WWE TLC

 

St. Petersburg, Florida

BIG E, DANIEL BRYAN, CHAD GABLE & OTIS vs. KING CORBIN, SAMI ZAYN, CESARO & SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (8:35): This was the pre-show match. It was basically just a random, Smackdown main event type of a match. If this had went 20 minutes or so it might have been great, actually. I haven't watched a lot of RAW or Smackdown lately, so I don't know too much about feuds and things going on. I did notice that Chad Gable isn't being called Shorty G anymore. Thank God. I'm really surprised Nakamura is still around, as I never predicted a long run for him in the WWE. He's stuck in a tag team with Cesaro, though, which is kind of how things work in the WWE. Take two great singles wrestlers and never figure out they should be champions in main events and so they're stuck in a random tag team doing nothing of value. I haven't seen Daniel Bryan wrestle lately so it was cool to see him back in the ring. I guess they've been pushing Big E as a singles wrestler, although we all know how that Kofi push turned out, so don't expect big things for Big E. This was the first ppv at Tropicana Field, the indoor baseball stadium that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays play in. You would never know that they moved the Thunderdome from Orlando to St. Petersburg, though, because the set up is the same. This was a good show, though, and will always be famous for being the show where someone was murdered in the main event. **1/2

DREW McINTYRE vs. AJ STYLES vs. THE MIZ "TLC MATCH" (27:05): Good match. Towards the end, The Miz ran out and cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to turn the match into a 3-way dance. The Miz thought he'd just waltz in and climb up the ladder and grab the belt but AJ's security guard, this 7 foot tall black dude, grabbed The Miz off the ladder and threw him over the top rope and through a table at ringside. McIntyre also threw AJ over the top rope and through a table at ringside, which was apparently the only spot they could think of in this match. AJ is great in ladder matches, though, so this was exciting. McIntyre retained his title. ***

SASHA BANKS vs. CARMELLA (12:10): Did Carmella get bigger implants? I haven't seen her in awhile. She was dating Corey Graves, who was announcing this match. Hot goss! I guess they're still together. Sasha of course is a phenomenal wrestler, so that helped. Carmella either has no idea what she's doing or just likes to work dangerous, because there were three spots where she planted Banks hard on her skull. This was fast paced at least. Banks retained the women's title. I honestly don't even know if it's the RAW or Smackdown title and don't really care. **

CEDRIC ALEXANDER & SHELTON BENJAMIN vs. THE NEW DAY (10:00): The Hurt Business won the tag titles here. The Hurt Business is all black guys for whatever reason. I mused earlier in the year that the group probably came to fruition because of the Black Lives Matter protests. This was entertaining but nothing spectacular. Benjamin must be in his 40's by now, right? **1/2

ASUKA & CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. NIA JAX & SHAYNA BAZSLER (10:05): This wasn't very good. Asuka's surprise partner turned out to be Charlotte, who's been gone for 6 months for whatever reason. Ric Flair was backstage watching the match for some reason. Charlotte did a top rope moonsault. Nia Jax looked fatter than usual, perhaps her outfit was too tight or something. Shayna is very boring. This was the worst match on the show. *1/2

ROMAN REIGNS vs. KEVIN OWENS "TLC MATCH" (24:45): Good match. Jey Uso was basically in this match, attacking Owens constantly. The story was that Reigns destroyed Owens throughout but Owens wouldn't quit. Reigns put Owens through like five tables or something ridiculous, even slamming him through two chairs set up together and onto the top of a sideways, sitting ladder. They made this out like Owens was this huge, babyface underdog but hasn't he always been a heel? This was brutal and pretty crazy. I'm still wondering how live crowds will react to a heel Reigns. It does work a lot better than a good guy Reigns. Will fans cheer him now? Reigns retained the title. ***

RANDY ORTON vs. THE FIEND "FIREFLY INFERNO MATCH" (12:00): They've actually done two Inferno matches before with Kane. I remember in the one match, Kane's boot caught fire. The rules are you have to set your opponent on fire. Usually the opponent isn't engulfed in flames, but they can do that kind of stuff now since these matches are taped and edited beforehand. And because of that, this match will go down in history as the match where someone was murdered. Yep. And this isn't the first WWE match where someone was murdered. It isn't even the first WWE match where someone was murdered this year. At the Money in the Bank show, two wrestlers were tossed off the roof of the Stamford WWE building. Sami Zayn was thrown in a trash truck and crushed to death at the hands of Braun Strowman recently as well. In this match, after The Fiend's jacket caught fire and Orton RKO'd him, The Fiend was out cold. Orton then doused him with gasoline and set him ablaze and his corpse burned while the show ended. Yes, you heard that right. This show ended with Randy Orton killing Bray Wyatt. Don't kids watch this show? And lately, 3,000 people have been dying in the U.S. every day from Covid. Maybe killing someone on TV isn't exactly the best thing to do at this juncture. Or...ever, considering The Fiend is obviously going to be back in a ring wrestling soon like nothing happened. While this wasn't a great match or anything, it was certainly interesting. Visually it was cool. They had rows of flames around the ring and poles on fire. After big moves the flames all grew bigger at once. The WWE always has been better at production values than, say, stories or character development. The one pop culture website had a headline tonight that read: "WWE TLC Results: Randy Orton Murders Bray Wyatt Live on PPV." Should I also mention that The Fiend lit a strap on fire and tried to whip Orton with it? He put Orton in a rocking chair then lit a trail of gasoline on fire that led to the chair but Orton jumped up before he was burned? That The Fiend had a pickaxe and tried to kill Orton with it? This was pretty bonkers, even for the WWE. I guess they thought this would get people talking. Though the WWE has so much stupid shit happen on their shows all the time then probably no one will really care about this. R.I.P. Bray Wyatt. They should do a funeral on RAW and Wyatt pops out of the casket. **1/2

