WWE WrestleMania 31 Results: Matches with Biggest Impacts at Extreme Rules

WrestleMania, besides being the most important date on the WWE calendar, often serves as a turning point for the company from a storytelling standpoint.

More often than not, lengthy story arcs come to a close, feuds end and new beginnings come to fruition the next night on Raw to begin the march to Extreme Rules.

But that's not always the case.

WrestleMania 31 shut the door on a few angles. Others are just beginning or gaining new layers as the WWE calendar next turns its attention to Extreme Rules on Sunday, April 26, at Allstate Arena.

WrestleMania 31 Full Results

Match	Stipulation	Predicted Winner
Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal	André the Giant Memorial Trophy	Big Show
The New Day vs. Los Matadores vs. The Usos vs. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd	WWE Tag Team Championship	Cesaro and Tyson Kidd
Intercontinental Championship Ladder match	WWE Intercontinental Championship	Daniel Bryan
Randy Orton vs. Seth Rollins		Randy Orton
AJ Lee and Paige vs. The Bella Twins		AJ Lee and Paige
John Cena vs. Rusev	WWE United States Championship	John Cena
Sting vs. Triple H		Triple H
Bray Wyatt vs. Undertaker		Undertaker
Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar	WWE World Heavyweight Championship	Seth Rollins (MitB Cash-in)

Matches with Biggest Impacts on Extreme Rules 

Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal

All right, this may be confusing at first. 

Big Show took home the Andre the Giant Memorial Trophy after outlasting a wealth of other competitors on Sunday's pre-show.

The performance was impressive, and it's a great WrestleMania moment for a dedicated worker without a stellar record at the event in the twilight of his career.

WWE Universe captured Big Show in the aftermath:

The outcome doesn't impact Extreme Rules in a big way, except when it comes to Mizdow, the final man tossed over the top rope before Big Show's triumph.

For months, Mizdow has acted as The Miz's servant (or stunt double). Most expected the tension to come to a head at some point, and it did when they were the final three contestants in the Battle Royal.

WWE WrestleMania captured the rest:

That is how long-term booking can be implemented in a match.

Even better, this is just the beginning of the fallout between The Miz and Mizdow, which is a feud sure to carry over to Extreme Rules.

Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match

The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a main event strap once again.

Daniel Bryan, the man who walked out of WrestleMania 30 with the promotion's top belt, kicked off Sunday's event by walking out with the intercontinental strap, giving the belt more credibility than it has had in years.

WWE captured the moment:

Bryan didn't just win a strap at WrestleMania, joining legendary names such as Shawn Michaels. He also bested a field that included Dolph Ziggler, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper and more in the process.

That field, decimated by the brutal nature of the match—Dean Ambrose, for example, took a powerbomb off a ladder to the outside, landing on more ladders—is the reason Bryan's victory promises to have such a big impact on Extreme Rules.

Any of Sunday's losers and plenty of others can now make a run at Bryan and the prestigious strap. Odds are Dolph Ziggler is the first No. 1 contender, as he has pinned Bryan a couple of times in the past couple of weeks.

No matter who it is, though, the belt wouldn't be such a hot commodity in the coming weeks without Bryan's win at WrestleMania.

John Cena vs. Rusev

The plan is clear: WWE wants its two secondary titles to be worthy of main event status.

The United States Championship certainly qualifies around John Cena's waist. After a gritty match in which he survived The Accolade, Cena capitalized on an inadvertent distraction by Lana to seize the title:

The possibilities at Extreme Rules are endless.

And not just for Cena. While Rusev may make another run at the title, perhaps more interesting is how his relationship with Lana will evolve and affect his in-ring performance.

After all, he took out his post-loss frustrations on his biggest supporter:

An entire locker room now has its sights set on Cena, though.

It's a double whammy—take out one of the most dominant Superstars in company history and win a belt for doing so.

Outside of the unlimited possibilities with regard to Cena's next opponent, Bryan is a dark-horse candidate if the WWE decides to go the unification route.

WWE wanted its two secondary belts elevated, and it got its wish in a big way at WrestleMania 31.

As a result, the 2015 iteration of Extreme Rules is a can't-miss event.

Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar

First things first—Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar put on the perfect main event.

The challenger came out angry, busted the champion open and got served a beatdown of epic proportions. The audience felt uncomfortable and almost felt bad for Reigns.

But Seth Rollins is the reason Extreme Rules looks brighter than ever.

Now, the WWE world heavyweight title may be on the line at the show. Against whom is a great question, although one has to figure it will at the least be a defense against Reigns.

Either way, thanks to Rollins' historic cash-in, WWE now has a top heel with the title. It can build up Reigns instead of rushing things, and it has Lesnar under contract and hungry for a rematch.

The drama builds over the course of the next four weeks, leading to one heck of a card at Extreme Rules.