
The Superstar Shake-Up had long been in the rear-view mirror by the time June rolled around, but its after-effects on the RAW and SmackDown brands were and still are being felt, especially on Pay-Per-View. Though the influx of name talent has kept things feeling fresh on the red brand (along with the returns of the Hardyz and Finn Bálor, it has to be said), SmackDown Live has suffered from baffling pushes, wafer-thin feuds and disappointing matches.
The trend continued at Extreme Rules and Money in the Bank. The former didn’t meet expectations of past Extreme Rules events, but it was still a fun night with several standout matches, with a great main event shining in particular. As for Money in the Bank: the hype was largely around the first women’s MITB match and ultimately became a big disappointment, whilst the men’s MITB clash delivered strong action with a slightly underwhelming finish, and the WWE Title clash between Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton evoked memories of JBL’s WWE Title push in 2004 on a SD roster containing Eddie Guerrero, The Undertaker, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Rob Van Dam and others.
That quickly sums up the shows, but here I’ll break down the card found on each disc, bout-by-bout. Let’s take a look at the “Double Feature: Extreme Rules & Money in the Bank 2017” DVD!
Extreme Rules has lost some of its edge in recent years; after all, how extreme can WWE go in the PG era? There have been a fair few hair-raising moments along the way, however; Brock Lesnar pummelling John Cena into a bloody mess, Daniel Bryan sending Kane through a (partially) burning table and Dean Ambrose slamming Chris Jericho down onto thumb tacks stand out from the last couple of Extreme Rules shows. More importantly, the action has generally been of a high standard at the gimmick-themed PPV, and that proved to be the case again this year.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Dean Ambrose (C) vs. The Miz
This is probably the best of the Ambrose vs. Miz matches (and there have been many) that we have seen on television and Pay-Per-View this year. It’s nothing exceptional, but it’s a well-told story leading to Miz regaining “his” title. On a side note, it’s a shame that Miz’ entertaining celebration ceremony from RAW the following night isn’t included as a DVD extra.
Rich Swann & Sasha Banks vs. Noam Dar & Alicia Fox
If nothing else, this match provides a PPV debut for Noam and some exposure for Rich after a few barren months (which were partly due to injury). Swann and Sasha seemed to work well together here, so it’s a shame (for Swann, anyway) that their on-screen partnership ended here just days after it began.
RAW Women’s Championship Kendo Stick On A Pole Match
Alexa Bliss (C) vs. Bayley
I assume that this match was cut for time, because the presentation of this makes Bayley look totally irrelevant. Between this, her previous hometown defeat to Alexa at Payback, the This Is Your Life segment on RAW the previous Monday and the boos she received in her pre-match interview here, it marked a new low for The Hugger, and her career hasn’t recovered since (especially since a separated shoulder has just scuppered her SummerSlam title shot at Little Miss Bliss).
RAW Tag Team Championship Steel Cage Match
The Hardy Boyz (C) vs. Sheamus & Cesaro
Fortunately, the subsequent Steel Cage clash between Sheamus and Cesaro (Shesaro?) and The Hardyz is a great battle. It has simple psychology but is very well-executed, and keeps fans waiting for the inevitable high spot involving Jeff, as well as having a dramatic finish.
Cruiserweight Championship Submission Match
Neville (C) vs. Austin Aries
This is another good match, but one which suffers from a lack of crowd heat. Perhaps the audience were burned out, or perhaps they didn’t care either about the cruisers or about the submission stipulation being applied to the high-flying division. Either way, this stands out as being Austin’s last WWE match as he was released from the company in early July (the reasons for this depend on who you wish to believe).
Extreme Rules Match To Determine The #1 Contender To The Universal Championship
Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Bálor vs. Samoa Joe vs. Bray Wyatt
Extreme Rules ends on a high with the five-way showdown to determine Brock Lesnar’s next challenger. Each competitor had a persuasive reason to back them, keeping the outcome unpredictable. In addition, the action is of the highest standard, and coming in at nearly 30 minutes, it’s one of the top WWE PPV main events of the year!
