It was the 14th annual and final Extreme Rules and took place on Saturday, October 8, 2022, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.

In the main event, Matt Riddle defeated Seth "Freakin" Rollins by submission in a Fight Pit match in which Daniel Cormier served as the special guest referee.

This would be the final Extreme Rules due to WWE discontinuing some of its gimmick events, with the October 2023 slot given to a reinstated Fastlane.

[2] The defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) promotion, which WWE acquired in 2003, originally used the "extreme rules" term to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term, using it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules".

It aired on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets.

[11] On October 1, it was revealed that UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier would be the special guest referee for the match.

[17] In early August, Karrion Kross and his wife Scarlett made their return to WWE and immediately began to target Drew McIntyre.

[18] After Bianca Belair retained the Raw Women's Championship at SummerSlam, she was confronted by a returning Bayley, accompanied by Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky.

[10] Imperium (Gunther, Kaiser, and Vinci) then defeated The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Butch, and Holland) in a six-man tag team match on the following episode of SmackDown.

[16] The following week, Butch and Holland won a fatal four-way tag team match, also involving Kaiser and Vinci, to earn a match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship on the next episode,[17] but failed to win the titles due to Imperium interfering.

[23] In September, WWE began playing an a cappella version of "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane at live events and during commercial breaks of televised shows,[24] while also hiding QR codes in various locations on episodes of Raw[25][26] and SmackDown.

[27][28] Each code led to special websites containing imagery, mini-games, and riddles that were all seemingly connected to Extreme Rules.

[30] The pay-per-view opened with The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland, and Butch) facing Imperium (Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser, and Giovanni Vinci) in a six-man tag team Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook match.

In the closing moments, Holland and Butch attacked Kaiser and Vinci with shillelaghs while Sheamus performed a Celtic Cross on Gunther through an announce table.

[1] Next, Liv Morgan defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Ronda Rousey in an Extreme Rules match.

Rousey then applied what commentator Michael Cole called a "biceps crusher" on Morgan, who passed out, to win the title for a second time.

Phoenix retrieved the key and freed Edge who then performed a Spear on Priest and a low blow on Dominik.

[1] In the main event, Matt Riddle fought Seth "Freakin" Rollins in a Fight Pit match with Daniel Cormier as the special guest referee.

[1] As Riddle celebrated on stage with Cormier, the lights in the arena went out, signaling that the "White Rabbit" mystery was about to be revealed.

Bray Wyatt's voice was then heard singing the verse, "He's got the whole world in his hands" repeatedly as real life versions of the Firefly Fun House characters were shown in the crowd throughout the arena, including Huskus the Pig Boy, Mercy the Buzzard, Ramblin' Rabbit, Abby the Witch, a burnt Fiend mask that was atop the announce table, and The Fiend himself.

The television set inside the Fun House turned on and a masked figure, together with distorted imagery, appeared asking twice "who killed the world?"

[40] Also on Raw, Seth "Freakin" Rollins won the United States Championship,[38] and was later scheduled to defend the title against Matt Riddle on the following week's episode.

Afterwards, Edge brawled with Judgment Day on the entrance aisle, and Rhea Ripley got involved, only for Beth Phoenix to lay her out.

[46] A rematch between the two was scheduled as a Steel Cage match at Crown Jewel,[47] which McIntyre won to end the feud.

[48] Also on the following SmackDown, Sheamus competed in a fatal four-way match to earn another opportunity at Gunther's Intercontinental Championship.

However, the match was won by Rey Mysterio, who was officially transferred to the SmackDown roster, as he did not want to fight his son Dominik on Raw.

Speaking as his real self, he talked about the past year in which he was fired and lost loved ones and then thanked the fans for saving him.

Before he could continue, the lights went out and Wyatt's new masked alter ego appeared on the TitanTron, telling viewers to forget the past and warning of what was to come.

[47] Wyatt's return would be tragically cut short, as after only one televised match at the Royal Rumble in January,[44] he went on a medical hiatus the following month[49] due to contracting COVID-19, which exacerbated an existing heart issue, and he unexpectedly died of a heart attack in August; the week prior to his death, it was reported that he was closing in on a return.