Expected Extreme Rules Match Taking Place Elsewhere

In a different direction. We are less than six days away from Extreme Rules and that means the show is mostly set in stone. WWE has set up a good chunk of the card, though there is still some time and space to put a few more things. Coming into this week’s Monday Night Raw, the card had six matches confirmed. That is still the case as we move into Tuesday, with one expected match not taking place at the pay per view.

Over the last several weeks, Randy Orton has risen to the top of the WWE world. After defeating Edge at Backlash, Orton has moved into the role of the top heel on Monday Night Raw and possibly the best in all of WWE. Big Show has not liked this and has said something about it, seemingly leading to an Extreme Rules match. That won’t be the case though as WWE is going in a slightly different direction.

This week on Monday Night Raw, Orton challenged Big Show to an unsanctioned match on next week’s show rather than at Extreme Rules. Big Show accepted the challenge and the match was confirmed for the July 20 Monday Night Raw. It is not clear why WWE decided to have the match on television rather than at the pay per view. The match was not mentioned before this week’s show.

The two have a history together. Check out how we got here:

Opinion: That’s quite the surprise and not something I would have bet on seeing. You would think that Big Show vs. Orton would be the kind of match that you would put on pay per view instead of free television, but apparently that isn’t the case. Maybe WWE is hoping that Orton can boost the sagging television ratings, though I’m not sure how much of a role Big Show can play in that assignment. Maybe try switching things up a little bit and having better stories on television is a smarter way to go?

Are you surprised by WWE’s decision? How do you see the match going? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!