WWE Smackdown Results: Batista sends signals to The Shield ahead of their 6-Man Tag at Extreme Rules

This week's show gets underway with a rare appearance from Triple H following his reunion with Evolution on Raw. The Game claimed that his stable is the most dominant group in the history of WWE and boasted about the beat down they gave The Shield earlier in the week. The COO then announced that he will team up with Randy Orton and Batista to take on The Shield at Extreme Rules. There was no clarification whether it will be an elimination or tornado tag match, nonetheless this announcement got the fans geared up to see these two powerhouse teams go up against each other.

The first match of the night saw he marked man Big E take on Alberto del Rio. The Intercontinental Champion looked to gain momentum ahead of his title defence at Extreme Rules against the winner of the IC tournament. The match was however cut short as Del Rio escaped with a disqualification to give Big E the win. Next we saw Paul Heyman address the crowd on the back of Brock Lesnar's win over The Undertaker. Heyman stated that his client destroyed the most sacred thing that existed in sports entertainment to a chorus of boos. Heyman repeatedly reminded the fans that Undertaker was 21-1 before his allegiance with his new client, "The King of Swing" Cesaro. It looks like Lesnar will be in for a huge matchup later this year and will likely return at Summerslam to capitalise on his momentum.

Paige Turner

Smackdown continued as Paige took on Aksana in a fluent match to further her rise. The newly-crowned Divas champion initially struggled as she was overpowered by her former NXT brand mate. The Norwich native however managed to counter the dominance and apply the Scorpion Cross Lock. Aksana soon tapped out to give Paige the win via submission to strengthen her run ahead of her title defence against Tamina at Extreme Rules.

Sheamus appeared backstage to talk about his match with Batista that will feature as the main event to close the show. A match between El Torito and Hornswaggle followed as the two mascots squared off. The Los Matadores accomplice managed to get the upper hand on his counterpart in what was an entertaining segment to give the fans a slice of fun.

Rusev's Rampage

The fun and games were drawn to a halt as Alexander Rusev took on R-Truth. Lana introduced the Bulgarian brute before he absolutely demolished the veteran. Rusev won in under three minutes with the camel clutch to make R-Truth tap. Rusev however wouldn't let go of the submission so Xavier Woods rushed in to make the save but to no avail. Rusev simply brushed of Woods' attack and destroyed him before Lana stood proud with her client.

Following the chaos, Smackdown returned to a more lighter note as Santino Marella took on Fandango. Santino was accompanied by his crush Emma and Fandango made his way to the ring with his new partner Layla. The valets proved fatal in the outcome of the match as Emma attacked Layla to counter her attempted interference. The distraction caused Santino to roll up a distracted Fandango with a sunset flip for the three count.

"The Animal" Unleashes

Batista stormed down the ramp for his match with Sheamus to a mixed reaction from the crowd. The match went back and forth as the two powerhouses pulled out their signature moves. Sheamus nearly thought he had the win after pinning Batista after the "White Noise" drop but "The Animal" managed to pop his shoulder up in time. The 2014 Royal Rumble winner narrowly proved the winner following a tensed finale that saw Sheamus fall victim to the "Batista Bomb".

This week's edition of Smackdown managed to slowly develop the storylines heading into Extreme Rules but didn't have the all-star feel that last week's had an abundance of. Fans learnt that The Shield will face one of their biggest tests yet at Extreme Rules with their match with Evolution locked in.