WWE Extreme Rules 2018 Results: Bobby Lashley and Biggest Winners and Losers

Much like recent creative output, WWE's Extreme Rules was a show that ran both hot and cold Sunday night, and as a result it produced obvious winners and losers.

There were the Superstars who scored enormous victories by beating their opponents in the squared circle and those who acquired them morally, thanks to strong performances in losing efforts.

There were also those who never really had a shot at leaving Pittsburgh unscathed, the victims of questionable booking or a crowd that decided to steal the spotlight and selfishly put it on itself late in the night.

In which category did your favorite competitors find themselves in the wake of Sunday's pay-per-view extravaganza?

Find out now with this recap of a show that was spectacular at times and dissatisfying at others.

Winner: Bobby Lashley

Bobby Lashley needed a strong performance Sunday night to not only justify his recent push but also to legitimize his comeback here in 2018. He got it, erasing the stench of his feud with Sami Zayn from this past spring and establishing himself as one of the top stars on the Raw brand, courtesy of his clean pinfall victory over Roman Reigns.

Not only did Lashley win the match, he also beat the undisputed face of this generation of WWE with his own finisher, spearing him to score his most significant victory in a Vince McMahon-owned ring since beating the Chairman of the Board himself over a decade ago.

The win sets Lashley on a collision course with WWE Universal champion Brock Lesnar if and when The Beast Incarnate returns to the squared circle, and that direction was necessary in order to freshen things up and move past the repetitive Lesnar-Reigns match.

Lashley may not be the most dynamic star, nor is he the most charismatic, but he is a legitimate badass. He can believably confront Lesnar with his toughest test to date, something that character needs in the worst way.

On a night in which WWE Creative was absolutely determined to present the former collegiate wrestler as an equal to Reigns, it succeeded, putting Lashley over its most prominent star and setting the stage for his first world title match in the company since 2007.

Losers: Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler

Seth Rollins and Dolph Ziggler headlined Sunday's pay-per-view, the first singles Intercontinental Championship match to main event a spectacular since Bret Hart and Davey Boy Smith tore the house down in Wembley Stadium at SummerSlam 1992.

Unfortunately for them, the layout of their match and a disrespectful crowd made it nearly impossible for the champion and challenger to deliver a finished product that lived up to expectations and reflected their considerable skill.

The pacing was all over the place. Rollins, the babyface fans wanted to see succeed, failed not once but twice. That those fans were too busy acting like juveniles and counting down with the clock rather than paying attention to the story told by the competitors only further dragged the match into the realm of disappointment.

Neither Rollins nor Ziggler emerged from the event better than they entered it, despite the show of faith by management to have the internet darlings close the show and that is, perhaps, the most disappointing thing of all.

Listening to the audience and giving two of the more respected in-ring performers in the industry the main event spot, management watched as the audience decided it was more important to put itself over by mimicking the Royal Rumble countdown than investing in the work of either man.

And this, "fans," is why we can't have nice things.

Winner: Rusev

In the same building in which he made his main roster debut four years earlier at the Royal Rumble, Rusev received his first shot at the WWE Championship as he challenged AJ Styles in the card's penultimate bout.

Despite coming out on the losing end of the hard-fought contest, The Bulgarian Brute emerged as a star burning brighter than ever having proved his worth in a high-profile spot.

Rusev had been in big matches before. He has waged some of his greatest wars against John Cena, including a WrestleMania match as memorable for him riding to the ring on a tank as anything, but they all paled in comparison to his first opportunity to compete for the top prize in sports entertainment.

Sunday night, with the lights burning brightly, Rusev turned in a stellar performance that had fans in Pittsburgh actively rooting for him to capture the title from the beloved Phenomenal One.

His selling of his injured left leg was fantastic and added an element to the match that helped elevate it past an average title bout.

He may have ultimately eaten an exposed turnbuckle and fell prey to the Phenomenal Forearm but not before proving he belonged in such a position.

Hopefully WWE Creative took that away from his showing and will now do everything in its power to position him there again in the near future.

Loser: SmackDown Women's Championship

The SmackDown Women's Championship match Sunday night was, without a shadow of doubt, the worst televised title match of the year to this point.

Yes, it was story- and angle-heavy, but that does not excuse the poor execution and the overwhelming emphasis on James Ellsworth that doomed to the bout to its dubious distinction.

