Two of the seven WWE titles on the line at Extreme Rules changed hands on a dramatic night in Pittsburgh.
Shinsuke Nakamura won his first main-roster championship after defeating Jeff Hardy for the United States championship in a match which lasted less than five seconds.
Nakamura hit Hardy with a low blow before the bell had rung and then levelled him with a Kinshasa knee strike after it had to collect a victory and the SmackDown match.
Randy Orton arrived in the ring after the contest but rather than attack the new champion he instead focused on Hardy, hitting him with another low blow.
It was a bad night all round for the Hardy family with Matt also losing the Raw tag team championships he has held with Bray Wyatt since April’s Greatest Royal Rumble.
In a true family affair, Wyatt’s real-life brother Bo Dallas and his partner Curtis Axel – The B-Team – maintained their winning streak at the champions’ expense when Dallas hit hardy with a draping neckbreaker.
Seth Rollins‘ attempt to regain the Intercontinental title from Dolph Ziggler went to sudden-death overtime after the scores were locked at 4-4 after the 30 minutes of their iron man match.
Rollins then attempted to take out Drew McIntyre, a strategy which proved foolish when he walked into a Zig Zag which gave the champion the decisive fall.
A noticeably lighter-looking Rusev had an excellent match with WWE champion AJ Styles but came up short in his quest for the gold.
Rusev isolated Styles’ leg but could not get him into his Accolade submission finisher and was beaten with a Phenomenal Forearm in what was arguably the match of the night.
Alexa Bliss remained the Raw women’s champion after a chaotic extreme rules match against Nia Jax which saw weapons and run-in attacks aplenty.
Mickie James, Natalya and Ronda Rousey all interfered in the match but Bliss was able to retain after levelling Jax with a series of chair shots and her trademark DDT onto a chair.
Asuka‘s bid for the SmackDown women’s title again fell short when Carmella rammed her into the shark cage – which contained James Ellsworth – and got the three-count.
A backstage attack by the Bludgeon Brothers on Team Hell No left them softened up for the SmackDown tag team title match, with Kane failing to appear until it was well under way.
Daniel Bryan did surprisingly well on his own but Rowan took him out with a spin kick and the champions retained after a Road Warriors doomsday device for the victory.
Replays of WWE Extreme Rules are available on Sky Sports Box Office until Thursday night.
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