The 2021 Extreme Rules was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 13th annual Extreme Rules event and took place on September 26, 2021, at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. While the theme of the annual event had been that it featured various hardcore-based matches, the 2021 event only had one such match.
The event was originally scheduled to take place on July 18 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, but it was relocated, initially due to issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic with the event instead slated to be produced from the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble that at the time was hosted at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida; this came after a 2020 postponement as that year's event had also originally been scheduled for the SAP Center but instead had to be held behind closed doors at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. After WWE announced that it would return to live touring with full capacity crowds in mid-July, Money in the Bank was instead scheduled for July 18 in Fort Worth, Texas, with Extreme Rules rescheduled and replacing an originally planned Clash of Champions, which subsequently marked the first and only Extreme Rules event to be held in September. This 2021 event also saw a return to its original name, after the previous year's event was titled as The Horror Show at Extreme Rules, and it was the first Extreme Rules event to livestream on Peacock in the United States following the shutdown of the American version of the WWE Network in April.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, which was the only hardcore-based match on the card, Roman Reigns defeated "The Demon" Finn Bálor in an Extreme Rules match to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship. In other prominent matches, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) to retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, Damian Priest defeated Jeff Hardy and Sheamus in a triple threat match to retain Raw's United States Championship, and the SmackDown Women's Championship match between defending champion Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair ended in a no contest after Sasha Banks made her return and subsequently ambushed both competitors. Notably, this was the only Extreme Rules event where no titles changed hands—five championships were defended and retained
The event received mixed reviews from critics and fans. While the tag team matches, main event, and SmackDown Women's Championship matches were mostly praised, many criticized the endings of the latter two, while also reserving criticism for the lack of hardcore-based matches.
Production Background
Extreme Rules was an annual professional wrestling event produced by WWE since 2009. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simultaneously livestreaming on the WWE Network in 2014. The concept of the event was that it featured various matches that were contested under hardcore rules and generally featured one Extreme Rules match. The defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, which WWE acquired in 2003, originally used the "extreme rules" term to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term, using it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules".
The 2020 Extreme Rules event was originally planned to take place at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, but had to be relocated to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida and held behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The SAP Center put out an official statement that they would instead host the 2021 event. The venue also announced that there would be no refunds (unless a new date was not determined within 60 days), but tickets purchased would be honored for the following year's event. However, in May 2021, it was reported that due to the ongoing pandemic, the 2021 event would be held on July 18 from the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble that at the time was hosted at the Yuengling Center in Tampa, Florida, but later that month after WWE announced that they would be resuming live touring in mid-July, that date was instead given to Money in the Bank in Fort Worth, Texas.
On July 9, 2021, WWE announced that the 13th Extreme Rules event would instead be held on September 26 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, which was reportedly the planned date and venue for Clash of Champions, which was in turn canceled and discontinued. Tickets went on sale on July 16 through Ticketmaster. The 2021 event also returned the event to its original title of "Extreme Rules" after the 2020 event was titled as The Horror Show at Extreme Rules due to having horror-themed matches on its card. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions, and in addition to airing on PPV worldwide and via livestreaming on the WWE Network in international markets, it was the first Extreme Rules to livestream on Peacock in the United States following the shutdown of the American version of the WWE Network in April.
Storylines The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
On the July 23 episode of SmackDown, after Roman Reigns declined John Cena's challenge to a match for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam, Finn Bálor challenged Reigns for the title at the event, which Reigns accepted. During the contract signing, however, an altercation occurred, resulting in Cena signing the contract and becoming Reigns's opponent at SummerSlam where Reigns retained. Bálor then got his opportunity at the title on the September 3 episode of SmackDown, but he was unsuccessful. A rematch between the two for the Universal Championship was scheduled for Extreme Rules. On the September 10 episode, it was revealed that Reigns would be facing Bálor's alter ego, "The Demon", and it was later stipulated to be an Extreme Rules match.
