Dolph Ziggler defeats Luke Harper in a ladder match to win the Intercontinental Championship!
^That was amazing. I'm going to have to watch it again to decide on a score, but wow it was great after a first watch. Ziggler is the man, and the announcers played it up right. Awesome!
The Usos defeat Miz and Mizdow by DQ when Miz hits one of the Usos with a trophy and the ref sees it. Miz and Mizdow retain.
^It was a comedy segment mixed with a match. Sandow was the star here(on the sidelines mostly). Typical Uso format for all the spots. Overall good match following the crazy ass ladder match.
Seth Rollins is interviewed by Byron Saxton. I like his mic work. Some people don't.
Big Show is taking on Erick Rowan in a stairs match. Michael Cole botched the new PPV title at the start of the Ziggler/Harper match. Go back and check. This match doesn't excite me in case you can't tell. Rowan's entrance music might just be the best part. Big Show pins Rowan with a set of stairs after a 15 minute match.
^That was better than I expected. Show was innovative and led the entire match. He definitely established dominance here and worked the crowd like a true heel. Sometimes I wonder if we give Big Show enough credit for his experience and what he brings to a wrestling ring. I mean we all doubted this thing would be worth watching, but it was actually a pretty decent brawl. I liked it.
It's time for our tables match with Seth Rollins and John Cena. Rollins and Cena fall through two tables together near the 18 minute mark and the ref calls for the bell.
^They worked really hard. I suppose it's a draw. J and J security being involved actually helped the story. I liked the match. I wouldn't rank it high in terms of professional wrestling, but a really well scripted story was displayed here for us. Cena is definitely Mr. Clutch when it comes to these big match settings and Mr. Rollins proved that he can hang with the top dog in this one. Nicely done by everyone involved.
It's not a draw. The match is restarted because they can't determine who went through the tables first. Cena hits an AA on Rollins on the announce table and it DOES NOT break. Michael Cole goes down when Rollins crashes into his chair. Big Show comes down and attacks John Cena. Roman Reigns' music hits and he comes down for the save. Reigns hits the superman punch and spears Big Show through a table. Cena hits an AA on Rollins for the win.
^Even better finish. Loved the work these guys did. The total match time was about 23 minutes, and none of it was boring. Really good story here and nice to see Roman Reigns healthy. Perhaps we could see a Roman Reigns/Big Show rivalry for a few weeks? Show could definitely help Reigns with the simple veteran ring awareness stuff by working with him.
Nikki Bella retains the Divas Title after she sprays AJ in the face with something while Brie distracts the ref as he sends her to the back. Nikki pins AJ aft nailing her finisher.
^That was slow. They tried, but it just didn't connect. Nikki is not a wrestler.
Roman Reigns declares himself as the first entrant in the Royal Rumble. He fumbled his words badly and had to do some improvisation. Poor Roman. So much pressure just because he's pretty.
Time for Kane and Ryback in the chairs match. I might struggle to stay awake. I'm not kidding. Rusev and Swagger might get cut on time as we only have one hour for the final three matches. I hope this one is short. Ryback wins a short one.
^That wasn't terrible, and Ryback worked the crowd really well. He's lucky they like him. Short matches are going to have to be the way to go for the "big guy" if he's going to work his way to the top. He's just too one-dimensional to be anything else and that's why this one dragged as it went almost ten minutes.
Rusev defeats Jack Swagger to retain the US Title.
^This was nothing new. Between this and the chairs match, we had a slow build to the main event of the night after starting the show with four decent matches. Time for Rusev to move on after this time-crunched match(less than five minutes - probably to make time for the main event).
Bray Wyatt defeats Dean Ambrose in a twenty three minute main event TLC Match. Bray hits the sister abigail finisher AGAIN after Dean has a tv monitor explode in his face and picks up the three count.
^That was a really good main event. The ending wasn't the greatest, but that's what WWE does. The match told a good story and these guys destroyed one another in true hardcore form! I liked this match.
I give TLC a 7 out of 10. I want to give it an 8, but the Divas, Kane/Ryback and Rusev/Swagger really knocked the score down for me. The opening match(Ladder), the closing match, the stairs match, the tag match and the Cena/Rollins match were all enjoyable with the open and close being the standout. Really good show!
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