Despite not having watched WWE TV in months and hearing that the product is mostly crap, last week I took a look at the card for WWE’s TLC PPV (acronym city) and actually found a bunch of compelling stuff. I guess the whole conceit of the PPV also has something to do with it, considering Ladder and TLC matches are my jam. Thankfully most of it also kept what it promised, though I skipped through a bunch of matches I didn’t care for.
The tag team triple threat match was good, though little else should be expected considering those are some excellent wrestlers with great tag team fundamentals. Unfortunately the finish was a bit lackluster. Balor vs. McIntyre was also very entertaining for the same reasons and had at least some reason for the involvement of Dolph Ziggler with some actual plot development instead of plot hindrance, at least as far as I can tell.
Bryan vs. AJ Styles was great, but could have been batter. Again a bit of a lackluster finish, though you can see it escalating. They did give this match plenty of room to breathe. I just hope they don’t tank it like they did the Styles-Nakamura feud.
Rollins vs. Ambrose was also very good, though the crowd really didn’t seem to care for it. The match did drag a little and probably could have benefited from a stipulation. I am also kind of surprised by Ambrose’s new look. He reminds me a bit of a cross between Nico from GTA IV and Brad Pitt’s character from Snatch. His entire getup just screams “deadbeat asshole”, which isn’t a bad thing for a heel.
And finally the three-way TLC match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship between Asuka, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. I only peripherally observed the Lynch-Flair feud, but I found the Becky’s appropriate of the moniker “The Man” quite interesting, and her having unfinished business with Nia Jax is also interesting after Nia accidentally-on-purpose broke her nose in the run-up to Survivor Series.
In any case, it was a very good decision to put this match on last and it was quite excellent weapons-based match between three of the best women’s wrestlers in the world. There was a bit of underselling in my opinion with some of the high impact spots, but this also kept the match running quite a bit and actually sold the danger of a triple-threat a lot more. There was also a nasty semi-botch when Becky jumped off a ladder onto Charlotte who was laying on the announce table, ass first into Charlotte’s midsection. The table didn’t give and it seemed like Charlotte took the full impact :X
Unfortunately this match too suffered from a lackluster finish. My girl Asuka finally got herself a title on the main roster (which really should have happened at WrestleMania). Unfortunately her victory is overshadowed by the means it came about as Ronda Rousey stomped down the ramp at the end of the match and tipped a ladder with both Charlotte and Becky on it, wiping them both out leaving Asuka as the only one left standing and able to climb the ladder. Would have been far better for Asuka to overcome the odds on her own or at least by her own cleverness. At least it sets the table for future developments, and I foresee one if not both of the losers of this match going over to RAW in the near future.
Overall this was a pretty good PPV, but WWE seriously needs to work on its match finishes.
On a different note, if you have time, look up the main event from Saturdays Road to WrestleKingdom show that NJPW put on. It’s a tag match pitting the Golden Lovers against a team consisting of Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay, and I think those guys need to take a look at their calendars. WrestleKingdom is only in three weeks and they already burnt down the fireworks.