As noted, Money in the Bank is a rather lacklustre show. On paper, the two MITB matches and the WWE Championship rematch (which potentially set up hometown hero Randy Orton regaining the gold) sounded appetizing, but in practice the show ended up being inferior to the previous SmackDown-only PPV Backlash. And here’s why…
Money in the Bank Ladder Match
Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Carmella vs. Natalya vs. Tamina
Although the biggest out-cry about this match concerned how Carmella (or more rather James Ellsworth) obtained victory, I was more disappointed with the match itself. It was a commendable effort, but it felt like it ended just as things were really heating up; with five or six more minutes, this might have reached expectations. As it is, this is inferior to the rematch held on SmackDown nine days later. Again, DVD extras come to mind.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Match
The Usos (C) vs. The New Day
This is a fun doubles outing between two teams that nearly always produce the goods on Pay-Per-View. It isn’t quite as good as their recent follow-up at Battleground, partly due to the finish, but it’s still well worth watching.
SmackDown Women’s Championship Match
Naomi (C) vs. Lana
This is pointless, to be honest. It either had to be a complete squash (as in, 30 seconds or less), or Lana had to deliver a performance that would pleasantly surprise everyone watching. Instead, it just feels like a second-rate title match, and does neither competitor any favors. Lana’s entrance music is awesome, though.
WWE Championship Match
Jinder Mahal (C) vs. Randy Orton
After Maria and Mike Kanellis make their WWE return and debut respectively, we get a rematch from Backlash between Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton. As with their Backlash bout, it’s not bad, but it’s not particularly interesting either. The add-ons (the legends in attendance and the interfering Singh Brothers) enhance the match, but the finish is too similar to their Backlash encounter.
Breezango vs. The Ascension
This match seemingly ended the whodunit concerning which person or people destroyed Breezango’s office, though post-MITB developments proved that this wasn’t the case. It’s still amusing to watch, though not as entertaining as Breezango’s previous clash with The Usos at Backlash.
Money in the Bank Ladder Match
AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens vs. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler
Compared to past Money in the Bank events, the 2017 edition had been something of a let-down up until this point. Thankfully, the main event ends things on a fairly high note with some great spots and memorable moments. Some may disagree with the outcome, but one definitely cannot fault the effort or the action in the body of the match.
The bonus features consist of the Kickoff Show bouts from each card: Kalisto vs. Apollo Crews and The Hype Bros vs. The Colons. Both are entertaining filler, but nothing more.
Watching Kalisto vs. Crews now in early August makes it seem like a lifetime ago, since Kalisto has been absent from television and the Titus Brand has focused more on Akira Tozawa in recent weeks.
This “Double Feature” DVD highlights the ever-growing divide in quality between RAW and SmackDown since the Superstar Shake-up after WrestleMania 33 (and this will be even more noticeable when we get the twin-disc set for Great Balls of Fire and Battleground).
Extreme Rules 2017 isn’t the best show of the year by any means, but there are several high-quality matches including a memorable main event, whereas Money in the Bank 2017 is basically a one-match card, and even that one match isn’t the greatest MITB bout that we’ve seen. If you happen to find this “Double Feature” for a reasonable price, then there is enough worthy action to justify a purchase, but otherwise I would suggest that you use the Network to catch up with these shows.
So what did you think of Extreme Rules and Money in the Bank? Together do they make a double pack worthy of your DVD collection? Let us know by leaving a comment!
Get the new WWE “Double Feature: Extreme Rules & MITB 2017″ DVD…
– USA: NOW!! Get the latest “WWE Double Feature” DVD right now here on Amazon.com.
– UK/Europe: Next Monday! Grab the next “WWE Double Feature” DVD here on Amazon.co.uk.
– Australia: Next Wednesday! Get the next “WWE Double Feature” DVD at Madman.com.au.

Any word on how they will continue the amazon coin collection? There is a slot for MITB, but with the dual pack I dont know if it will come out.
It did come out in an ‘Amazon Exclusive’ (Canada) MITB/Extreme Rules double pack.
