WWE TLC Reaction

The Barclays Center is Sold Out for the final pay-per-view of 2012 and the last stop before The Road to WrestleMania begins. The card itself looked very impressive. Let's see how the show stacked up.

WWE TLC Preshow

Santa's Little Helper #1 Contender Divas Battle Royal:
Alicia Fox vs Rosa Mendes vs Layla vs Kaitlyn vs Tamina vs Aksana vs Natalya vs Cameron vs Naomi

Nothing much to say here. Just your standard Divas Battle Royal. Best looking goes to Layla, but the winner of the match was Naomi. Yes, one of Brodus Clay's dancers, Naomi. But don't get it twisted, Naomi can actually wrestle. She last eliminates Kaitlyn and has earned herself a shot at the Divas Championship later on in the show.

#1 Contenders Tables Match
Rey Mysterio & Sin Cara vs Damien Sandow & Cody Rhodes

These two teams facing off again, to determine the #1 contenders for the tag titles AGAIN. I'm pretty sure there are other teams that need some air time, but I digress.

This match was pretty solid. Lots of fast pace action, Rhodes & Sandow dominated for a good portion of the match, but at times all four of them looked lost like they were missing spots or something, and Sin Cara looked legitimately injured. But they made up for it with a great spot to finish the match. Sin Cara springs off the ropes and only to be pushed off by Cody Rhodes and go flying through the table on the outside. Great spot to make up for the sloppy match.

Nice way to set the tone for the night with this match.

WWE United States Championship Match
Antonio Cesaro (c) vs R-Truth

Another short match, and a little better than their match at Survivor Series. Cesaro wins the Neutralizer. They are finally looking to push Cesaro to the next level now and I say good. He gets better with every match and brought some much needed prestige to the US Title. Prestige that it hasn't had in a LONG time. This guy is the real deal. Looking forward to seeing how he gets handled heading into WrestleMania.



Miz TV:

Miz hosts Miz TV and his guests are 3MB. Good God...

They ramble on for a while until 3MB decide to make fun and bully the Spanish announce team. Then, out comes Ricardo Rodriguez to help them and from here I think people knew what was going to happen next...

Alberto Del Rio comes to the aid of Ricardo and attack the 3MB. Then, The Miz gets involved and helps Del Rio clear the ring of the 3MB. 3MB then makes the challenge to Miz, ADR, and a partner of their choosing.

For a minute there, I was worried that this segment was going to absolutely suck, but this was actually pretty good. Miz wasn't too over the top as a face here and ADR got a good reaction when he came out to help Ricardo. I didn't mind this segment and it sets up another match for tonight at TLC. I guess that explained the two short matches to start off the show. Still think this sort of thing should've been saved for an episode of RAW, but meh.

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
Kofi Kingston (c) vs Wade Barrett

The action continues with Kofi putting his IC Title on the line against Wade Barrett. Another great, solid match and surprisingly good. Not too many slow moments and was pretty fast paced for the most part. Kofi hits the Trouble in Paradise and retains the title.

I gotta tell you, there were moments in that match where I thought that Wade Barrett was gonna win the IC Title, but Kofi lives to defend his title another day.

On another note, the crowd was pretty hot for this match. This crowd is pretty damn good so far. There hasn't been a quiet moment for them. They aren't rowdy, but their making some noise.




CM Punk Segment:

CM Punk is up in his skybox sporting a shirt that says "Knees 2 Faces." Hmm.....sounds VERY familiar to The Rock's "Boots 2 Asses". Oh, the irony...

He talks trash about Ryback and says nobody can take the WWE Title from him. Usual stuff. He has a Bird's eye view of the next match: Ryback and Team Hell No vs The Shield.

6 Man Tag Team TLC Match
Ryback & Team Hell No vs The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, & Roman Reigns)

Already? Ok. Here we go!

The Shield entered the ring like Edge & Christian circa 99-00 and this match was just superb. It had the chaos and carnage and the TLC stipulation made it even better. I can't even begin to say how great The Shield looked in their debut. Reigns was dominating, Ambrose is so skilled in the ring and sells like a champ, and the same with Rollins. Best spot of the night is a tie between Rollins and Ambrose delivering a double superplex to Bryan or Ryback sending Rollins crashing through four tables! A spot you had to see!

All 6 of these guys put their all into this match and the crowd was loving every minute of it. Nonstop action and even some great wrestling in between. There were so many spots throughout this match that had the crowd on their feet. It was like we were re-living the glory days of the Attitude Era through this match. Ending of the match saw Reigns and Ambrose drive Bryan through the table to get the win.

I LOVED this match. This is what I missed about the WWE. Simply put, this was a WAR. Great action, great spots, and great wrestling and The Shield gets that much needed win! This could be a late Match of the Year candidate. That match was just way too good, and way too perfect. I can't find a bad thing to say about it. One of the best matches and brawls WWE has put on in a LOOONNGGG Time. It was anything and everything you could ever want in a match and more. Good luck following this act.

