Csonka’s WWE TLC Review 12.13.15

WWE TLC Review 12.13.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Pre-Show Match: Sasha Banks defeated Becky Lynch @ 11:45 via submission [**]
– Triple Threat WWE Tag Team Title Match: Champions New Day defeated Lucha Dragons and The Usos @ 17:53 [****]
– Rusev defeated Ryback @ 8:01 via submission [**]
– WWE United States Title Chairs Match: Champion Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger @ 11:15 via pin [***]
– Tag Team Tables Elimination Match: The Wyatts defeated Team ECW @ 12:30 {Bray, Strowman and Harper Survived} [**]
– Intercontinental Title Match: Dean Ambrose defeated Champion Kevin Owens @ 9:45 via pin [**¾]
– WWE Divas Title Match: Champion Charlotte defeated Paige @ 10:34 via pin [**½]
– TLC Match For WWE World Heavyweight Title: Champion Sheamus defeated Roman Reigns @ 23:59 [***¾]

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Pre-Show: Becky vs. Sasha: On the pre-show, Team BAD did a horrible promo segment, signing a WWE themed 12 days of Christmas deal. Just because they d cool shit with New Day online doesn’t mean you should try and makes them he female New Day. Jerry Lawler showed that he doesn’t give a shit/doesn’t know the name of these ladies, as his go to material was to make fun of their hair. Sasha was so over when she came out, but the promo killed that off, leading to the ladies working hard, an uneven spot or two early, and they got very little reaction. They continued to work well after the break; Banks send the heavenly lock at one point (which the all star commentary team called the Banks statement like 10 times). Lynch later would score with a regular arm bar, which Cole flipped out and yelled, “DIS-ARM-HER! DIS-ARM-HER! DIS-ARM-HER!” We then got the predictable ending, Team BAD distraction, leading to Sasha winning with the Banks Statement. It was a good overall effort but the lack of crowd reaction and some uneven stuff early hurt it. Also, the commentary absolutely sucked.

– According to Sports Illustrated, WWE has hired Mauro Ranallo to be the new lead announcer for Smackdown starting with the jump to USA in January. If they let Mauro be Mauro, it’s a great move that will give the show a much needed fresh voice and presentation to the commentary.

Triple Threat WWE Tag Team Title Match: Champions The New Day vs. The Usos vs. The Lucha Dragons: New Day cut a fun promo pre-match, including showing off the pose they will use for the Wheaties box. Xavier Woods did commentary during the match. New Day was over here, as they went with the ladder plunder right away. The Usos got some run first, then New Day took over and beat down the Usos. The Dragons then got their run, working over New Day and Cara almost killed Kofi doing a fall down splash off the top with ladder. Cara also hit an over the top senton to the floor, also onto a ladder. They really worked hard to not completely rely on all of the typical ladder spots, and also worked in some new stuff (like Big E being trapped under the ladder and bench pressing it while the Dragons were on the ladder). When New Day was out of things, Woods took time to explain that they are healing and recharge their stamina bars, similar to WWE 2K16, “the most real life game to fate so it much be true”. Woods was already the best commentator on the show. During the Usos vs. Dragons portion, they did a Salida del sol spot on a bridged ladder, which was pretty sick and got a great reaction. Woods did get involved, throwing his trombone at Kalisto as he proclaimed that this was a NO DQ match. This was enough of a distraction to allow Kofi to get the titles and for New Day to retain. This was a great opener, with all six working hard and doing some new things to avoid this being a cliché of a ladder match, which many WWE versions of the match come off as the past few years. This was well laid out, creative, executed well and we got a hot crowd; this was a great way to kick off the show.

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Ryback vs. Rusev: Ryback controlled the first minute or so with the power game, but Rusev countered and stunned Ryback ff the ropes and then repeatedly tried to choke him out. It slowed after that, with the crowd not being very into things. Ryback then made his comeback and hit a dropkick and a high cross, like a swole Ricky Morton. Then we got the bullshit, as Rusev teased leaving, Ryback tried to stop him so Rusev shoved Ryback into Lana. She took a hilariously over the top bump. It was all a plan for Rusev to get control back, which Lana was very happy with when it worked. I call it bullshit because of this, it really garnered no crowd reaction at all, and it was just there. Ryback fought off the accolade, but ate a high kick; Rusev finally got the accolade and Ryback passed out. It wasn’t bad, I liked what they were trying and I like the idea behind the new Lana stuff in matches, but there was no juice to this. They went out there, they did stuff, it was fine and no one cared.