NXT TAKEOVER: WAR GAMES

Orlando

TEAM CANDICE (CANDICE LeRAE, DAKOTA KAI, RAQUEL GONZALEZ & TONI STORM) vs. TEAM SHOTZI (SHOTZI BLACKHEART, EMBER MOON, RHEA RIPLEY & IO SHIRAI) "WAR GAMES MATCH" (35:22): I thought this show was fantastic. But, then again, NXT Takeover shows usually are really good. It seems like every time I watch a Takeover show I think to myself: this is the same fucking company...so why isn't the main roster even half as good? I guess blame Vince McMahon...or just give HHH credit. Either way, this was a very entertaining show. This match was kind of a sloppy mess, but with the double cage and the hardcore action and the wrestlers entering one at a time in intervals...everything made this fun to watch. I don't even watch NXT on Wednesdays that often besides the main event every once in awhile if it's a title match or something...so I don't even know who half of these people are. I do know that Io Shirai is New Japan's Evil's girlfriend in real life...which baffles me because she's in Florida and he's in Japan which means during this Covid-19 year they haven't seen each other since maybe January. How does that work? And Evil is a total bore while Io is the opposite; she put a trashcan over her body and jumped off the top of the cage in this match. Maybe she should, like, give Evil some tips on how to be more entertaining. Io Shirai also got power bombed from the top rope through a ladder by Raquel Gonzalez. Candice and Dakota also beat each other with a Singapore Cane. The heels won. **1/2

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER (16:46): This was the weakest match on the show and it was still halfway decent. Ciampa gave Thatcher a running knee to the side of the head and it busted open Thatcher's ear and he was bleeding everywhere. Ciampa then started punching the wound to make it bleed more. I wonder if he'll get reprimanded for that...because wasn't WWE supposed to be PG and all of that crap? It is kind of funny that Ciampa is still in NXT. I suppose he'll never go to the main roster. Which, these days, is actually a good thing. **

DEXTER LUMIS vs. CAMERON GRIMES "STRAP MATCH" (12:52): This show already had two War Games matches...but they still wanted more stipulations for some reason. The storyline here was that Dexter Lumis (which, let's face it, is the world's worst name...it sounds like the definition of a fake name...like if you were giving a fake name to the police and the name you said was obviously fake) is a tough, muscle, evil, serial killer looking dude and he wants to get his hands on Grimes, the jokester, but Grimes keeps running away. So now they're strapped together and there's no escaping! I've never even seen Lumis before, nor knew he existed. Where's Kushida, anyway? Random thought...but he's amazing and wasn't on this show. This match did turn out to be pretty entertaining. Grimes is kind of a comedy dude...but the kind of comedy dude not destroyed by Vince McMahon...at least not yet. Which means he's still pretty amusing and not cringe worthy. They kind of just did all the lame strap stuff but it worked. The funniest part was when Grimes put a bag over Lumis' head for some reason and the announcer shouted, "This isn't a blindfold match!" Um...don't give them any ideas. **1/2

JOHNNY GARGANO vs. DAMIAN PRIEST vs. LEON RUFF (17:28): This was the only title match on the show. The champ, Finn Balor, has a broken jaw, anyway. This match was for the coveted North American title. Okay. Is there a South American title? No? So why do they have a North American title then? Ruff was the champ but Gargano won here. This match was great. Triple threat matches are always great because there's usually no slow, boring parts. Plus...Gargano is one of the world's best wrestlers. He's also a great heel...even though he really shouldn't be. When Damian Priest slammed Ruff into one of those plexi-glass barriers at ringside and they had to take Ruff to the back...Gargano told no one in particular, "See? He can't hang with us." The story being that Ruff, the champ, isn't really worthy of being at the top. Ruff came back of course. He does a lot of high flying. Gargano also has an army of goons that wear Scream masks...so they came out and Priest had to do a bunch of over-the-top-rope dives on them. This was fast paced, action packed, and a hell of a lot of fun. ***

THE UNDISPUTED ERA (ADAM COLE, KYLE O'REILLY, RODERICK STRONG & BOBBY FISH) vs. TEAM McAFEE (PAT McAFEE, PETE DUNNE, DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN) "WAR GAMES MATCH" (45:01): I still don't know who Pat McAfee is. An announcer? A former NFL player? Either way, he did a bunch of big moves in this match, like a Swanton Dive off of the top of the cage and a moonsault off the top rope through a table. They used chairs, wooden bats, and broke multiple tables. It was very entertaining, albeit probably a little too long. Whenever I see The Undisputed Era I always think...they should just call them The Ring of Honor Gang or something...seeing that they all came from there. I actually saw a great New Japan/ROH show where all of those guys wrestled. And the matches they were in were legendary. Kyle O'Reilly wrestled Naito. Hiroshi Tanahashi wrestled Roderick Strong. Bobby Fish wrestled Jay Briscoe for the title. And Adam Cole, Matt Taven, and Michael Bennett wrestled AJ Styles and The Young Bucks. Jesus Christ...that's like a who's who of popular wrestlers today...and that all happened at a fucking bingo hall on a Wednesday night in South Philly in 2015. Anyway, this match wasn't as legendary as that show...but it was brutal and a lot of fun. O'Reilly got the pin after doing a top rope knee on a chair on Burch's head. ***