THIS is Match of the Night and it's not even close. Ziggler and Cena won't touch this.

Divas Championship Match
Eve (c) vs Naomi

What is there to say? Naomi started the match off strong, but once Eve took control, it was a done deal. I thought they were actually showcase what Naomi could do in the ring, but silly me, this is the Divas we're talking about. WWE gives Zero fucks about the Divas anymore.

For those who care, Eve won.

The Divas Division CAN be saved. It takes effort, the right storyline and the right Divas to make it work.

Chairs Match for the World Heavyweight Championship

Big Show (c) vs Sheamus

The Third Act of Big Show vs Sheamus and I can't say a lot about this match. For starters, the crowd is still out of breath after being so loud during the 6 Man Tag Team Match.

I loved the last two matches these two had, but this was easily the poorest of the their three matches. For starters, it was short, both men hardly displayed as much as they did and the ending was rather anticlimactic.

I guess I forgot that the first person to hit their opponent with a Chair wins. Show went under the ring and pulled out a HUGE chair. I mean a Chair that was almost the size of Big Show himself. He hits Sheamus with it and that's it. I think they need to change that little rule of theirs. I was disappointed and quite underwhelmed.

That's pretty much it. No drama and no Ziggler surprise cash-in. This should be the end of the Big Show/Sheamus feud......hopefully. Losing three times in a row usually means you're done getting title shots for a while.

6 Man Tag Team Match
The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, & The Brooklyn Brawler vs 3MB (Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, and Drew McIntyre)

The Miz and Del Rio's mystery partner is the Brooklyn Brawler. Yes, the Brooklyn Brawler. Yes, he is still alive. Yes, he's from Brooklyn and Yes he's even sporting a Brooklyn Nets Jersey.

You can already guess who won this match. Yup. And guess who got the pinfall? Yup.

3MB gets all that air time earlier and lose to the team of the newly face turned Alberto Del Rio, The Miz, and The Brooklyn Brawler. As far as the match goes, it wasn't anything technically sound. It was pretty made to be an entertaining little filler match. Not too horrible, but not that good either.

Ladder Match for Ziggler's Money in the Bank Briefcase
Dolph Ziggler vs John Cena

John Cena and Dolph Ziggler for the Money in the Bank Contract. Here we go!

Ziggler comes out and the crowd LOVES him. Same thing can't be said for Cena though. This is nowhere near as good as the 6 Man TLC Match, but still great. A lot of wrestling for a Ladder match and a couple of good spots, but I liked it. Throughout the whole match, the crowd loved Ziggler and he put on a show. He made Cena look better than he actually is with his great selling. One thing that I love about Ziggler besides the fact that he's a hell of a wrestler is that he can sell moves like nobody else and make people look like GOLD.

A lot of fast pace action and a few times with Ladder use, but here comes the ending. Ziggler is sent spilling to the outside and it looks like Cena is going to win. Vickie comes out with a chair to stop him, but AJ comes out and takes care of Vickie. Cena sets up the Ladder as AJ skips around and you can feel that it's coming. Once Cena is halfway up, AJ topples the Ladder and sends Cena down. Ziggler caps it off with a superkick knocking Cena out. AJ smiles at Ziggler and leaves the ring. Ziggler climbs, gets the briefcase and the crowd went absolutely CRAZY for it!


Although, if they really wanted AJ to turn heel, when she and Dolph had that staredown, they would've made out. That would've been the ICING ON THE CAKE. It would've been awesome if Dolph and AJ planned this from the beginning making both Cena and Vickie look like complete fools. Dolph and AJ have the potential to be the next Edge & Lita of the WWE and that's saying something. A heel turn of that magnitude would've been MASSIVE.

But I guess they're going to have AJ going back to being crazy like she was before.


But more importantly, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dolph Ziggler has officially arrived in the WWE. In the Main Event of a pay-per-view with the crowd behind him taking on the top face in the WWE with his Money in the Bank contract on the line and he not only puts on a great match, but he defeats John Cena. Tonight was perhaps the biggest win in Ziggler's WWE career. After tonight, this man DESERVES the World Heavyweight Championship. I will riot if he is not Champion by WrestleMania. This was Ziggler's night. Job well done Dolph.



All that being said, this pay-per-view was a BLAST. The crowd was amazing and HOT the whole night, great action and overall great show. I'm giving this show an 8/10. I WILL be re-watching that 6 Man TLC Match tomorrow.

I could've done without the 3MB vs Miz/Del Rio/Brawler match, the Divas match and the tables match was meh, and the World Heavyweight Championship Match disappointed me. Everything else was great.

Cesaro & Kofi retain, Miz TV wasn't too bad, The Shield stole the show, AJ's turn was well done and Dolph Ziggler has finally arrived in the WWE. Well done WWE. Well done.

But now, The Road to WrestleMania starts and things are going to get very serious, very fast.


Feel free to Comment.

By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete