Tag: TLC

Well, we made it, another year of WWE programming. We may have all become slightly more sarcastic and jaded, but we’re all still here. This means it’s time to sit back, relax and enjoy a weapons based show (ugh), with *checks notes* TWELVE Matches?!

Survivor Series last month only had 8 matches (including pre-show), and that show got an extra hour than this one. This will probably mean a lot of matches won’t get even nearly the time that they need, or this will be the most packed pre-show in history (they haven’t announced which ones are on the pre-show at time of writing).

So settle it, as I break down all twelve (sigh) matches on the TLC 2018 card.

Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton
(Chairs Match)

I remember when Randy Orton would fight people from the current generation.

I know Orton’s whole thing was “The Legend Killer” but that really only worked back in ’02-’05 when he was a young upstart in the WWE, not so much when he is a legend himself. I get that he’s trying to tear down all the people the fans love, but I think it would be a much more interesting story if his goal was to prove he was the greatest legend from his generation by beating them all up.

While chairs matches don’t have a history of being the greatest, *cough*Kane vs Ryback*cough*, I think it’s certainly the least limiting of the gimmicks, chair spots tend to be very quick to set up, and can usually be implemented in a match without breaking the flow too much. Although generally the “flow” in a Randy Orton match is pretty darn slow.

I’m finding it a little difficult to pick a winner, since Randy’s been on a bit of a roll recently, even if I don’t really see much reason for him to win. Given that Rey did get a win over Orton at Crown Jewel, I’m going to say Randy Orton manages to walk away with this one.

R-Truth & Carmella vs Jinder Mahal vs Alicia Fox
(Mixed Match Challenge Finals)

Ok, I haven’t been watching the Mixed Match Challenge this year, what the hell happened?

What happened to AJ Styles, Charlotte, Braun Strowman, Ember Moon, Finn Balor, or any of the other awesome performers in it this year? They all got replaced due to injury/sickness? Oh…well ok then.

That said, I can’t rag on this too much, the MMC may have been an even bigger afterthought than 205 Live this year, but from the small amount of stuff I’ve seen it’s looked alright. R-Truth and Carmella seemed to have formed a pretty entertaining rapport with each other and while the “Dance Break” thing is unbelievably stupid and I hate it, I think it’s more down to me being grumpy than anything else.

I also like that they’ve actually put something tangible on the line this year, getting a guaranteed, number 30 spot in the Royal Rumble is something that really should be on the line every year, since it’s technically the best position to be in, even if it is going to go to someone who has an absolute zero chance of winning the thing.

I’m pretty confident in picking R-Truth & Carmella to win here, since they’ve actually built up pretty fun characters and seem to work really well together, as opposed to Jinder & Alicia, who can be pretty accurately described as “two people”.

Buddy Murphy(c) vs Cedric Alexander
(Cruiserweight Championship)

I’m starting to think that there may only be three people on 205 Live.

It’s really hard to tell where the Cruiserweight title goes once all this is over, because it really doesn’t feel like there’s anyone up to it on 205 Live. I imagine they’ll probably just have a 4-Way Number 1 Contender’s match, like they seem to do pretty much every month, but I’m not entirely sure it’ll work this time.

Regardless, that’s something we don’t have to worry about until Wednesday in the mean time, let’s take a look at this match. Well, it’s pretty much the same match we’ve been seeing for a good few months now with the Cruiserweight Championship. Not that the match will be mad, both of these men are very talented, but seeing a match too many times really does take the shine off of it. For example, all I do is mention the possibility of another Rollins vs Ziggler match and everyone groans collectively, despite all their matches being good-to-great.

It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if they stuck the belt back on Cedric, but I think I’m going to go with Buddy Murphy this time, since I’d like to see his run continue, just so he can fight some new people for once.

Elias vs Bobby Lashley
(Ladder Match)

Really? This one got the ladder match stipulation? Alright.

While I love Elias, I don’t really get what this face turn has done for him. Before his heel turn, he just lost to Bobby Lashley a lot, and since he’s turned face he’s….lost to Bobby Lashley a lot. It’s really hard to tell what management think of Elias, they treat him like a star all the time, but I can’t even remember the last time he actually won a match.

I don’t really know what this match is going be like, ladder spots tend to be pretty contrived and slow, and I also don’t know what either of these guys are like in weapons matches. I’m going to hold out some hope for a fun match, but I won’t be surprised if I end up crapping all over it in my review.

