WWE TLC (and Stairs) 2014

[Jiji]

Hmm, I feel like there are a multitude of reasons to complain about this show but the point that Dean lost is not one of them. How he lost, the structure of the match, the structure of the show, every match other than that insanely dangerous opener, among others are valid criticisms in my books but I think they're moving towards Dean winning the blow off match at either the Rumble or Fast Lane (Gawd awlmaidy). If he loses the rubber match, sure, complain away. But then Wyatt loses and he looks like shit, so we get to the whole problem with the feud to begin with. Neither guy was in a spot where they can afford to lose. I think Bray is in a more precarious position and needs something big to happen, but I don't know how they book themselves out of this corner.

 

I hope both Harper and Ziggy get considerable bonuses for destroying each other and themselves in that match. Shit, it's just as likely they'll get fined for bleeding instead.

[NintendoLogic]

Suppose that before tonight, someone had told you that TNA booked a match where a guy jobbed to an exploding TV. You would've been pretty skeptical, right? I mean, not even TNA would do something that stupid.

[DreamBroken]

Enjoyed Cena/Rollins and Ziggler/Harper. Great pop for the surprise Reigns return. Thought it'd be Orton but Reigns was cool and came off excellent wiping out Big Show. Show/Rowan was solid I thought. Outside of being on the winning team last month technically, that was Show's first PPV win in 2 years. Loved Kane tossing the chair in to Ryback's face to block the Meat Hook, that was awesome.. great near fall as well. I had completely forgot Rusev/Swagger was on the show before it came up, had thought the main event was coming up. Too bad it was so short 'cause it did have a real solid build to it plus the past history. They still managed to have a quite good 5 minute match with nice drama. Enjoyed the Cena/Lesnar: Final Chapter buildup video, that should be real good.

 

Ending was terrible and so flat. Maybe worse than the HIAC finish. Not only continue to make Ambrose lose always but make him look stupid in the process. Ambrose remains the Shield member that hasn't won on PPV since the Shield split. Couldn't understand why they chose to headline with that over Cena/Rollins which was clearly the bigger match/feud, had something at stake, and also included Reigns return for the perfect feel good ending to the show. Instead Wyatt wins, no reaction, he leaves, that's that. Odd booking choice.

[Reed]

Hogan vs. Andre at WrestleMania could have been made a lot better with an exploding TV.

[The Nature Boy]

WWE once had the minitron explode when Triple H threw a hammer through it. WWE does not understand how electronics work. 

[Overly Critical Man]

I can already imagine that at the Rumble, they're going to have Roman no-sell an exploding Titan Tron just to show that he's better than Dean.

[MGFanJay]

Suppose that before tonight, someone had told you that TNA booked a match where a guy jobbed to an exploding TV. You would've been pretty skeptical, right? I mean, not even TNA would do something that stupid.

Well, TNA couldn't afford an exploding TV.

[BrianS81177]

WWE once had the minitron explode when Triple H threw a hammer through it. WWE does not understand how electronics work.

let's not forget Cena and the 5000 watt search light of doom.

[Brian Fowler]

Basic electronics in WWE are like cars in action movies, duh

[GodzillaPerez]

The exploding TV was clearly the work of Papa Shango.

[CastleVania Rey]

He is a terrible striker.

 

So this makes Ambrose SpongeBob... and you Squidward?

 

This revelation brings much new understanding to us all.

[Cristobal]

As Oyaji touched on, the problem with the finish was not that Dean lost. The problem was that Dean lost in a way that was utterly stupid. There's metal chairs and shit all around the ring and Dean decides he's gotta hit Wyatt with a TV monitor because "LUNATIC FRINGE!!!1!" And Bray didn't win because of HIS toughness or his craziness either, he won cuz a TV fuckin' exploded. Then, finally, it's just fuckin' stupid in general, so instead of talking about the match and what we liked, we're talking about how stupid the finish was. It's a finish that gets NO ONE over. I don't want to see this feud blown off in a cage or a cell or whatever. I saw them do a whole bunch of crazy spots, (fun part: Ten seconds after the commentators were talking about how Ambrose doesn't plan out his matches, he goes through that conveniently-placed table on the floor he set up like five minutes prior and then forgot about,) and I give less of a damn about both of them then I did before the match.

