Save for an awfully overproduced ending, WWE Extreme Rules 2021 was an enjoyable event on the whole despite not being too newsworthy.

It definitely delivered from an in-ring standpoint with all seven matches—including the Kickoff contest—being well wrestled and entertaining. Better yet, the results of the pay-per-view were largely satisfying for fans, with the questionable booking decisions being kept to a minimum.

The night's main event saw Roman Reigns best "The Demon" Finn Balor in an Extreme Rules match to retain the Universal Championship. It wasn't without controversy, however, as Balor was inexplicably revived at one point and was on the verge of victory before the top rope collapsed beneath him.

Elsewhere on the card, Sasha Banks made her unexpected return to TV by crashing the SmackDown Women's Championship contest, attacking both Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch. Damian Priest, Charlotte Flair and The Usos also successfully defended their respective titles in quality matchups.

Coming out of Extreme Rules, let's look at the best and worst booking decisions that shaped the show into what it was.

Best: Charlotte Flair Retains the Raw Women's Championship

Love her or loathe her, Charlotte Flair is the perfect person to be holding the Raw Women's Championship at this moment.

Her feud with Alexa Bliss has exceeded expectations, and so did their match at Extreme Rules, but the outcome was what it needed to be. Bliss has been praised for her character work all year, and although she's been undefeated since the start of 2021, it would have been the wrong call to put the title on her.

It's possible the program will continue with Flair destroying Bliss' demon doll Lilly afterward, but it would be wise for WWE to move on to something else entirely for Flair. Bliss' supernatural shtick has run its course, and there's nothing to be gained from doing more matches between these two.

Bliss may be better off returning to SmackDown and mixing it up with some of the women over there. Regardless of whether she switches shows or stays put, it feels like the right time for her to revert back to her old persona and start anew.

As for Flair, there are plenty of potential challengers waiting in the wings from both brands. She's at the top of her game and will continue to bring the best out of her opponents as champion.

Worst: Big E Pins Bobby Lashley Ahead of WWE Championship Rematch on Raw

Liv Morgan vs. Carmella was unceremoniously bumped from the main card of Extreme Rules to the Kickoff show after a star-studded six-man tag team match was added to the event at the literal last minute. As entertaining as The New Day's war with Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles and Omos was, it was unfortunate that it had to come at the expense of the ladies who were originally promised that spot.

Nonetheless, it was as enjoyable of an opener as you could possibly ask for with everyone involved getting their time to shine. It was obviously designed to further the feud between Big E and Lashley, though the finish could have been better booked.

New Day picking up the win was a no-brainer following their defeat to The Bloodline last week on Raw, but Lashley shouldn't have been the one to endure the pinfall loss for his team at Extreme Rules. Omos has been heavily protected thus far, but Styles losing instead would have made much more sense.

Lashley wasn't pinned too often during his dominant run as WWE champion, and him losing twice to Big E in the span of two weeks isn't a great sign for what his future holds. What's worse is that a WWE Championship rematch between the two of them was announced for Monday's Raw shortly thereafter, so making Lashley look weak before then was an odd choice.

If The All Mighty is about to be moved to SmackDown in the 2021 WWE Draft, WWE may want to have him put over Big E multiple times on his way out, but that doesn't excuse the ending to this match.

Best: Damian Priest Maintains Momentum as United States Champion

There are few stars in WWE right now who have more momentum than Damian Priest.

For all of the NXT call-ups that the company has somehow managed to botch over the years, Priest has not been one of them. In fact, he has been given an aggressive singles push and has been helped to get over with the audience at a high level.

He's been in his element as United States champion since SummerSlam and has been virtually unbeatable. That once again proved to be the case at Extreme Rules, when he emerged victorious over both Sheamus and Jeff Hardy to retain his United States Championship in a terrific Triple Threat match.

It was a hard-fought battle for sure, and the win didn't come easy for Priest, but in the end, he reigned supreme as he should have. It was too early for him to give up his grasp on the star-spangled prize, and now he can reign as champ for a little bit longer.

The fact he pinned Sheamus and not Hardy indicates that feud is also over heading into the Draft. It's unknown if either of them will wind up getting shipped to SmackDown, but it's clear Priest is going to be bringing the belt with him wherever he goes.

Worst: Demon Balor Loses After Top Rope Collapses

It was all but a guarantee going into Extreme Rules that, despite Finn Balor's strong track record as The Demon on the main roster, Roman Reigns would retain his Universal Championship.

At the least, they needed to deliver in the main event spot, and Balor needed to look credible in defeat. They accomplished the first objective and were well on their way to accomplishing the second before WWE got too cute with the finish and ended the event in bizarre fashion

While Balor was recuperating at ringside, he suddenly rose to his feet and started dominating The Bloodline while his entrance music played in the background. If that wasn't bad enough, he then fell from the top rope when it randomly collapsed, causing Reigns to capitalize and hit Balor with a devastating spear for the win.

Balor has portrayed The Demon on and off in WWE for nearly seven years, and never once did he act as strange as he did on Sunday night. The top rope giving out the way it did was also a weak excuse for him to lose when there was no logical explanation for it.

Reigns winning was never in doubt and was the correct outcome, but the fashion in which it was booked was horrendous and marred an otherwise excellent pay-per-view. It was a classic example of WWE overbooking an ending to a match to protect the people involved and ultimately failing in its attempt to do so.

Best: Returning Sasha Banks Crashes SmackDown Women's Championship Match

A case can be made for Bianca Belair vs. Becky Lynch being the best feud going in WWE today since it started at SummerSlam. Both women have played their roles remarkably well, and while there has been skepticism from fans regarding Lynch's heel turn (and understandably so), the overall story has benefited from it so far.

At this point in their program, however, it was too early for either of them to endure a loss by pinfall or submission. Extreme Rules marked Lynch's first formal match since WrestleMania 36, and it would have been mind-boggling for her to lose already, while Belair is simply too popular at the moment to be eating defeat again so soon after her SummerSlam setback.

Thus, to close out their hotly-contested clash for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Extreme Rules, WWE needed some sort of an out, and the return of Sasha Banks was just that.

Of course, running a disqualification or a count-out on pay-per-view is never ideal, but this was arguably a rare case where it worked and was justified. Not only did the non-finish keep the feud alive while allowing both Belair and Lynch to come out of it unscathed, it also led to Banks being reinjected into the storyline and making her presence felt by laying out both women.

All signs point to this leading to a Triple Threat match one of these weeks for the title. It could be saved for a future pay-per-view or happen on an upcoming episode of SmackDown, but either way, it's bound to be a barn burner.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.