At SummerSlam, Bianca Belair was originally set to defend the SmackDown Women's Championship against Sasha Banks. However, Banks was unable to appear for unknown reasons. Carmella was then announced as Banks's replacement. Before the match could begin, however, Becky Lynch, in her first appearance since the Raw after Money in the Bank in May 2020, made a surprise return, attacked Carmella, challenged Belair, and subsequently defeated her in 26 seconds to win the title. On the following SmackDown, Belair challenged Lynch to a rematch, however, Lynch refused. Belair then won a fatal four-way elimination match to become the number one contender. The following week, Belair challenged Lynch to a match for that night, but Lynch again refused, stating she would defend the title when she was ready. Later backstage, WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville told Lynch that she would defend the title against Belair at Extreme Rules.
At SummerSlam, Damian Priest defeated Sheamus to win the United States Championship. On the August 30 episode of Raw, Priest retained the title against Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in a triple threat match. On the following episode, Sheamus defeated McIntyre to earn a United States Championship match against Priest at Extreme Rules. On the September 20 episode, Jeff Hardy defeated Sheamus to earn a spot in the title match at Extreme Rules, thus making it a triple threat match.
On the September 17 episode of SmackDown, during a tag team match, Liv Morgan sent Carmella into a turnbuckle. The impact caused Carmella to break her nose, and for Morgan's team to win via countout. Afterwards, Morgan challenged Carmella to a match at Extreme Rules, and Carmella later accepted. The match was later scheduled for the Kickoff pre-show.
On the August 23 episode of Raw, while Charlotte Flair was talking about her Raw Women's Championship win at SummerSlam two days prior, she was confronted by Alexa Bliss, who held a doll named "Lilly". Bliss said that she only wanted to say "Hi". Two weeks later, after Flair's successful title defense, Bliss appeared on the TitanTron and asked Flair to come to "the playground", only for Flair to refuse. Flair then offered Bliss a title match at Extreme Rules.
On the August 27 episode of SmackDown, after Finn Bálor challenged Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship for the following week, SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) attacked Bálor, only for The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) to lay out The Usos, with Reigns looking on from outside the ring. The following week, The Street Profits defeated The Usos via disqualification when The Usos ignored the referee's five count, after which, The Street Profits stood tall. A title match between the two teams took place on the September 10 episode, where The Street Profits again won via disqualification, this time after interference from Reigns. On September 16, another title match between the two teams was scheduled for Extreme Rules.
Canceled and rescheduled match On the August 30 episode of Raw, RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defeated Bobby Lashley and MVP to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship. After the match, Lashley performed a Spear on Riddle, only to be laid out by an RKO from Orton. The following week, MVP and Lashley interrupted RK-Bro's promo and entered themselves into the Tag Team Turmoil match to determine the number one contenders for the Raw Tag Team Championship, which they subsequently won. Afterwards, Orton performed an RKO on Lashley again. It was also announced that Lashley would defend the WWE Championship against Orton at Extreme Rules. However, the tag team title match scheduled for the September 13 episode was canceled and the WWE Championship match was rescheduled for that subsequent episode, where Lashley retained, but lost the title to Big E, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Pat McAfee Jimmy Smith Corey Graves Byron Saxton Spanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraMarcelo RodriguezRing announcersGreg Hamilton Mike Rome RefereesJason AyersJessika CarrDan EnglerDarrick MooreChad PattonRod ZapataInterviewersSarah SchreiberPre-show panelKayla BraxtonKevin PatrickJohn Bradshaw LayfieldPeter RosenbergBooker TSonya Deville
Pre-show During the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show, while The New Day (WWE Champion Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) were interviewed backstage after arriving at the arena, they were confronted by AJ Styles and Omos. Bobby Lashley then attacked Big E from behind and all six men brawled. Shortly thereafter, backstage personnel separated them. A six-man tag team match was announced for the main card.
Also during the pre-show, Liv Morgan faced Carmella. Before the match, Carmella insulted Morgan by stating that Morgan was not beautiful. Morgan then attacked Carmella from behind and the match began. In the end, Morgan threw Carmella into the announce table. Back in the ring, Morgan performed a Springboard Flatliner on Carmella to win the match.
Preliminary matches