WWE TLC PPV Review
December 14, 2014
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
For the first time all year, I’m not really sure the best way to describe the WWE’s final Pay Per View offering of 2014. A show happened. People wrestled. It happened?
WWE television has been awful. Brutal. Really bad. Coming away from the television product, getting excited for an event – even with weapon heavy offense – is a stretch.
Tonight felt like a giant speed bump in the road until we get the Royal Rumble, a show six weeks away with a confirmed main event featuring the PPV return of Brock Lesnar defending the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena. That’s at least on the horizon and shows some promise. Outside of that and the always fun Royal Rumble match, the next six weeks of looming WWE programming doesn’t look thrilling.
Dean Ambrose main events another PPV in 2014
The intensity between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt in recent weeks has been good. They clearly have been trying to make this work, both verbally and physically. The execution tonight worked including a mix of creative weapon uses (the kendo stick to the eye of Ambrsoe looked brutal). Yet, I didn’t sense this was over and I’m not really sure why I should continue to care as we head into the Royal Rumble.
Roman Reigns returns and literally freezes on live PPV
Okay – before we discuss the obvious, the initial return of Roman Reigns went VERY well. Great crowd reaction. Fun interference against Big Show and Seth Rollins. Then they gave him a live mic. Reigns literally FROZE. I can’t even describe how uncomfortable that was to watch on the WWE Network. Can you imagine the backstage atmosphere when that camera went off? Reigns continues to struggle verbally and needs to clean that up, fast.
Rusev remains one of the hottest acts in WWE today
Have we seen this story before with Jack Swagger? Yes. Was it still fun? Yes. Rusev and Lana remain one of the most interesting characters on WWE programming and continue a fun path heading towards the Royal Rumble. It’s scary to think how much progression he has made as part of the main roster after being a relative unknown in the Rumble last year.
Ryback picks up a needed win
It might have been a little slow. Who cares. You expect that with big man matches and both Ryback and Kane did fine. Ryback has a potential character rebirth headed his way in 2015 if things continue to progress the way they have in recent weeks.
What’s next for AJ Lee?
I’m in the minority when I make this statement: The Bella Twins are good. They no doubt struggled when they were given a big storyline spotlight earlier this year. Since then, it has improved. I’m curious where AJ’s character goes after tonight.
Cena picks up more steam heading towards the Royal Rumble
The internet faithful probably groaned. Yet, it worked tonight with the return of Roman Reigns. Rollins is still a pretty fun bump machine and looked great with Cena tonight. Cena picks up steam in a rematch with Lesnar and Rollins still has his briefcase.
Big Show and Erick Rowan have a match
This was a rough one folks. I get what they are doing with Erick Rowan right now and it shows promise. You also can’t just have him steamroll Big Show either. It just felt slow and all over the place at times. I did like the creative finish utilizing the stairs.
Damien Mizdow continues to be a fan favorite
It was fun to see The Miz continue to tease the crowd with the obvious overwhelming popularity of Damien Mizdow. The distraction aspect of Mizdow in the tag team sceneario is fun and something we haven’t seen out of WWE tag team matches in a while.
Dolph Ziggler continues to impress
If you’ve heard me say this before it’s because it continues to be true: no one opens a PPV like Dolph Ziggler and Sunday night was another glaring example. Props to Luke Harper who pulled out some fun offense spots and took some brutal ladder bumps.
Overall impression
With an obvious lack of direction in previous weeks on WWE programming, tonight at least gave you something on the horizon. Wasn’t a good show. Wasn’t a bad show. It happened. Here’s to hoping programming picks up heading towards the Royal Rumble.
Agree? Disagree? You’re in luck. We now have a new comments area down below where you can share your thoughts about TLC.
Follow me on Twitter: @adamwrestleview