Holy S***, Holy S*** – TLC Recap (12/4/16)

There was never any doubt in my mind that putting AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose together in a TLC match was going to result in something phenomenal, but it even exceeded my expectations….but let’s not jump the gun.

TLC, a Smackdown Live PPV event, is brought to you by Kay Jewelers.  Remember WWE Universe, generic gifts begin with Kay.  Welcome back to Dallas.

TLC Kickoff Show

American Alpha, The Hype Bros and Apollo Crews vs The Vaudevillains, The Ascension and The Curt Hawkins

Man, we came so close to predicting the preshow match.  I expected Crews-Hawkins, Jeremy picked the Hype Bros getting some sort of squash.  That’s not what this was for.  It was to remind you that Apollo Crews still exists, then to highlight the amazing American Alpha team.  American Alpha picks up the win for their team of five.

2016 Tables, Ladders and Chairs Main Card

The New Wyatt Family vs Rhyno and Slater (C) for the Smackdown Tag Team Championship

There’s not a lot to tell in this one, of course Rhyno and Slater got some offense in, they can’t lose the titles in a straight squash, but the big story was watching Orton and Wyatt function as a fully cohesive tag team as if they’ve been doing it for years.  Wyatt gets a slick tag to Orton without Rhyno noticing, setting up Orton for the RKO and the Pinfall.  New Tag Team Champions – Orton and Wyatt

Bella-Mella Volume 142 (But No DQ this time)

This was not a bad match.  These two work well together.  There is still no one who can explain to me the point of Nikki Bella’s tiny t-shirt that she rips off during her entrance, only to reveal a nearly identical tiny shirt underneath.

Anyway, this match goes about as expected, Carmella focuses the attack on the injured neck and the leg of Bella, even locking in the Cone of Silence at one point where I thought that she was going to get the win, but Bella fought back, hitting the Rack Attack 2.0 (AA Lite), and getting the pinfall.  The No DQ Stipulation barely played into it, as all they utilized was a Kendo Stick and didn’t necessarily even use the seemingly weakest of pro wrestling weaponry.

Following the decision, Carmella makes a point to tell Bella that Natalya was responsible for the attack at Survivor Series.  Did anyone not see that coming?  It was pretty damned obvious from the get go, but let’s just hope that they don’t let Carmella slip into an afterthought like an Apollo Crews.

Dolph Ziggler vs The Miz (C) for the Intercontinental Championship in a Ladder Match

Ziggler brought it with the ring tights tonight, as those American Flag pants were great.  Maryse had her lion tamer outfit bedazzled in red this evening.

I love the two of these guys in the ring together.  They do great work.  That said, something has to give all around on these 4 month stretches where two guys wrestle each other over and over again, because it gets bland.  These two guys in a ladder match, and I went in knowing they were going to put on a good match, but I couldn’t force myself to be into it.  It’s growing stale.  Otunga’s awful commentary certainly didn’t help get me involved as he went on a tirade about Miz having the athleticism of Justin Bieber.

It was a decent match, not the match of the night I thought it had the chance to be if they went for it.  Miz hitting a Figure Four with Ziggler’s legs wound through a ladder was pretty great, and the Skull Crushing Finale onto the side of the ladder was a cool move.  I wish they didn’t feel the need to point out that “he didn’t get all of it” as soon as the move hits, use that as an explanation for why Ziggler gets back up so quickly after it happens rather than telegraphing it.  Dolph Ziggler played the leg based assault well, as he hopped on one leg up the ladder, but no dice.  As the two battled at the top of dueling ladders, Miz was knocked off, but ran back up and hit two low blow kicks between the ladder to incapacitate Ziggler.  Miz retains the Intercontinental Title.  Miz would then get a microphone to dedicate his victory to Daniel Bryan.

Kalisto vs Baron Corbin in a Chairs Match

So, right from the get go, Kalisto swung a chair at Corbin and Corbin caught it in midair.  That would set the stage for the rest of this match.  Kalisto got a touch of momentum, hit a few of his flashy, high flying moves.  Baron Corbin used his shirt as a sort of lasso, which he then threw Kalisto back and forth between the apron and the barricade.  The audience was rather bored in this match.  Even the ones chanting things aren’t standing to do it.

Kalisto would get the Hurricanrana-DDT onto a chair, and later do some sort of weird Bronco Buster off the top rope and both men would slowly topple onto 6 chairs Corbin had set up in the ring.  As he went for one of those “Suicina” dives, Corbin catches him in midair and drops a Deep Six on him to the outside.  Kalisto would kick out of the pin attempt, irritating Corbin who chases him around the outside with a chair.

The chairs did help even the playing field for Kalisto, but as he went for a top rope move, Corbin lined his arm with a chair and hit a monstrous clothesline knocking Kalisto out of mid air, then did as I predicted, putting Kalisto right through a chair with a big End of Days.  Baron Corbin gets the win in a longer match than expected.

Becky Lynch (C) vs Alexa Bliss in a Tables Match for the Smackdown Women’s Championship

As we discussed in the prediction post, the build to this match has been great.  These two have played their roles perfectly.  They did feel the need to remind us that this was historic because it was the first Women’s Singles Table Match in WWE History, which is fine, it was a blip in a lengthy commentary segment.

Alexa Bliss was on offense for the vast majority of this match.  Even her in ring demeanor is perfect to character.  She certainly isn’t very experienced in table matches, as I’m pretty sure one of them would have been seriously injured going through the table she set up in the corner.  Becky would turn the tide periodically, at one point pinning Alexa’s arm through the table legs in a DisArmHer, but it wouldn’t be enough.  Alexa powerbombs Becky Lynch off the apron onto and through a table at ringside to claim the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship.

AJ Styles (C) vs Dean Ambrose in a TLC Match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

I won’t recap this match, because to do so might prevent you from watching it.  This is a definite match of the year contender, filled with big spots that neither of these guys had to go out there and do, especially AJ Styles, because AJ Styles doesn’t have anything left to prove in the world of pro wrestling and yet he continues to go above and beyond.  AJ Styles retains with some assistance, but that’s all I will tell you.  Great, great match.  Watch it.  If you don’t have the WWE Network, let me know and you can come watch it with me.  I’ll watch it several times over the next week or two.

No Undertaker, as a lot of people were expecting.  No John Cena either, which I’m probably the only one that was expecting that one.  I guess it wouldn’t make sense to bring him back since he’s in New York all week for SNL.  They’ll both be in the Rumble anyway, as will Finn Balor.

We’ll see you tomorrow night for Jeremy’s Raw Recap, and in two weeks for Raw’s Roadblock PPV event.