wrestling / TV Reports
Csonka’s WWE TLC Review 12.14.14
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As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.
WWE TLC Review 12.14.14
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– IC Title Ladder Match: Dolph Ziggler defeated Luke Harper © @ 16:40 [****]
– Tag Team Title Match: The Usos defeated Miz and Sandow © @ 7:17 via DQ [**]
– Stairs Match: Big Show defeated Erick Rowan @ 11:10 via pin [DUD]
– Tables Match: John Cena defeated Seth Rollins @ 20-minutes too long via Roman Reigns [**]
– Divas Title Match: Nikki Bella © defeated AJ Lee @ 7:40 via [½*]
– Chairs Match: Ryback defeated Kane @ 9:50 via pin [DUD]
– US Title Match: Rusev © defeated Jack Swagger 4:55 via submission [*½]
– TLC Match: Bray Wyatt defeated Dean Ambrose @ 27:00 via [**½]
IC Title Ladder Match: Luke Harper © vs. Dolph Ziggler: I liked the idea of this match opening the show, because the WWE crowds love Ziggler and always react well to his matches. These boys beat the hell out of each other, with the bruises mounting during the match, especially on Ziggler. There was a scary spot when Harper did his suicide dive, and got his arm caught up in a ladder, which looked like he could have broken his arm; Ziggler also got busted open during the match. One small thing to note, does anyone else notice how Ziggler actually climbs the ladder with a sense of urgency and like, what’s at the top actually means something? Sure we need the super slow dramatic climb from time to time, but Ziggler makes it look good the way he does it. They did some great teases down the stretch, legit making me wonder who would win the match, which I greatly appreciate. Simply put this was a very good match with the right guy winning with a good finish. This was a great way to kick off the show; Ziggler’s win sets the stage for the night and Harper came off as a complete bad ass in loss. They tried to put over the IC Title and the history of it, which I appreciate, but the history is the one thing that is not damaged. We need to fix the current perception of the title, and with Lesnar gone they had the chance to do that and failed.
Tag Team Title Match: The Miz and Sandow © vs. The Uso Brothers: Overall they had a fine, passable match with a lame finish because this feud must continue. The match had three points going into it, the tag titles were on the line, the Miz messing with Naomi and Sandow’s wacky antics. The focus was mostly on Sandow being wacky, then Jimmy being pissed at Miz and then the tag titles felt like the absolute last thing anyone cared about here.
Stairs Match: Big Show vs. Erick Rowan: Going into this show I was not enthused about this match, and after all was sad and done, this was really bad. It was so slow, and just elicited no reaction from me. They did a spot where Show was on the steps and Rowan came off the ropes with another part of the stairs. Show moved, kind of, got hit with part of the steps and then Rowan took this ridiculous bump to the floor like the steps rebounded into his face. They then showed a replay, they didn’t rebound and hit him, it just looked like a stupid bump. This thing felt as if it lasted forever and a day, it just went on and on and on and then Big Show won, because why?
Well there you go. Apparently we’re getting Big Show mini-push 5000 because otherwise I cannot see putting him over so strongly here. The match sucked, which is a shame because these guys took a lot of punishment in a match no one gave a fuck about. The effort was there, but the stipulation was just bad.
Tables Match: John Cena vs. Seth Rollins: You have to love these matches with the stipulations that are so one sided, even though the authority is supposedly gone. If Cena loses, he loses his title shot. Rollins doesn’t get it though if he wins, and if Rollins loses, he still has his MITB contract; yeah. Anyway, Heyman was at ringside for the match and Rollins security goons would constantly get involved. WHERE IS THE VIGILANTE STING to save the day? This felt like the Lucha Underground ladder match from earlier this week, where there is constant interference to the point that it completely takes away from the match and also makes Rollins look weak as hell because he and two other dudes worked together the majority of the match and couldn’t beat Cena. The worst part was that it wasn’t like they were working some great match around these shenanigans. Cena and Rollins were “having a match” that happened to have a pile of garbage lying around. And then we got a ref bump, Rollins went through the table, the ref didn’t see it and the goons got involved again to cover things up and beat down Cena more. Cena then made the big comeback, again, and then Rollins and Cena flew off the apron at the same time through tables. We had some referees come out and bumble fuck around and each award Cena and Rollins the match, until the actual ref restarted the match. Oh fantastic, Big Show arrived and attacked Cena, to set up the big return of Roman Reigns. He took out Show and speared him through a table and punched Rollins, allowing Cena to get the win. So this whole 20–minutes of action was about keeping the status quo of Cena as #1 contender and the return of Reigns. Also, if Reigns is such a swell guy, he could have come out earlier. Granted, Cena is a dick and never really helps his friends, but it could have saved us a few minutes here. It felt the same, the same as they always do and nothing about this match and or angle was fresh. Cena overcomes the odds that are way too much for anyone else, the shit that they do so often. The worst part was that this was a match I was looking forward too. Add on the fact that there was just so much bullshit and there was no real reason to care about what happened in the ring, and now we look to get Reigns vs. Show…
Divas Title Match: Nikki Bella © vs. AJ Lee: While I was certainly glad to see the ladies not get the death spot, no one cared about this. They did moves, Brie yelled, “come on Nikki” about 20 times and it simply existed as a match. This just lacked energy on every level, but it felt so slow and even got sloppy at times (AJ’s wheel barrow bulldog down the stretch for example). Brie put Nikki’s foot on the ropes late, she got booted, Nikki sprayed some gimmick into AJ’s eyes and hit the rack attack for the win. That was something.
