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Extreme Rules (2012) was a pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on April 29, 2012 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. It was the fourth event under the Extreme Rules chronology. Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card and one pre-show match was streamed on YouTube. It featured Brock Lesnar's first WWE match since WWE WrestleMania 20 in 2004.
The concept of Extreme Rules was that the event would feature various hardcore-based matches. The pay-per-view received universally positive reviews, with the main event and two world championship matches drawing high praise from critics and fans. The event received 263,000 buys, up 25.8% from the 209,000 buys for the previous year's event,[5] whereas the next Extreme Rules event in 2013 received 231,000 buys, a drop of 12.1%.
- PreShow - Santino Marella (c) defeated The Miz for the WWE United States Championship
- Randy Orton defeated Kane - Falls Count Anywhere
- Brodus Clay (with Hornswoggle, Naomi and Cameron) defeated Dolph Ziggler (with Vickie Guerrero and Jack Swagger)
- Cody Rhodes defeated Big Show (c) - Tables match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship
- Sheamus (c) defeated Daniel Bryan 2–1 - Two out of three falls match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
- Ryback defeated Aaron Relic and Jay Hatton - Two-on-one handicap match
- CM Punk (c) defeated Chris Jericho - Chicago Street Fight for the WWE Championship
- Layla defeated Nikki Bella (c) (with Brie Bella) for the WWE Divas Championship
- John Cena defeated Brock Lesnar - Extreme Rules match