theatrics, over-the-top intensity, and the utilization of the time-honored “foreign object” to grab the surprise win. It was a rare moment when the content of the storyline and the form of the match fit together perfectly.

Likewise, the match served the dual purpose of being new and groundbreaking while still fulfilling the most basic storytelling pro wrestling offers. Yes, Lesnar was the face of “legitimate” combat - he was also the perfect monster heel whose very physique spoke of a base, vulgar brutality. Meanwhile, even some of the more jaded fans in my section of the arena were won over, if only briefly, by Cena and his white-meat babyface “Never Give Up” ethos. Brock Lesnar and John Cena, as Roland Barthes wrote, were “for a few moments, the key which opens Nature, the pure gesture which separates Good from Evil, and unveils the form of a Justice which is at last intelligible.” On Sunday, WWE combined ingredients as new as modern MMA and as old as the Passion play for a moving, horrifying, exhilarating main event that I won’t soon forget.

Barthes was right when he said wrestling offers this clarity for just a “few moment.” By Monday, it was back to business as usual. Lesnar was neither better or worse for wear, Cena’s devastating injury had been downgraded to a “sprain,” and John Laurinaitis inserted himself into a Pay-Per-View main event in a tired version of the Evil Authority Figure storyline. Despite this, I believe Sunday’s main event is one that will be talked about long after this hit-or-miss feud has passed. For the first time, WWE acknowledged the world of MMA and assimilated its moves and motifs. For any of its faults, Cena and Lesnar proved that wrestling remains an exciting and vital spectacle.

***

Want to chat wrestling and more? Follow me at Twitter.com/roqnrollmartian and visit me website, ByAlexRoberts.Wordpress.com!

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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