Does anyone have the photo of the actual two DVD set of Extreme Rules 2017 & Money In The Bank 2017 to see if it has a flap over two DVD set case or the flat two DVD set case
One disc on each side.
Extreme rules was an extreme disappointment. I miss the good old days when matches were actually good on that ppv
really ? i thought the fatal 5 way was good along with the cw submission match and tag title steel cage match
The 5 way was OK except who won. The Hardy’s match was just like any other Hardy’s cage match in my opinion. And the rest of it was blah. The Bailey match was God awful as well.
My copy still hasn’t shipped from amazon. Target and Best Buy near me don’t really carry WWE titles
We just received the following important statement from Fremantlemedia International the WWE’s European licensee:
“Since revealing our Q4 lineup our inbox has been filled with members of Raven’s flock asking “what about blu-ray?” As previously stated over the past 4 and a half years we have endeavoured to release as many WWE releases as possible on blu-ray, in fact we released well over 30 blu-rays exclusively to the UK in that time! However over the last two years the sales of WWE blu-rays has declined and there hasn’t been enough demand to warrant continued support.
We have heard the fans however, and have decided to do release Summerslam 2017 on Blu-ray, this will be a one off run, and once they’re gone they’re gone. We will closely monitor the performance of this release and it will directly affect our future blu-ray plans.
We hope you continue to enjoy all WWE Home Video releases.”
I quite enjoy the Double Packs. I am probably in the minority but I like a lot of the current rosters. I am guessing the second women’s MITB ladder match will be on Best of Raw and SmackDown 2017 dvd if it is released this year. Also the 2 US title changes ( Owens vs Jericho and Owens vs AJ).
for once Raw had the better ppv. Extreme Rules i enjoyed
even the preshow kalisto vs crews was alright
miz vs ambrose was alright GLAD MIZ WON IC TITLE.
sasha and rich vs fox and dar was a good mix tag
raw womans title cane match on a pole
was just a dud
raw tag titles Steel cage match
the hardys vs sheamus and cesaro good rules for excaping over the top was eh i mean i know thats how you win in wwe games. But i still enjoyed it
Submission match Cruiserweight Title Neville vs Austin Aries
this was good it sucks aries left right after this but his attitude gets him in trouble.
Extreme Rules Fatal 5 Way
Seth Rollins vs Roman Reigns vs Samoa Joe vs Bray Wyatt vs Finn Balor
this was a fun match. shocked joe won everyone thought it be seth maybe or most likey roman.
so over all raw extreme rules was a good show only dud was womans title.
Money In The Bank
Honestly really only the mens mitb and maybe wwe title match are worth it and tag titles the rest was eh
first time raw is better branded ppv then smackdown.
if these were not double packs i could not see myself buying these as separate dvds
but get this for extreme rules and sd wise the tag titles wwe title and mens mitb
I dont know what WWE are playing at,making double feature PPV discs,what happens if you didnt like one of the events,which i didnt,i lied Extreme Rules,but didnt think a lot of MITB,why couldnt they WWE leve things as they have been,so is the future,if so it may mean i’m not going to be getting the PPV,that i want singally.
With the many shows WWE have these days, I think it’s a good idea to do these double packs. If they released all shows on their own as single disc DVDs, it would be more expensive to buy them all.
If you feel this double pack is not worth it then wait. The price will drop as time passes.
I will admit I don’t own a single double pack as I don’t collect recent PPVs. However, I do like the idea as they are not only cheaper, but you get 2 events for what one would normally cost. It makes fans feel like they’re getting a bundle. I used to buy the double and triple pack TNA sets and still find them to have been a great deal.
Tadge, I like this idea a lot with the double feature DVD as you get two PPVs for the price of one and it’s more suitable in today’s WWE standards to do it in this regard because of the brand split, but they still need to release the PPVs from late last year as a double feature to complete the collections. I think it starts from September of 2016 through the end of that year of the select PPVs that have not been released as of this writing.
Disagree thoroughly with you. You’re getting MITB pretty much free breh.