WWE Extreme Rules 2016: Analyzing Top Feuds' Use of PPV's Theme

On the night where rules are meant to be abandoned and brutality is to welcome, WWE Extreme Rules 2016 is set to pull its punches. Sunday's show will hold back on what typically defines the pay-per-view.

Even in a PG-TV era, Extreme Rules has been the home for some of the most violent bouts on the WWE calendar. Bodies crash through ladders. Brawls unfold atop cars. Flesh meets the wall of a steel cage.

That will be less true in 2016. While Roman Reigns and AJ Styles promise to leave many a folding chair bent, the PPV's other big matches are poised to be more fun departures from the norm than nods to ECW-style action.

Charlotte and Natalya are set to battle in a bout that focuses on submission holds, not savagery. Dean Ambrose and Chris Jericho's feud leads them to a match that will mix in plenty of silliness with its animosity.

Overall, Extreme Rules 2016 has less "extreme" stipulations on the card. The pre-show bout is a No Disqualification match and the main event is an Extreme Rules clash, but the battles for the United States, intercontinental and tag team titles are all set to be held under standard rules.

Compare that to the 2011 Extreme Rules lineup, where WWE offered seven contests that played up the event's theme.

Wrestler	Stipulation
Randy Orton vs. CM Punk	Last Man Standing
Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio	Ladder
Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus	Tables
Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes	Falls Count Anywhere
Michael Cole and Jack Swagger vs. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler	Country Whipping
Layla vs. Michelle McCool	No Count-Out, No Disqualification
The Miz vs. John Cena vs. John Morrison	Steel Cage

Ambrose's latest battle with Jericho has the potential to deliver the kind of violence this PPV is famous for. It could potentially morph into something more akin to comic relief, though. 

Dean Ambrose vs. Chris Jericho

On Monday's Raw, Ambrose challenged Y2J to a fight at Extreme Rules, later revealing that their bout would be an Asylum Match.

At first glance, this looked like a perfect fit for Extreme Rules. The Lunatic Fringe stood inside an enclosed cage with weapons hanging above it. Then the camera zoomed in on just what those weapons were.

A mop, a potted plant and a bucket are among the items that will be available to both men; not exactly the kind of weaponry one would see in a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match. Kevin Berge of Questionable Critics wrote, "The collection of weapons in this match type, though, were more than a bit corny."

So whether this fulfills Extreme Rules' promise of carnage depends on how it unfolds.

Should it be a brawl where Ambrose and Jericho smash each other against the side of the cage and beat each other mercilessly with a variety of objects, it will make full use of the bad blood between these men, helping to steer this storyline from its silly past. But there is a major chance that it will be a hokier display of violence.

If Ambrose slips the bucket over Jericho's head or Y2J rubs the mop in his foe's face, it will feel a lot like the wacky encounters between Damien Sandow and Dolph Ziggler in 2013 at the Broadway Brawl.

Charlotte vs. Natalya

A Submission match makes perfect sense for two women who use submission holds as their finishers. The stipulation also promises a definitive finish, something this feud has lacked. With no Ric Flair at ringside and no fluky wins possible, this bout is poised to reach a proper climax.

It's just not exactly extreme. 

Technically, there are no disqualifications, so Charlotte and Natalya could in theory crack chairs over each other's backs. But these kinds of bouts have typically limited that kind of action, focusing instead on painful holds and attempted escapes from them.

The women continue to be left out when it comes to WWE's hardcore side. This is the point in the feud where a steel cage match or Street Fight would make sense. WWE has mostly shied away from its women entering those kinds of battles, though.

WWE Hall of Famer Alundra Blayze believes the women's division needs a variety of bouts, many of which would be right at home at Extreme Rules:

The PPV has seen a Submission match on the card before (John Cena vs. Big Show in 2009), but the stipulation certainly doesn't match the majority of the event's history in terms of intensity. WWE could change that by letting champion and challenger make full use of the lack of DQs.

Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles

Extreme Rules' main event feud is where fans will likely get their fill of the extreme. Styles is set to challenge Reigns in a match named after the PPV, one where weapons are allowed, as is interference of any kind.

The animosity between Reigns' family and Styles' brothers-in-arms will make for an intense showdown. It's easy to imagine Luke Gallows flinging Jimmy Uso through the security barricade or Jey Uso flying onto Karl Anderson and crashing through a table. And the steel chair has been a key component in this storyline all along.

When Gallows and Anderson first arrived a few weeks back, they held Reigns down and urged Styles to clock him with a chair. He refused. He didn't do things that way, he told them.

Later, Reigns himself even tried to tempt Styles to swing at him with a chair. Styles hesitated.

But as the title chase has intensified and the feud has grown more personal, Styles has ditched that righteous behavior. On Monday's Raw, he hammered Reigns with chair shots before hitting the Styles Clash atop a chair.

Credit: WWE.com

That seemed to symbolize Styles' embrace of more violent tactics. His timing is perfect. He will have to use those same tactics to knock off Reigns at Extreme Rules.

On a night bound to be filled with less-than-hardcore bouts, it looks to be Styles and Reigns who will have to provide the PPV with the brutality it's famous for.