* Roman Reigns tried to cut a promo, bless his little heart.
Chairs Match: Ryback vs. Kane: Kane continues to ruin everything he’s involved with in the wrestling world in 2014. Not that I think Ryback’s the next big thing or anything like that, but this just felt as if it lasted forever. Knockdown, chair shot sprinkled in, random wrestling move, and then some “feed me more” or “boring” chants spattered in between. Both were half hearted, and I don’t blame these people because I know I didn’t care. Kane tossed in a bunch of chairs, Ryback made a comeback but had a chair tossed into his face and was chokeslammed for 2. The crowd actually woke up for that. Then, after what seemed like an hour, Ryback his shell shock and won. It’s 2014 and this is Kane, can Ryback just not come out here, beat the ever living shit out of him and call it a day at 3-minutes? Again, like the stairs match I felt bad for these guys, they beat the shit out of each other and no one cared. Once the opener ended, all of the emotion left this show and no on has been able to get it back.
US Title Match: Rusev © vs. Jack Swagger: The bad news is that Rusev was supposed to work Sheamus, but he got hurt. The good news, even though we’ve been here and done that, is that Rusev and Swagger work well together. Swagger ran wild early, but Rusev had enough of that shit and put him in the accolade, which ended up lasting forever. Swagger powered out and got the ankle lock, but Rusev would escape to the floor. Rusev hit the leaping superkick and accolade after that and secured the victory. They worked well together, the crowd was into it more than other matches, and it’s a positive to be sure but this as far from high quality. The best thing I can say was that I didn’t hate it.
TLC Match: Bray Wyatt vs. Dean Ambrose: I asked before, but isn’t it silly to have a TLC match with nothing for the men to fight for? I mean put a title shot up there, winner gets #30 in the Rumble, a Crackle Barrel gift card so Bray can buy a new chair; give me something here. Basically they are having a TLC match because they beat the shit out of each other with the weapons with those initials last PPV so they got the match. I guess I expected more of a reason to care. Nights like tonight proves that WWE commentary is at its dirt worst. People don’t care about stuff as is, and Michael Cole, your lead announcer, is busy making jokes about the weapons that the guys are using. Seriously, they would be better off without commentary. So we have the lack of story being told on commentary, but the story being told by the men was also flawed. This was a match where they did shit, they did some cool shit, but it lacked a structure, there were no peaks and valleys, no Roller Coaster ride to pull you into the match. Bray took a nap on the floor while Ambrose took about five minutes playing with a monitor he found under the ring and then and grabbed a giant ladder. He would eventually do the elbow drop off of the ladder and through the table, which may have actually meant more if he didn’t already do the spot twice in entranceway. They then did a wacky spot where Ambrose found that monitor and he tried to use it, but it had cords and shit attached. He tried to use it, it held him back (BECAUSE CORDS), did it again and it “short circuited” and BLEW UP IN HIS FACE, allowing Wyatt to hit Sister Abigail and score the win. Yes, that was the finish. Seriously, Ambrose comes off of a complete idiot with that finish. The guy was a rising babyface two months ago and everyone said he’d be fine after HIAC, JUST WAIT AND SEE is all I heard. He’s placeholder man, he has no value to the company right now, and they have no idea what to do with the guy, although I could say that for much of the roster these days. Shit, he faced Kane like 20 times and maybe got one clean win. Both guys tried, they worked hard and did some cool stuff but it felt like a match, just a match that was there and did nothing to get me emotionally invested in it. Add into the fact that I felt as if I saw all of the spots earlier in the night, and this felt like a greatest hits video.
* End scene.
* Thanks for reading.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
Many will blame the crowd for tonight’s show, but to be honest there wasn’t much of a reason to care about this PPV at all. You’re getting the 2014 version of WWE weapons matches, a lot of feuds no one really cares about and it’s difficult to act excited when the only big thing your getting is the weapons. Weapons don’t make the matches good, when used correctly they can be an enhancement tool in the storytelling. Tonight is certainly proof that just adding weapons doesn’t automatically make things cool or good.
Bottom line, the show went drastically downhill once the opener was done. This was a show filed with uneventful and at times bad in ring action and poor finishes, which did no one any favors.
Watch the opener and skip the rest. This is not only WWE’s worst PPV of the year, but one of the worst overall.
