WWE TLC Review
December 13, 2015
By: Adam Martin of Wrestleview.com
Last month at Survivor Series, WWE didn’t exactly thrill network subscribers or even you rare traditional Pay Per View buyers. Sheamus was the new champion and the direction of weekly television didn’t appear to have much of an upside.
The buzz for WWE’s final PPV offering of 2015 tonight was lackluster at best. With a resounding opinion that WWE’s product has grown stale, it appeared at first glance that TLC would be the last speed bump until the always fun Royal Rumble.
What transpired in Boston on Sunday night turned out to be one of the best PPV offerings from a company with obvious struggles keeping people’s attentions on TV. The television product might absolutely stink, but oh boy did WWE deliver with TLC.
SHEAMUS RETAINS, ROMAN REIGNS GET HIS “MOMENT”
Roman Reigns has been no stranger to criticism by WWE fans and members of the wrestling media the last year. Despite putting forth a solid in-ring performance with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, the storytelling behind his character has felt forced and Reigns’ poor promo delivery hasn’t helped matters.
Then it happened.
The moment this character needed so badly. He was screwed once again and this time Reigns fought back against not only Sheamus, not only Alberto Del Rio, not only Rusev…but against the COO, Triple H. From the spear on the League of Nations to Reigns coming back to finish off Triple H with a spear after a long beatdown sequence, it became abundantly clear that WWE finally figured it out. Reigns displayed the fire and charisma to get behind this character. WWE knocked it out of the park tonight with the presentation of Roman Reigns. I was ready to tap out on this guy. I’m glad I stuck around.
AMBROSE CONTINUES TO BE A CROWD FAVORITE
The Dean Ambrose character has been a hard sell for me this year in WWE. Although he always showed signs of potential as part of The Shield and in the early months of his singles run, it was a very stop and go presentation from WWE. The Boston crowd really took this presentation to a whole new level for Ambrose. Kudos to having a great dance partner in Kevin Owens who executed some great and powerful looking offense tonight. Ambrose and Owens have great chemistry together and I’d love to see an extended program between these two heading into the Royal Rumble in January.
THE DIVAS HAVE A GREAT NIGHT IN BOSTON
What a difference a few weeks make. The last time we were sold Charlotte vs. Paige at Survivor Series, my review after the match was: “Who thought it was a good idea to give Charlotte and Paige 14 minutes?” Fast forward to TLC and you have a complete transformation of the Charlotte character and Paige toning down her distracting yelling/tongue. These ladies had a great match and the added dimension of Ric Flair at ringside with Charlotte has really upped her presentation. I love the new direction of this Charlotte character and I’m intrigued to see how things develop.
QUICK THOUGHTS
* Team ECW vs. The Wyatt’s was a great brawl and I loved the fire tease by Bubba.
* Del Rio vs. Swagger was fast and physical. Great match between these two.
* The return of Lana has really upped the presentation of Rusev matches.
* Some absolutely insane bumps in that triple threat tag team opener match.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
79% of people polled on our Twitter gave WWE TLC a thumbs up.
Listen, I know WWE television stinks. I’m not here to try and convince you that RAW has been must-see television. Yet, this company finds a way to put things together with PPV events and specials on the network. You got your money’s worth tonight as a subscriber.
Roman Reigns had a special night. I think we’ll be looking back at TLC as a real positive turning point for the presentation of this character. Kudos to WWE.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you thought of TLC in the comments below.