No. 1 Contenders (Tag Team Championship) Tables match:
Team Rhodes Scholars vs Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara
A nice opener here with some good back and forth between these four. A simple finish, too, with Sin Cara springing to the top rope and Cody (and his 'tache) pushing him off, resulting in Sin Cara falling through the tables set up at ringside.
This was the right finish as Rhodes and Sandow deserved the win - seeing as they qualified for this match; whereas Rey/Sin Cara were just inserted into it without earning their spot. Hopefully now, with a fully fit Cody, we'll see new tag champs quite soon.
Other things of note here was JBL really promoting Rhodes and his previous accomplishments. Lawler tried to add to this by saying Cody's got the hardest job as he has to battle to get out of his father's shadow - I'd never really felt that Cody was overshadowed by his old man until Lawler brought it up. Fair play to JBL for trying to be positive about the one of the future stars/leaders of the WWE.
Winners (& No.1 contenders to the Tag Team Championship): Team Rhodes Scholars
United States Championship: Antonio Cesaro (c) vs R-Truth
JBL again gave credit to the up-and-comer Cesaro by reminding everyone that he won the title on the pre-show of Summerslam - I think that's over 100 days now that he's been the US Champion.
This match had some ok offence from Truth but there was only going to be one winner here. Cesaro hit an uppercut to the back of Truth's neck, followed it up with a Neutraliser for the easy finish. Truth was definitely not going to be the best American to defeat Cesaro - but who can? Swagger? Hmmm...
Winner: Antonio Cesaro (c)
Miz TV
Miz came out to present Miz TV. I noticed three mics in the ring. Out came his guests, 3MB to trash the set. After some awful banter, they decided to switch their attention to the Spanish Announce Team - what did they do wrong? This then brought out Ricardo Rodriguez to defend them and I think we know where this was going.
Out came Del Rio to the aid of Ricardo. This was strange as Del Rio is definitely a heel, no? After the odds were evened by Miz, 3MB retreated and suggested a 6-man tag later that night, pitting themselves against Miz, Del Rio and a partner of their choosing. Ok, so we're just meant to see Del Rio as a face now? I suppose he'd lost steam just lately and needs something new - wow, this is definitely new - a face Miz and a few weeks later a face Del Rio.
Intercontinental Championship: Kofi Kingston (c) vs Wade Barrett
Highlights from this match were JBL and Lawler's banter over Barrett's nose; this really showed the chemistry that these two have/could have on commentary. They also made reference to Kofi competing against Orton at the 2009 edition of TLC - this didn't seem to be relevant as back then Kofi had half a chance of rising to the main event. All it really showed is that Kofi is exactly in the same spot that he has been for over three years now. Good job.
Towards the end there was a nice variation of a Full Nelson Slam before Barrett attempted The Bullhammer, which Kofi cleverly turned into Trouble in Paradise. Nice. Was quite surprised as I was sure Barrett was going to go over here. I suppose they will take this feud further and that'll probably still happen anyway.
Winner: Kofi Kingston (c)
CM Punk
CM Punk and Paul Heyman were then shown in their private skybox. Punk went onto talk about why he's not competing and why that's a good and a bad thing for Ryback. Good to have him on the show in someway. Very good t-shirt too - 'Knees to Faces' - might have to look into that one...
6-Man Tag Team - TLC match - Pins/Submissions only:
Ryback/Kane/Daniel Bryan vs The Shield (Ambrose, Rollins & Reigns)
This was by far the match of the night (yes, even topping the Ziggler vs Cena match!). This also showed that it didn't actually get the main event spot. It didn't matter.
Lots of great spots throughout this match;
- Ryback double suplexed Rollins and Ambrose; which Ambrose really sold well - great reaction on his face to that. Then an attempt at Shellshocked before Reigns saved the day and destroyed Ryback.
- Ryback put through the Spanish Announce table.
- Rollins and Ambrose double superplexed Bryan.
- After attempting the same on Kane, he got the better of them and did his trademark jump from the corner and nearly took Ambrose's head off - wow, Ambrose can sell really well.
- Reigns speared Kane through the timekeeper's area - this was the last action that Kane saw as they then buried him with chairs.
