The Horror Show at Extreme Rules
The event was originally scheduled to be held at the SAP Center in San Jose, California; however, the Santa Clara County government restricted public gatherings indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.In the opening bout, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) in a tables match to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship.[2] As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE began presenting the majority of its programming for Raw and SmackDown from a behind closed doors set at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida since mid-March,[3] although in late May, the promotion began using Performance Center trainees to serve as the live audience,[4] which was further expanded to friends and family members of the wrestlers in mid-June.[5] Extreme Rules was originally scheduled to take place on July 19 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California.[12] However, on July 9, 2021, WWE announced that the 2021 event would take place on September 26 and would instead be held at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio,[13] which was the originally scheduled date and venue for that year's Clash of Champions.Wyatt said they needed to take a step back before they could move forward and stated that since he created Strowman, it was his job to destroy him.[22][23] After being drafted to Raw from NXT in the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up, Drew McIntyre aligned himself with Dolph Ziggler.Ziggler was moved to SmackDown the following year, while McIntyre remained on Raw and won the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 36 Part 2 in early 2020.[22] On the May 11 episode of Raw, Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy by disqualification.[40] The actual pay-per-view opened with The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston) defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura in a tables match.[41] In the final match from the Performance Center, Drew McIntyre defended the WWE Championship against Dolph Ziggler.After regaining consciousness, Strowman found himself chained to a chair in a house adorned with Wyatt's eerie dolls.The female figure appeared again and unveiled herself as an illusion of Alexa Bliss, Strowman's old tag team partner from Season 1 of Mixed Match Challenge.Wyatt's alter ego "The Fiend" then peered over the dock, laughing manically before proclaiming "Let Me In" as the screen went to black to end the show."[42] Erik Beaston of Bleacher Report gave high praise to the Wyatt Swamp Fight for Wyatt's creativity and the storytelling involving Strowman, called the WWE Championship bout "a solid, smartly wrestled match" that delivered Ziggler's "best performance in years", felt the storytelling in the SmackDown Women's title match had "a few clever callbacks" and commended both the Kickoff Show and the SmackDown Tag Title Tables match."[43] On the following Raw, Seth Rollins prided himself in defeating Rey Mysterio and blamed the WWE Universe for his horrendous actions before Aleister Black interrupted.The newly-formed trio then defeated MVP, Lashley, and Benjamin in the ensuing six-man tag team match.WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon then appeared on the TitanTron and stated that Banks nor Asuka won at Extreme Rules and then announced a rematch between the two for the Raw Women's Championship for the following week in a match where the title could be won by pinfall, submission, disqualification, or count out.[44] In the ensuing match, Bayley attacked Asuka's tag team partner, Kairi Sane, backstage.This distracted Asuka, who went to check on Sane and was counted out, thus Banks officially won the Raw Women's Championship for a record fifth time.[49] On the following SmackDown, Kofi Kingston was evaluated backstage by medical personnel and informed Big E that he was injured and would be out for at least 6–8 weeks.He then encouraged Big E to pursue a solo run, which he said himself and other injured teammate Xavier Woods fully supported.An irate Nikki Cross, accompanied by her tag team partner Alexa Bliss, demanded a rematch for the SmackDown Women's Championship.[52] Bray Wyatt appeared in the Firefly Fun House and stated that his old Eater of Worlds self was done for now and assured that Braun Strowman had come back home, thus "reuniting" with his family.The Fiend then made his first TV appearance in nearly four months and taunted Strowman by attacking his old Mixed Match Challenge tag team partner Alexa Bliss with the Mandible Claw.The move also brought a new virtual fan viewing experience in a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome.