The first WWE pay-per-view since WrestleMania XXX took place last night and a promising Extreme Rules matchcard largely lived up to expectation.

At the Izod Center in New Jersey, Daniel Bryan made the first successful defence of his latest WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign by beating former tag team partner Kane in a brutal, hardcore encounter.

Youth conquered over experience as The Shield pinned the recently-reunited Evolution, while Bray Wyatt did not manage to bring out the monster in John Cena, but did win their steel cage bout.

Other highlights included Bad News Barrett taking the Intercontinental title away from Big E, Paige retaining her Divas Championship against Tamina Snuka and Paul Heyman guy, Cesaro, continuing his climb up the WWE ladder by besting both Jack Swagger and Rob van Dam in a triple threat match.

But what does that mean for Monday's RAW and the coming weeks? Below Sports Mole counts four things that we learned about the WWE's near future from Extreme Rules.

Randy Orton will be Daniel Bryan's next opponent

The Shield's victory over Evolution, which came courtesy of Roman Reigns spearing Batista, and 'The Animal's' imminent break from WWE television suggest that this storyline will be put on the back burner.

Booking logic suggests that, were this to be a long-term programme, the heel team would have won to maintain or even increase interest levels from fans as the face unit seek their retribution.

While these two factions will feud, at least indirectly, for much of the summer, a rematch between them at Payback in June is unlikely as the members of Evolution retread their own paths.

Batista will reportedly be away for a while due to his acting commitments, and that leaves Randy Orton to step into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship picture and reconvene WWE's 2013 feud of the year with Daniel Bryan.

'The Viper' will be able to use the excuse of never actually being pinned when losing his strap to Bryan at WrestleMania XXX, and his relationship with Chief Operating Officer Triple H to slither his way into a title shot.

WWE are re-establishing the prestige of Intercontinental Championship

The Intercontinental Championship has lost much of its glamour and prominence in recent years.

Having once been a title competed for by some of the company's best in-ring workers, it has largely been demoted to a strap that is passed from one average mid-carder to another.

The unification of the two major belts in December 2013 means that the Intercontinental title will take on more importance again and this was evident in the fact that six former world champions, and two rising stars, were involved in the eight-man tournament which decided who faced Big E at Extreme Rules.

One of those rising stars, Bad News Barrett, won the tournament and went on to become champion for the fourth time on Sunday, in what was a match in which two young studs showed us their best work.

Barrett is the type of superstar that could enjoy a long reign during which the quality of the wrestling and credibility of the gold will hopefully benefit from meaningful feuds with the likes of Big E and Sheamus.

There is actually talent in the Divas division

The Divas division has taken a lot of stick in recent years and justifiably so considering some of the 'talent' within it and some of the booking decisions that have been made.

AJ Lee's 295-day spell as champion, combined with the launch of reality show Total Divas has peaked interest somewhat, but the in-ring work was not alongside that to back it up, largely thanks to a flurry of meaningless feuds.

New title holder Paige and Tamina Snuka showed in East Rutherford that there is wrestling ability hidden deep in the Divas division as they put on a surprisingly good match on Paige's first PPV outing.

Why we have seen so little of these two on major television until now is baffling, but hopefully they will be given a smart storyline to continue this rivalry and make the women's roster mildly watchable again.

The Shield are currently the best in-ring workers in the WWE

The Hounds of Justice produced another early candidate for match of the year with their performance in beating Evolution in New Jersey, where they wowed both individually and as a unit.

This comes only a couple of months after Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins played more than their part in producing a five-star bout against The Wyatt Family at the Elimination Chamber PPV.

Bryan may have worked his way to the top of the company by being an excellent in-ring technician and a flawless ring worker, but his move set has been slightly cut back in recent months as the WWE have identified the moves which receive the best reaction from the fans and encourage him to use them.

Now, it is The Shield who are the most exciting act to watch inside the squad circle, particularly when they are competing in six-man tag team matches and each bringing a different dynamic to the ring.

Reigns is the muscle man and impresses with his feats of strength, Ambrose is the loose cannon who throws himself into everything and Rollins is the athletic high-flier who produces some truly awesome spots.