- Ryback then got up after an age down. This comeback was short lived though; he Shellshocked Ambrose but Reigns and Rollins made the save.
- The sickest spot of the night belonged to Rollins though who was put through a bunch of tables from the top of a monster ladder. This was just before Bryan was put through a table by Reigns and Ambrose for the win.
Ryback looked quite weak in this match. Even though The Shield worked extremely well as a team throughout the match, he only had a couple of comeback spots in the match. In the end, he didn't really get the revenge that he was after - this won't quite be over yet then. Daniel Bryan took the fall as expected, but as I've said before, he and Kane will move straight on to other things now. No damage done to them.
I also think there's no damage done to Ryback. Although this is his third straight pay-per-view loss, he still hasn't lost decisively - he only missed out on making the save in this match due to putting Rollins through the table near the top of the entrance ramp. The Shield needed this more anyway.
Winners: The Shield
Diva's Championship: Eve (c) vs Naomi (one of Brodus' bitches)
Naomi won the Santa's Helpers Diva Battle Royal on the pre-show to earn her spot in this match. Unfortunately, there was only going to be one winner here though. I was half tempted to forward it at this match but Naomi did come up with some decent athletic stuff that caught my eye - possible potential? She messed up a little towards the end of the match but I suppose that's to be expected as she's new to matches? Prolonged the Eve vs Kaitlyn crap though...
Winner: Eve (c)
World Heavyweight Championship - Chairs match:
Big Show (c) vs Sheamus
I thought this match might have had half a chance of being the main event seeing as Punk is injured and there was no WWE Title match on the card. Clearly, the WHC still isn't worthy of that position.
These two gave another great showing - I'm always weary with Big Show matches as the guy is too big to have a 'great' match but by the sounds of the last two months, coupled with this one; these two have put on some really watchable bouts.
Really liked seeing White Noise through the chairs - love how Show joins hands round Sheamus' body so he doesn't go anywhere during this move! Looks very impressive every time though. Finish was decisive as Show got a Big Show-sized chair to put Sheamus down for the fall. Hopefully the end of this feud now as three months is more than you get for a feud these days.
Winner: Big Show (c)
All Champions have successfully defended their Championships at TLC this year. I think that's quite important that this happens more often than not, as hopefully somewhere in the future, these Championships will be as important as they deserve to be. Hopefully people will start to say how much they want to be champion in future - that would be better than just wanting to fight the champion just for the sake of fighting! Wade Barrett's the only one I can think of that wants the belt that he's challenging for - all the others just want to beat up the guy that they're chasing.
3MB vs The Miz, Alberto Del Rio & The Brooklyn Brawler
Winners: Miz, ADR & Brawler after Brawler with the Walls of Jericho (Brooklyn Crab)
Ladder match for World Heavyweight Championship MITB:
Dolph Ziggler (holder) vs John Cena
A well deserved main event spot if they were going to do the right thing in this match. Luckily, they did do the right thing in letting Ziggler go over Cena. It wasn't clean, but that doesn't matter - Dolph was atop of the ladder as the pay-per-view ended.
And as predicted, AJ turned on Cena. Good. This will be explored further tomorrow on Raw, but hopefully it won't overshadow Dolph's win - he deserves and needs the spotlight after this win - it will add to his momentum.
A sour note for me was that at the end, Cena was almost smiling?! I really wish he would be pissed about losing a match for once - this is possibly why there is so much anger towards him. He just shrugs off losses like they don't mean anything. Even though he gets opportunity after opportunity, he should be pissed with the last loss as if it was his last chance - not like he knows he'll get another shot a week later.
Some really encouraging positives to this event;
- JBL really impressed me on commentary in this event - he really promoted guys that needed it - Cesaro, Rhodes, Sandow, The Shield - Michael Cole said that The Shield had the numbers advantage to which JBL corrected him and said that the numbers were even; it was that The Shield worked better as a unit - that was the difference. Excellent points made throughout by the wrestling god.
- All 'future' WWE stars got the attention and promo time needed to get their points/voices across: Rhodes and Sandow started this trend at the start of the night, Cesaro had an after match interview and Barrett and Ziggler (in particular) got interviewed backstage to complete this deserved spotlight on the guys that will carry the company in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment