2020 WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event
The Horror Show at Extreme Rules was the 12th annual Extreme Rules professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event was broadcast on July 19, 2020. While the majority of the event aired live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, the main event was pre-recorded at an undisclosed location about two hours outside of Orlando on July 16–17. The concept of Extreme Rules is that the event features various hardcore-based matches. The 2020 event was the only Extreme Rules event to have an altered title, and as its name implies, the event had horror-themed matches on the card with a basis in hardcore wrestling.
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. As a result, and just like the majority of WWE's other shows since mid-March, the event was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. It was subsequently the final WWE pay-per-view for Raw and SmackDown to be held at the Performance Center, as WWE's events for the two brands were moved to Orlando's Amway Center the following month in a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome. WWE's developmental brand NXT would permanently move its shows to the Performance Center in October.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. Four of the main card's matches were contested under a hardcore/horror stipulation. 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. Meanwhile, Seth Rollins defeated Rey Mysterio in an Eye for an Eye match. In the penultimate match which was also the final match from the Performance Center, Drew McIntyre defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship in an Extreme Rules match in which the stipulation only applied to Ziggler; McIntyre had to wrestle under regular singles match rules. In the main event, Bray Wyatt, who briefly returned to his cult leader persona for this match, defeated Braun Strowman in a Wyatt Swamp Fight, which was produced as a cinematic match.
Production.
Background.
Extreme Rules was an annual professional wrestling event produced by WWE since 2009. The concept of the show was that the event featured various matches that were contested under hardcore rules and generally featured one Extreme Rules match. The defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, which WWE acquired in 2003, originally used the "extreme rules" term to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term and has since used it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules". The 2020 event was the 12th Extreme Rules and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was also the only event in the Extreme Rules chronology to have an altered title; while originally announced under its normal title, the event was renamed to "Extreme Rules: The Horror Show" in late June, before it was later changed to "The Horror Show at Extreme Rules" early the following month. The event aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was available to livestream on the WWE Network.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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, although in late May, the promotion began using Performance Center trainees to serve as the live audience, which was further expanded to friends and family members of the wrestlers in mid-June. Extreme Rules was originally scheduled to take place on July 19 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California. However, on March 17, Santa Clara County issued an indefinite stay-at-home order, followed by the entire state of California on March 19. The SAP Center then put out an official statement in late June that they would not be hosting the 2020 Extreme Rules, but would instead host the 2021 event. The venue also announced that there would be no refunds (unless a new date was not determined within 60 days), but tickets purchased would be honored for the following 2021 event. 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, which was the originally scheduled date and venue for that year's Clash of Champions.
The pandemic provided WWE opportunities to create untraditional matches produced as cinematic matches filmed at various locations. For Extreme Rules, that match was the Wyatt Swamp Fight. The match was pre-recorded at an undisclosed location about two hours outside of Orlando. Filming lasted approximately 6–7 hours and began late evening of July 16 and finished early morning of July 17. Live reptiles were used, including an alligator and a snake. Multiple takes were done to get multiple camera angles, similar to a movie.
Storylines.
The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, "Monday Night Raw" and "Friday Night SmackDown".
At Money in the Bank, Braun Strowman retained the Universal Championship against Bray Wyatt. Wyatt returned on the June 19 episode of "SmackDown" in a "Firefly Fun House" segment that was interrupted by Strowman, who declared that Wyatt had his chance at Money in the Bank but failed. Wyatt stated their rivalry was just getting started before appearing as his old cult leader persona of The Wyatt Family. 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. The following week, Strowman recounted how he initially joined Wyatt, reciting a story about their time at Wyatt's compound in the Florida swamps. Strowman then challenged Wyatt to return to the swamp for a fight, and a non-title match between the two called the Wyatt Swamp Fight was scheduled for Extreme Rules.
After being drafted to Raw from NXT in the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up, Drew McIntyre aligned himself with Dolph Ziggler. Although the team saw success in winning the Raw Tag Team Championship, they eventually broke up. 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. On the June 22 episode of "Raw", McIntyre was interrupted by Ziggler, who was traded to Raw. Ziggler brought up their history together, claiming credit for McIntyre's success, and stated that McIntyre owed him a title match. McIntyre, noting that he needed an opponent for Extreme Rules, reminded Ziggler that it was he who gave him the nickname the "Scottish Psychopath" and asked if Ziggler still wanted a title match and Ziggler confirmed. During the contract signing the following week, McIntyre told Ziggler that he could choose the stipulation for the match. Ziggler opted to wait until the event itself to reveal the stipulation.
