WWE’s Extreme Rules started with a pre-game show on YouTube with a match between The Miz and Santino for the US title.

1. The Miz vs. Santino

And, the burial of the Miz continues. Miz jobs clean to the cobra.

Winner: Santino

They did the spin the wheel gimmick for The Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes and it’s going to be a Tables match.

The show opened with a big Cena vs. Lesnar video package, similar to what we’ve seen on TV the last couple weeks.

First up is Randy Orton and Kane. At least they get it out of the way early.

2. Kane vs. Randy Orton

It was kind of backwards. They barely got started in the ring and most of the match was outside of the ring and in the back. It was really awkward and boring early on, but picked up. The story of the match was that Orton kept trying to set up the RKO, but Kane was ready for it. Back in the ring, Kane had Orton set up for the Tombstone on the chair, but Orton got out of it and set up the RKO on the chair, but really, he took most of it on his back. Orton wins.

Winner: Randy Orton

3. Brodus Clay vs. Dolph Ziggler
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After Brock told us last week that he wasn’t a superstar and he was in fact just an ass-kicker, this week, he tells us that he’s a prima donna. I don’t like the disconnect and they gave Lesnar way too much mic time. This is where we needed Paul Heyman.

Here’s your go-home angle for this weekend’s Extreme Rules:

Edge showed up on Raw last night to cut a promo to basically tell John Cena to nut up. I didn’t even know Cena was scared based on his actions in the previous weeks. All Cena did was pretend to be sad. Edge’s promo was off the charts great, but I think it was one show too early.

The other biggest star of the 1980s, Hulk Hogan, didn’t fare all that well in our list. I wrote about why Hogan may have fallen down the list, and my theory was that the last 10 years of his career have left a bitter taste in the mouths of wrestling fans. It’s not like Ric Flair has had a glorious last ten years, but the man is teflon. Not even this eye-brow raising story on Grantland hurt his standing.

To most huge 80s wrestling fans who started watching in the 80s, Flair is the greatest wrestler of all-time. He’s the kiss-stealing, wheeling-dealing, limousine-riding, jet-flying son-of-a-gun. He’s the man who changed for me what I always knew wrestling to be. I became a pretty big wrestling fan in the mid-80s, stemming from the time just before the first WrestleMania. I was a Hogan guy through and through. I believe that one of the main reasons I became such a big WWF fan is that their TV was so easy for me to find. They had a nationally syndicated TV show on Saturday morning right at the tail-end of the Saturday morning cartoon run (when that was a major deal). Finding the NWA was a bit harder, but as a budding wrestling fan, I eventually did find them.

I would see bits and pieces of the NWA and one of my best friends at the time would tell me about the Road Warriors, who were his favorite tag team. When I saw the Road Warriors, it was like looking at two super heroes in the ring. But if I trace back the first time I ever saw Ric Flair, it would’ve been on a syndicated Joe Pedicino/Gordon Solie show called “Pro Wrestling This Week”. They were discussing “The Nature Boy” against the “American Dream”. I didn’t know of Flair and Dusty Rhodes quite yet, but when they started talking about who is who, I just figured that the dream would’ve been Flair, since he was wearing his trademarked sequined robe and flanked by blonds. And when Rhodes came out shirtless and fat with a splotch on his belly, I just figured he was of nature. I was very confused when it turned out to be the reverse.

But soon-thereafter, I was hooked on Flair. Now, I would never claim to be a big Flair fan in the mid-to-late 80s, because I was such a Hogan guy and I had to be loyal to Hogan. And plus, Flair was a heel. I was too young to root for the heels at the time. But you couldn’t not keep your eyes on him, especially since one of the main stories the Apter mags would present was about who was better between Hogan and Flair. I would say Hogan was better, but silently believe that Flair was the better guy.
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Perhaps the greatest all-round performer/wrestler in the 80s, Randy “Macho Man” Savage had it all. The look. The personality. The voice. The showmanship. The wrestling talent. But most of all, he WAS the Macho Man – in AND out of the ring.

Outside of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage may be one of the most oft-imitated wrestling personality, with his trademark “Oh yeeeah” and “Dig it!” I’d be remiss not to mention his “Snap into a Slim Jim!” commercials. And other than Ric Flair, he often had the most amazing outfits on his way to the ring.

Growing up in a wrestling family, his father being WCW Hall of Famer Angelo Poffo, Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals as a catcher straight out of high school. An injury later in the early 1970s and he focused primarily on a wrestling career, taking up the name Randy Savage.

A stalwart of the WWF in the 1980s, Savage was a 3-time champion, ending his career in the WWF in the early 90s having won the World Title twice. Of course, possibly his most famous match was him losing the Intercontinental Title to Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III, after he had held it for 14 months.

Of course you have to mention the woman behind the man, as wherever there was Savage, there was the lovely Miss Elizabeth. Usually his doe-eyed escort to the ring, Elizabeth did her best when she stood at ringside and looked concerned. One of the iconic images of the 80s was Savage holding Elizabeth on his shoulders.

Perhaps his most famous feud was against Hulk Hogan, with the breakup of the Mega Powers. Which, of course, was over a woman. Savage got his name by not only being a savage in the ring, but also being fiercely jealous over anybody who looked at Elizabeth a little too long.
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