Sunday's match was not at all about Asuka righting the wrongs that have plagued her 2018 and winning the blue brand's title. It wasn't about Carmella proving her worth as a champion. Instead, it was about the D-level comedy of The Chinless Wonder dangling upside down from the shark cage he was scheduled to be confined inside.

The title was devalued, the Superstars involved were de-emphasized and the result was a black mark on the women's revolution WWE is always so quick to tout.

Does Ellsworth enhance the Carmella character? Absolutely. There is no denying that. His return was a welcome addition to her on-screen persona. But he should always be a compliment rather than at the forefront of the act.

When he is, the result will always be an overbooked abomination, as was the case Sunday night in Pittsburgh.

Winner: Ronda Rousey

People want to see Ronda Rousey kick ass, as evidenced in the reaction the UFC Hall of Fame inductee received when she hopped the guardrail and whooped up on Mickie James during the Raw Women's Championship Street Fight between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax.

By the time she sprinted around the ring after Bliss, desperate to get her hands on the lead antagonist of the women's division, the reaction for Rousey had grown to a fever pitch.

The best part of Rousey's performance? The frustration and anger that painted her face as she stared down the conquering heel, unsatisfied that she had not fulfilled her objective to punish Bliss for the Money in the Bank cash-in that robbed her of her championship aspirations a month ago.

The raw emotion coupled with the superb storytelling to this point has helped elevate Rousey's star past its already-blinding brightness and set up a big-money women's title match the like of which fans can genuinely anticipate come SummerSlam on Aug. 19.

Losers: Team Hell No

The marketing materials for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view prominently featured Team Hell No. The reunited tandem was at the forefront of SmackDown creative in the weeks leading into the show.

The ingredients were there for WWE Creative to strike while the proverbial iron was hot and switch the brand's tag team titles to Daniel Bryan and Kane.

Instead, WWE booked an injury angle that led to a hobbled Kane and a successful title defense for The Bludgeon Brothers after Harper and Rowan obliterated an outmatched Bryan.

The decision is not really much of a surprise for fans who have followed Bryan's career in WWE. Though the company has shown it is not above hot-shotting a championship change if it can take advantage of a hot act, it has repeatedly made fans wait for the inevitable Bryan win, sometimes to its own detriment.

This was one such case, as Sunday was clearly the time to switch the titles. Now, Team Hell No cools off and becomes no more over than any other team in the bloated SmackDown tag division.

Winner: Kevin Owens

The steel cage match between Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens may not have been a mat classic Sunday night, but it was a superb bit of storytelling from two performers aware of their characters and what they were trying to accomplish.

Owens, particularly, was stellar as he gradually evolved from coward to fighter to clever villain. Resisting the urge to run away from The Monster Among Men, he took the fight to the big man. When that did not work, he produced a pair of handcuffs and attempted to subdue Strowman that way.

Proud of himself and mistakenly arrogant, Owens taunted the big man before finding himself caught in the grasp of WWE's most dangerous Superstar.

Had the match ended with a predictable running powerslam and a win for Strowman, Owens would still warrant celebration for the quality of his performance. That it concluded with a sickening bump from the top of the cage that saw KO crash through the table below only solidified his status as one of the winners of the show.

A centerpiece of booking leading into the broadcast, Owens has endured some hellacious bumps while putting Strowman over. This was no different, and the final result? An emphatic exclamation point on a clever match and an unexpected victory for WWE's resident Prizefighter.

Even if it meant taking a bump in Pittsburgh that would make Mick Foley proud.

Loser: Natalya

Natalya may well be the worst second in the history of wrestling after Sunday's Extreme Rules.

The third-generation competitor, whose contributions in the ring are often underrated and overshadowed, was unusually ineffective as she watched from afar as Alexa Bliss and her corner woman Mickie James introduced weapon after weapon in an attempt to halt the onslaught of Nia Jax.

Natalya did nothing to assist Jax, instead allowing the heel's agenda to play out before her.

It was not until later in the match that she yanked James off the ring apron and unloaded on her with a bevvy of trash can lid shots to the body. Even that did little to rattle the champion or James, who recovered and left Natalya lying before Ronda Rousey inserted herself into the proceedings.

On a night where The Queen of Harts could have played heavily into the outcome of a championship bout, she was positioned first as the clueless fool and later as the damsel in distress.

Not at all effective uses of someone with her ability.