TLC – What was hot and what was not

Craig Wilson

So the dust has settled on the WWE’s final pay per view of 2012 – TLC. And what an impressive card it was. Despite the WWE Champion CM Punk being on the sidelines following knee surgery, they coped well in his absence building on the very solid Survivor Series from last month with last night’s offering.

Let’s look at what was hot and what was not from TLC 2012.

HOT

Great opening bout, fast paced and with a sick bump from Sin Cara. Really big fan of Team Rhodes Scholars too so it is good to see them involved in the tag team title scene.

CM Punks ‘knees to faces’ Rock inspired t-shirt was very funny and a good cameo from the WWE Champion in general with a heel promo attacking the crowd and area.

Kofi v Wade: I said in the preview piece that I like both guys here so this was a match I was looking forward to. This was a pretty hard hitting as you would expect and a big win for Kofi. Barrett will go on to bigger and better things in 2013 but this win made Kofi look like a strong champion and did no damage whatsoever to Barrett.

Team Hell No & Ryback v The Shield was a classic battle. The way they all paired off was very pleasing – Ambrose v Ryback, Reigns v Kane and most welcome Rollins v Bryan. The Shield triple powerbomb really is a great spot. The crowd was so so hot for this one too.

Dolph Ziggler retaining the ‘money in the bank’ briefcase was vitally important for him and although it wasn’t a clean win – it took AJ turning on Cena – it would have been gutting had Cena triumphed in this one. Interesting to see how over Ziggler was – many of his t-shirts in the crowd whilst the win was greeted with many cheers.

In addition, another night where Ziggler fails to cash in the briefcase and I look forward to 2013 to see when he does take his title shot.

NOT

Antonio Cesaro v R-Truth: I’m sure some of the old guard in the back enjoy Cesaro’s rest holds but the crowd sure as hell didn’t. I don’t doubt his talent but the crowd have so little interest in him and that does not bode well at all for his long term future. His whole shtick just seems like something from a bygone era. Short term I don’t think a feud with R-Truth will really help his cause.

Albert Del Rio’s face turn: Not the turn itself but more the way it was executed. I found it strange to waste such a turn in order to set up a 6-man tag match featuring The Miz, ADR and, in the cool bit, The Brooklyn Brawler v 3MB. I hope that damp squib of a start doesn’t hamper his chances as a face.

While the commentary has, without question, picked up since JBL joined the team, they tended to focus on pointless stuff such as the Slammy’s rather than in-ring action, particularly during Kofi v Barrett.

Big Show v Sheamus: The chair match was the weakest of the 3 consecutive PPV matches between The Big Show and Sheamus. Also, a supersized steel chair. Really? “The Big Show chair”.