On the June 22 episode of "Raw", after successfully retaining the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, co-champion Sasha Banks issued a challenge to Asuka for the Raw Women's Championship, which Asuka accepted for Extreme Rules. Though Banks is a SmackDown wrestler, she and partner Bayley could appear on any show as the Women's Tag Team Championship is shared between Raw, SmackDown, and NXT.
On the June 19 episode of "SmackDown", Nikki Cross attacked WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Bayley and Sasha Banks, leading to a match between Cross and Banks that Cross lost. The following week, Cross won a fatal four-way match to earn a SmackDown Women's Championship match against Bayley at Extreme Rules.
On the May 11 episode of "Raw", Rey Mysterio and Aleister Black defeated Seth Rollins and Murphy by disqualification. After the match, an enraged Rollins used the corner of the steel steps to pierce Mysterio's eye, taking Mysterio out of action. During this time, Mysterio's son, Dominik, attempted to stand up to Rollins against Mysterio's wishes. On the June 22 episode, Rollins attempted to pierce Dominik's eye, but was unsuccessful. Mysterio then challenged Rollins to a match at Extreme Rules. On the July 6 episode, Mysterio and Kevin Owens defeated Rollins and Murphy in a tag team match, allowing Mysterio to pick the stipulation for their match at Extreme Rules; Mysterio chose an Eye for an Eye match. WWE later confirmed that in order to win the match, one competitor had to extract an eye of their opponent. Owens would continue his own feud with Murphy and on the day of the event, they were scheduled for a match on the Kickoff pre-show.
On the June 15 episode of "Raw", MVP approached United States Champion Apollo Crews and told him that he needed a manager if he wanted to continue his title reign, but Crews declined the offer. The following week, MVP again tried to convince Crews to join, but Crews again declined. MVP then defeated Crews in a non-title match on the June 29 episode. After the match, Crews attacked MVP, who was saved by Bobby Lashley, who brutally applied the Full Nelson on Crews. The following week, MVP unveiled a new United States Championship belt design and stated that he would face Crews for the title at Extreme Rules.
On the June 12 episode of "SmackDown", Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Big E) in a non-title match. The following week, after The New Day's match, they were attacked by Cesaro and Nakamura. On the July 3 episode, following Nakamura's win over Kingston, Cesaro tried to pull out a table, but was stopped by Big E. The following week, a title match between the two teams took place, which ended in a no-contest, after which, Cesaro powerbombed Kingston onto Big E and through a table. On the July 17 episode, a title rematch between the two teams was scheduled for Extreme Rules. Also on that episode, Cesaro defeated Big E to pick the stipulation for the match, and chose a tables match.
Event.
Pre-show.
During the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show, Kevin Owens faced Murphy. In the climax, Owens performed a Stunner on Murphy to win the match.
Preliminary matches.
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. In the end, Cesaro performed a Powerbomb on Kingston through two tables stacked on top of each other to win the titles for the first time as a team and second for Cesaro individually.
Next, Bayley (accompanied by Sasha Banks) defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Nikki Cross (accompanied by Alexa Bliss). Cross dominated Bayley in the first half of the match. Bayley performed a Bayley-to-Belly on Cross for a nearfall. The end came when Banks handed her "boss" brass knuckles to Bayley. While Banks distracted the referee, Bayley attacked Cross with the knuckles and performed a facebuster on Cross to retain the title.
After that, Apollo Crews was originally set to defend the United States Championship against MVP (accompanied by Bobby Lashley), however, the commentary team stated that Crews was unable to compete after failing a pre-match physical due to Lashley's previous attack on Crews. MVP made his entrance, and declared himself the winner by forfeit. Lashley then presented MVP with the United States Championship. This title change, however, was not recognized by WWE.
In the next match, Rey Mysterio faced Seth Rollins in an Eye for an Eye match where the only way to win was to extract an opponent's eye. Rollins wielded a pair of pliers while making his entrance. As Rollins waited for Mysterio to make his entrance, Mysterio appeared behind Rollins and attacked him. During the match, Rollins attempted to injure Mysterio's left eye using various weapons, such as the corner of the steel steps, a kendo stick, the point of a steel chair, and a pen. Rollins wedged a kendo stick on a turnbuckle and attempted to injure Mysterio's eye again, however, Mysterio countered and performed a frog splash on Rollins. Mysterio used