Rules was established to replace One Night Stand and was initially noted by WWE to be a direct continuation of the One Night Stand chronology, with Extreme Rules continuing the concept of featuring hardcore-based matches. However, the 2010 event was later promoted as only the second event under a new chronology, one that is no longer a direct continuation of the One Night Stand events. The term "extreme rules" was originally used by Extreme Championship Wrestling to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term and has since used it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules". In the mid-to-late 2010s, the amount of hardcore-based matches began decreasing, with only one included at the 2021 event, but the 2022 event returned to form with all six of its matches contested under a hardcore stipulation. The 2009 Extreme Rules pay-per-view was the inaugural event of a now annual gimmick pay-per-view for WWE. It was held on June 7, 2009, at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. To coincide with the brand extension, in which the roster was divided into brands where wrestlers exclusively performed, the inaugural event featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—it was the only to feature ECW as the brand disbanded in February 2010. The 2010 event then introduced the titular Extreme Rules match. This year's event also moved Extreme Rules up to the late April/early May slot to replace Backlash as the post-WrestleMania pay-per-view event. In April 2011, WWE ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism, and in August, the first brand extension was dissolved. The 2013 event then replaced Over the Limit for that year's May PPV. Beginning with the 2014 event, in addition to traditional PPV, Extreme Rules began broadcasting on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched earlier that year in February. After the 2016 event, WWE reintroduced the brand extension in July. Along with this second brand split came brand-exclusive PPVs, thus the 2017 event featured wrestlers exclusively from the Raw brand. It would in turn be the only Extreme Rules event during the second brand split to be a brand-exclusive show, as following WrestleMania 34 the following year, brand-exclusive pay-per-views were discontinued. The 2017 event also moved Extreme Rules back to the June slot, however, the 2018 event moved Extreme Rules to July. The 2019