Why WWE Didn’t End Extreme Rules With Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley – Backstage News

A 30-Minute WWE Iron Man Match with the Intercontinental Championship on the line closed out Extreme Rules, but that wasn’t WWE’s original plan.

Dave Meltzer, in a post on the F4WOnline.com message board, confirmed a report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com that Reigns vs. Lashley was originally supposed to close out Extreme Rules but those plans changed a few hours before the pay-per-view went on the air on the WWE Network.

Meltzer wrote, “I was told midweek it was the main event and then told it was changed the day of the show for reasons having to do with fear of the crowd crapping on it.”

As the match came to a close, Reigns knocked Lashley off the top rope with the Superman Punch and began setting up for a spear. “The Dominator,” however, regained his faculties quickly enough to catch “The Big Dog” with a spear instead. This was enough to keep Reigns down for the three-count.

WHAT A WIN for @fightbobby! #ExtremeRules pic.twitter.com/BqI57SWzob

— WWE (@WWE) July 16, 2018

According to Johnson, WWE’s creative team had originally planned for the 30-Minute WWE Iron Man Match between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins to kick off Extreme Rules, and for the last hour to feature WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Rusev, Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax, and Reigns vs. Lashley in the main event.

Vince McMahon was on vacation in Florida on Sunday night but still in communication with people backstage, so there’s a good chance that he’s the one who made the decision to shuffle the card. This isn’t uncommon. For instance, WWE planned on having last month’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view end with the Raw Women’s Championship Match between Jax and Ronda Rousey. McMahon changed his mind before the show and decided to place the Men’s Money in the Bank Ladder Match in the main event spot because he wanted the visual of Braun Strowman on top of the ladder with the briefcase to end the show.