– Dean and Roman have a moment backstage.

WWE United States Title Chairs Match: Champion Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger: They rushed and got chairs right away and swung back and forth like a sword fight. It was quick and then Del Rio got the heat for a couple of minutes, chair shots and his basic stuff, which was fine. Swagger made the comeback by smash-mouthing him with a chair, but Del Rio cut him off and tossed him to the floor and then tossed a bunch of chairs onto Swagger. Back in the ring Del Rio would post himself, allowing Swagger to connect with some chair shots. Swagger used the chair as part of the ankle lock process, but since he hasn’t won a PPV match since November of 2013, no one bought it. Del Rio fell to the floor to escape, got a chair and hit Swagger with it and then went up top. Swagger would ct him off again, make another comeback and actually get a good near fall off of the Swagger bomb (the crowd actually reacted to that one). Del Rio eventually caught Swagger with the hanging arm bar in the ropes, abused him with several chair shots as he was trapped in the corner, and then piled up chairs and hit hid double stomp to retain. They had a good layout, Del Rio worked as a ruthless asshole while Swagger did a good job of getting some sympathy as the resilient babyface. It took a lot for then to get the live crowd into the match, but they worked very hard and eventually got them involved. This was a good match, easily one of the better “chairs match” WWE has run. If the creative process would have been stronger leading into the show, the crowd likely would have been more invested.

Tag Team Tables Elimination Match: Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman, Luke Harper and Erick Rowan vs. Tommy Dreamer, Rhyno and The Dudley Boyz: They really should have the Wyatts run through these guys with little to no resistance. They brawled right away and introduced the buffet of toys (trashcans, baseball bats, axe handles, night sticks, kendo sticks) as they brawled around the ring. Strowman trying to run around is hilarious, due to his lack of coordination. Rowan got eliminated about 4-minuites with the 3D after a table almost broke while Devon was on it. Harper kicked Rhyno through a table at 6:20. This was a cluster here, crowd stopped caring early here and there was no reaction when Devon fired up and basically asked for crowd reactions. The v Dudley Boyz controlled and hit the doomsday device on Harper, Bubba then tried to jump off the apron onto Strowman, who fell down and it looked like shit.

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Bray put Devon through a table at 8:20 to get the 3 on 2 advantage. Bubba and Dreamer buried Strowman under a pile of tables, but then Harper put Dreamer through a table at 10:40, leaving Bubba to fight three Wyatts. Bubba fought off Bray and Harper and then teased the fire table spot. Strowman returned and chokeslammed him through a table and that was that. As far as getting the Wyatts a dominant victory, this served its purpose. I am perfectly fine with Team ECW being served up here, but this was a pretty clunky garbage match with no real climax or hook to get me all that excited. It was fine, but more importantly met its goal of helping reestablish the Wyatts.

Intercontinental Title Match: Champion Kevin Owens vs. Dean Ambrose: With all of the weapons and gimmicks of this show, these guys just decided to go out there and try to work a good wrestling match. Now considering their abilities, I think they could have made a gimmick match work, but it is what it is. They did their usual trademark stuff, but worked in some nice counters and flow changes to allow it to come off differently than their regular TV style matches. Owens busted out the Finlay roll off of the second rope for a near fall; they traded finisher attempts, with Ambrose getting a good near fall off of dirty deeds. Ambrose then countered the pop up powerbomb into a slow motion roll through RANA to win the title. It was a pretty good match with an anticlimactic ending; they are capable of much more but I appreciate the clean finish.

