TLC: Review

We're here with another blog! I saw a lot of people comparing the PPV before it even started to the NXT Special on Thursday, and while I won't do a direct comparison because they're two completely different products- with two completely different philosophies you can't help but compare some of the things involved. Especially when you consider the NXT Special was a "wrestling" product, and this PPV isn't exactly renowned for technically sound wrestling matches.

Pre-Show: New Day v Stardust & Goldust
I'll be honest, I was only half paying attention to this match, so I won't be the guy to provide a very detailed review about the match quality. I'm still not convinced about the New Day gimmick, but it does seem like they're getting over with the crowd (to an extent) each time they're on TV. As I said I wasn't really paying attention to this match because I was trying to sort out a stream for the actual PPV, until it was pointed out to me that it was on Sky Sports 1. The only thing of note in this match was Big E forgetting the mechanics behind setting up their own finisher.

Dolph Ziggler v Luke Harper: Intercontinental Title Ladder Match
This was brutal. I really like both of the guys involved in the match, and the match itself (isolated) was really good. However, the spots these two guys put together were completely brutal- as someone who's needed stitches not so long ago I couldn't help but wince at some of the spots these two guys put their bodies through. The spot where Harper dived onto Ziggler on the outside with the ladder, where he subsequently landed on his arm- on a ladder was horrendous; and Harper has to consider himself lucky he didn't do himself some serious damage. I'm trying not to ramble, so in short- the match itself was good (in my opinion Match of the Night), but two guys who still have (barring injury) years left on their careers killing themselves for (in the grand scheme of things) a pretty meaningless PPV in December didn't make much sense to me. As I'll also discuss later, giving us everything including the Kitchen Sink in the opening match didn't make much sense to me.

The Uso's v The Miz's: Tag Team Title Match
The finish for this was a complete cop out. The Uso's have little to no momentum aside from them randomly getting Tag Team of the Year whereas Mizdow is one of the most over guys in the company as it stands. Mizdow did his usual being amazing, everything about his gimmick works. from the Baby Slammy to not breaking Pinfalls because he's on his back as well. However, the focus on this match was more on the Uso's and Naomi- and that led to absolutely nothing because Miz ended up getting DQ'd. When I was doing my predictions I thought Naomi was still on Total Divas, so thats why I factored in a Naomi heel turn so I'm using that as my excuse for calling this match wrong.

Big Show v Erick Rowan: Steel Stairs Match
This match was flawed before either men took to the ring. both of the guys involved are decent workers- whatever you want to say about Big Shows pendulum tendencies. However, this match completely screwed them before they even had a fighting chance of putting on a good match.

John Cena v Seth Rollins: Tables Match
As soon as I saw this wasn't the Main Event I knew my prediction for this match was going to be wrong. I don't know why, and I'd like to preempt this with saying I do actually like Cena- I just don't like the way he's booked; Cena didn't look "on" in this match. Although Rollins is good fast paced worked, Cena can usually keep up- and he looked one step behind for the whole of this match. Its perhaps all of his years of being "the guy" catching up to him but he looked quite stiff in this match, and that affected the quality. I'm not going to get into the fact Cena had Rollins beaten at least three times, and then still went on to win because I've gotten to the point of beyond caring when it comes to Cenas "Super" antics. I thought the run-in would be a certain Viper, but Reigns coming back was just as effective- and perhaps for the best the Rumble is next month so Reigns won't be going over Rollins in a Singles Match until at least Elimination Chamber (or Fast Track or whatever its called now).

Nikki Bella v A.J.: Divas Title Match
Similar to Cena, this match just seemed "off". I don't know why, whether its just these two have very little chemistry, Nikki not being a very good worker, or A.J. not having her heart in it anymore but this match just seemed quite sloppy. The finish was stupid, and I'm just praying to god the spraying to the face wasn't a sign they're going to try and rip off the Beautiful People with The Bellas.

Ryback v Kane: Chairs Match
This match was marginally better than the Rowan v Show match, but I think thats more down to the stipulation, and the constraints placed on the guys involved as a consequence of the stipulation. This was still pretty "meh" though, and its not a match that you'll remember next week.

Rusev v Jack Swagger: US Title Match
If you read my predictions you'd have known I tipped this match to be really good, what I didn't expect was for them to have Rusev squash Swagger in roughly 5 minutes with Swagger getting in very little offence. Especially considering the amount of time there was left in the PPV, and what happened the PPV finished with roughly 10 Minutes still available to them.

Bray Wyatt v Dean Ambrose: TLC
By all logic the crowd should have been going insane due to the number of spots in this match, Off the top of my head Bray went through 3 Tables via an Ambrose Elbow Drop- one of them off a 25ft (allegedly) ladder. But this match was proof of one thing, Gimmick PPVs suck. The fact is (without counting- if someone has let me know) we'd already seen 4 or 5 Table Spots before we even got to the Main Event, and that burned out the crowd. We'd already seen brutal ladder spots, and that burned out the crowd. We'd already see false finish after false finish, and that burned out the crowd. In summary this match was proof of whats wrong with Modern "Sports Entertainment". Not the match itself, because I really liked it- but the circumstances surrounding the match were far from ideal. To give a comparison to the two products of NXT and WWE- NXT had the crowd on the edge of their feet for the whole of a 20+ Minute Main Event, and popped the crowd massively at the end. The Main Event of the WWE PPV ended with an exploding TV, because when you pull your TV wire out it explodes right?

I'd also like to give a brief mention to the great Superstar of the Year Roman Reigns botching a backstage promo, the Retweets were appreciated Roman.

Thanks for reading as ever, I'm back tomorrow for the RAW Review- and I'll be on Twitter for the usual shenanigans as well. I might even do the Live Smackdown if I haven't died from sleep deprivation by then. As always any feedback is appreciated, and lets just hope RAWs a good one, because I'm yawning now- and RAW won't be finished for nearly 12 hours.