As for a winner, I don’t really think it matters, and while my head says to pick Lashley, I’m gonna pray to the Nine Divines that Elias actually picks up a win for once.

Finn Balor vs Drew Mcintyre

Ireland vs Scotland, as an Englishman I’m looking forward to watching them implode.

I’m quietly optimistic for this one, I love both these guys and they’ve  put on a whole host of brilliant matches in their time in WWE/NXT, I really think they’ll have the chemistry they need to put on something great…if they get more than 5 minutes that is.

I don’t really have a whole lot else to say here, and it’s pretty obvious to me that Drew Mcintyre is going to win here, since they’re really trying to build him up as a big monster to take out Strowman (and maybe even Lesnar).

Natalya vs Ruby Riott
(Tables Match)

Hm, not really sure what to think of this one.

On the one hand, it’s never a good thing when WWE uses real life tragedy in order to further a storyline, especially something as contrived as this one seems to have been. While, on the other hand, WWE haven’t actually handled this one that badly, and it’s nice to see a story in the women’s division that isn’t about the title get some pretty high-profile PPV time.

Out of the three weapons on this show, tables matches tend to be the worst when it comes to breaking the flow of a match and contrived set ups. Also they normally quite suddenly and unsatisfying.

Given the subject matter it’d look a bit dodgy for the heel to go over here, so I’m going to pick Natalya to win the day in honour of her father.

The Bar(c) vs The New Day vs The Usos
(Smackdown Tag Team Championships)

I’d complain about there not being a Raw Tag Title match on this show, but this match is pretty much all the explanation you need.

I generally don’t get aboard the bandwagon of saying which show was better all the time, because I can’t be bothered with it all really, but there’s just no case to be made for the Raw Tag division when you look at this match. All of these teams are great performers and have so much chemistry together that this match is pretty much a sure-fire win for this show.

While it could quite easily become a victim of the lack of time on this show, even a cut down version on this should still be one of the better matches on the card and it’s also quite hard to pick a winner.

As I keep saying, New Day seem to be the default setting for the Smackdown Tag Titles, and could realistically win them at any time. The Bar have had a pretty decent title run so far, and it certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing to see them keep going a little longer. However The Usos seem to me like they’re where the titles are headed eventually, and that might just happen on Sunday.

The logical part of me says to pick The Bar to retain, but I’m going to go with my gut here and say The Usos are picking up the titles.

Becky Lynch(c) vs Charlotte Flair vs Asuka
(Smackdown Women’s Championship)
(TLC Match)

Decisions, decisions, all of them interesting.

First of all, this match is going to be absolutely incredible. I know I normally dunk on weapons stipulations, but in a Triple Threat match, the pace can keep going how it should while the big spots get set up, they tend to feel less contrived and these are arguably the three most talented women in all of WWE right now.

More importantly, I really don’t mind who wins. If Becky wins, then she continues her fantastic run as champion; if Charlotte wins, then Becky’s free to win the Rumble and Charlotte can rematch Asuka; and if Asuka wins, then it means she finally gets her time in the sun and the title she should’ve won at Wrestlemania this year.

However because of this, it makes it quite hard to actually make a prediction. I know Becky vs Ronda is the current rumour, but those can change very easily, especially before the Royal Rumble. Charlotte is one of those wrestlers that could quite easily win the title at any point and it’d make sense, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she won.

I’m not very confident in saying this, but I think Asuka is going to be the one to pull the title down from atop the ladder, and finally claim her prize.

Ronda Rousey(c) vs Nia Jax
(Raw Women’s Championship)

Another one I’m pretty in the middle on.

I feel pretty confident in saying that when Nia won this opportunity at Evoltuion, no-one thought it was going to be quite the saga that it has been so far. Firstly, Nia turned heel again, which I guess was to be expected but she’s turned so many times this year it doesn’t really feel like it matters. Then, with one swift punch she broke Becky’s face and robbed us of the Ronda vs Becky match we were all so desperate to see and became the single most hated wrestler on the face of the Earth.

So naturally, WWE did what WWE did best and fanned the flames, and made her the sole survivor of Team Raw, just to make sure that everyone hated her. I’d love to say that this was classic WWE, misreading their audience, but it really wasn’t. Genuinely hated heels are a rarity in the modern wrestling landscape, so I can’t really blame them for jumping on this chance when it presented itself.