WWE Divas Title Match: Champion Charlotte (w/Ric Flair) vs. Paige: the build to this has been a mess, but hopefully they can overcome here. So they had Charlotte working a lot like Ric here and doing even more of his stuff, which is why people aren’t really enjoying this. I think people liked her in NXT because she appeared to be doing everything to not be her father. Maybe that’s just me. Ric got involved early, causing the distraction, and allowing Charlotte to get the heat. Charlotte ended up getting posted as she looked for a figure four on the post, and then the ref busted Ric as he looked to take the padding off of a buckle. Paige got the figure four on Charlotte, Charlotte rolled and Paige had to break it. It thankfully picked up down the stretch, with a good near fall off of a fisherman’s suplex and Charlotte countering the running knee into a spike cradle DDT for another near fall. Paige also would counter the spear with a knee, and hit Ram-Paige, but Ric put Charlotte’s foot on the ropes to break up the pin. As Paige yelled at Ric, Charlotte took the padding off of the buckle that Ric had loosened earlier. She’d pull Paige into the unprotected buckle and scored the win. I am still having issues getting into the matches, because the storytelling has been so poor. Paige was the heel (turning on PCB), and said Charlotte was a bad person. They used Charlotte’s dead brother to I guess try and get sympathy, and then, Charlotte started to be a cheater and bad person, making the heel correct. And now Charlotte is either being influenced by her father or there is no story and they want her to be a tribute act. The match was technically fine; I just couldn’t get emotionally invested in any way.

TLC Match For WWE World Heavyweight Title: Champion Sheamus vs. Roman Reigns : So these guts went right at it with stiff strikes and good intensity. The crowd immediately shit on it by chanting, “Lets go Cena, Cena sucks”. I am not saying that these guys are fucked, but that’s not a good sign. They did a long brawl segment on the floor, using the weapons and not trying for the ladder early, which I liked. Sheamus would slam Reigns through several tables, throw ladders at him; Reigns would keep fighting back but then eat white noise off of the stairs and through a table. They were kicking the shit out of each other and getting little to no reaction. This is because the company hasn’t booked these guys in a way to make you really care about them. The crowd would chant for Cena, Rollins, NXT and Bryan. Also, Reigns needs to retire that deadlift single arm powerbomb spot, you sir are no Bob Backlund. They would fight to the apron, and Reigns would score with a Samoan Drop off of the apron and through a bridged ladder.

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They did the big double down spot, Reigns would make it into the ring and climb but Sheamus would recover and they would continue their fight. They both got close to the title, and when Sheamus almost had it, Reigns hit a Superman punch, sending Sheamus off of the ladder and through a table. Rusev and Del Rio would hit the ring to make the save. Rusev would take Reigns to the floor as Sheamus tried to climb. Reigns fought back and took out Rusev and Del Rio, pull Sheamus from the ladder but Sheamus hit the brogue kick and Reigns rolled to the floor. Sheamus climbed and secured the title for the victory. Where were Ambrose and the Usos? Did Barrett kidnap them? Reigns would takedown Rusev, Del Rio and Sheamus, and then got a chair to beat the hell out of them. This led to Triple H, Stephanie and referees coming out to try and stop him. Triple H tried to calm Reigns down and got into the ring to check on Sheamus, leading to Reigns Superman punching Triple H and then attacking him with the chair and then powerbombing him onto the Spanish announce table. It didn’t break, so the fans chanted for one more. Reigns then went to the other announce table and it an elbow drop to drive Triple H through the table.

On one hand this is something they needed to do with Reigns, make him a no nonsense ass kicker that fights for what he believes he deserves. On the other hand, Triple H was in there as an official and did nothing wrong, leading to Reigns destroying him in front of his wife. Reigns then returned as officials were helping Triple H up and he speared the hell out of him to a big response. They needed to do something, and the post match angle did feel hot, but they need to follow it up properly. My worry is if they plan on this for WM weekend is that the hardcore fans, that love Triple H because of NXT, will go back to shitting on Reigns and that this will continue to blow up in their face.

On Monday I said that I felt these guys could deliver a good match but feared that no one would care, and that is largely what happened here. They worked so hard, they did the right kind of match but they have been no reason to care going into this.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Despite several of the same issues being there, this was an overall good WWE PPV. They have the talent in the ring, they just need to make the crowds actually care, because when they care and go on that emotional ride and vocalize it, it adds so much to a match and a show as a whole.