Hopefully this match will be a fun one to watch, their encounter at Money in the Bank was really good so let’s hope that chemistry has stuck around all these months. Regardless of the story, this is Ronda Rousey, and she’s not losing that title until at least Wrestlemania, and probably will still hold onto it past then.

Braun Strowman vs Baron Corbin
(TLC Match)

There’s always one…

On pretty much every WWE PPV, there’s one match, where fans go crazy with speculation about all the twists and turns that could happen, and that’s no different on this show. People have been going crazy coming up with theories as to how this match might resolve itself.

No matter what happens, this match is going to be a short one; like, under a minute kind of short. People have been suggesting run-ins like Kurt Angle, Bray Wyatt, or Heath Slater, and while those would all be fun, I don’t think any of them are going to happen.

Corbin has already stated he’s going to win the match via forfeit and become permanent GM of Raw, so that is at least going to be teased, whether Strowman shows or not. Corbin will come out and tell the referee to start counting to ten to win the match, then one of two things will happen.

Either: at the very last second, just as the referee is about to count the ten, Strowman’s music hits, he hit Corbin with a single powerslam and that’s the end of that; OR, the referee counts to ten, Strowman doesn’t show up, Corbin becomes permanent Raw GM, and we’re all sad forever, take your pick.

As of writing this, I have no idea whether Strowman is cleared or not, so I’m going to lean-to the boring end of the spectrum and say Baron Corbin takes the boring win here, since, even if Strowman does show, there’s a chance Corbin could use heel bullshit to get his win.

Seth Rollins(c) vs Dean Ambrose
(Intercontiental Championship)

Oh please God, just let this be good.

While this hasn’t quite been the epic storyline that we’d all envisioned, it’s certainly been simmering quite nicely. They spun their wheels for a few weeks while we got Survivor Series out-of-the-way (and a little bit after that) then we were given a vague explaination about Seth Rollins’ ego being the reason Dean hates him.

It just seems like such a basic reason, there was so much more you could’ve done with it, you could’ve weaved a careful story about Dean having to emotionally deal with Roman’s illness. Or maybe suggest the idea that Dean only tolerated Seth because Roman liked him, so now with Roman gone, he can’t hold himself back. Even if you wanted to run with the whole “ego” thing, at least give some link back to when Seth originally betrayed The Shield so that this feels justified, and not like the writers didn’t know what to do with Roman gone. Despite all of that, there is a kernel of a good story in here, and if given a bit more time to grow, this could be something really good.

As long as this match is given enough time then I’m hopeful it’ll be one of the better matches of the night, these two have wrestled each other so many times over the past 4 years that we’re pretty much guaranteed a good match at the bare minimum.

When a story is just starting like this one, it can be hard to predict who gets the first victory, but given where this story feel it’s going, and the rumours of Seth vs Brock being the planned Wrestlemania match this year, I’m going to pick Dean Ambrose to capitalize on his new-found momentum and pick up the Intercontinetal Title.

Daniel Bryan(c) vs AJ Styles
(WWE Championship)

Just typing that feels good.

It’s weird how, even though we’ve already seen this match twice in the past two months, I’m still very excited to finally see it on a PPV. This whole “new Daniel Bryan” thing they’ve been running with is one of those things that would fall flat on its face with anyone else, but Daniel Bryan’s performance just makes it so entertaining to see.

If you’d ask me two months ago if a Daniel Bryan heel turn was a good idea, I never would’ve agreed with you in a million years, but goddamned if the Smackdown writing team haven’t proved me wrong. It goes without saying that this should be one of the best matches of the night (again, provided it’s given the time it needs), but I’m pretty doubtful we’ll see a clean finish.

One of the key points of Daniel Bryan’s heel turn has been the fans not deserving to see great matches, so it’s entirely possible that he’ll be deliberately trying to crap all over the match just to piss the fans off which, while effective, would be a shame.

Irrespective of any of that, Daniel Bryan is definitely going to walk out of this one with the win, no matter what he has to do. I’m not entirely sure what the endgame of this whole thing is, but my hope (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) is Bryan vs Cena at Wrestlemania, and a crooked win for Bryan would be a great way to build towards it.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for reading, if you want more opinions about wrestling and other nonsense, make sure to folow me on Twitter @10ryawoo; and make sure to come back next week for my review of the show!