[Overly Critical Man]

If Dean was going to hit Wyatt with a rocking chair and then the rocking chair exploded, at least that would've been an item that had something to do with the feud. After putting Wyatt through three tables with ladder dives, I don't know why he was so hell bent on using a tv monitor as a sort of coup de grace/exclamation point on the beatdown.

[MORELOCK]

Just now watching the Wyatt-Ambrose match on a replay stream...and I have never wanted to reach through a screen and strangle someone as much as wanted to strangle that bitch doing nothing but screaming her f'n head off while the guys were fighting it out on the entrance ramp. Holy Jeebus...I kept wishing for someone to throat punch her.

 

I, for one, am glad nobody throat punched or strangled any women in the front row of a WWE show.

[GuerrillaMonsoon]

Just now watching the Wyatt-Ambrose match on a replay stream...and I have never wanted to reach through a screen and strangle someone as much as wanted to strangle that bitch doing nothing but screaming her f'n head off while the guys were fighting it out on the entrance ramp. Holy Jeebus...I kept wishing for someone to throat punch her.

 

Man, women with vaginas are the worst.

[Brysynner]

So if Vince said "most of the roster can't even take a shit as big as me" would you guys photoshop piles of shit onto everything?

Selective hearing bastards.

Why use photoshop when I can just use actual screen caps from TLCS

[Brisco]

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[Phantom Lord]

This show. Just wow. We read all the "reports" that the main roster is fired up because NXT lit a fire under their collective asses. Ziggler and Harper sure got the message because they tore the house down. Only problem was it was the first match and it was all downhill after that.

 

God Bless Damien Mizdow because he was on fire once again with the comedy. But man I can not stand The Uso's. Everything about them is so generic and cookie cutter. They are what the WWE wants in stars. But enough about them. Mizdow has a Stunt Slammy. The WWE's costume department should get a bonus for that.

 

Cena/Rollins was what it was. I guess they decided that "look, we got two bullshit finishes tonight so call it in the air on which one goes first". Either that or Cena really wanted to be like Hogan and he just wanted to leave an hour early to beat traffic. I was amused at Reigns coming in and cleaning house. I guess that hernia is all healed up. Big Show should really retire cause man has he got a case of the dontcareitis.

 

Later in the show they ran a commercial for the Rumble for Lesnar/Cena saying it would be THE FINAL BATTLE.

 

As this show dragged and dragged I completely forgot about Rusev's match which was one I wanted to see despite not care about Swagger one bit.Rusev doing the little things like selling the ankle when he was doing his pre-match pose was so awesome. When Rusev eventually turns face he's going to be so over. He's all ready one of the best babyfaces they have. People want to cheer for him and Lana. It's a shame though that Cesaro isn't in Swagger's spot. Cesaro in his role would be having amazing matches with Rusev. I did laugh at JBL saying "someone again letting down America". It made me realize that I wish Zeb/Dutch was 30 years younger because he would have an amazing America vs. Russia promo for a match between them.

 

I've come to the conclusion that Ambrose/Bray is going to be the WWE's version of Tommy Dreamer vs. Raven. Only instead of a feud lasting 3 years they will condense it into 2 months. It's too bad it takes so long for the WWE to acknowledge on screen relationships because Bray using Renee in a feud to really get into Dean's head would have been awesome. You know what wasn't awesome? An exploding flat screen. I liked how they had it hooked up to jumper cables because a regular plug just won't carry that kinda voltage for an explosion.

 

It's amazing how Triple H runs NXT like a tight ship with maybe two guys and Vince has maybe 30 and they can't put together a single match without bullshit. Of course it doesn't help if Vince being the Captain is asleep at the wheel.

[MonteCarl]

With all the talk all weekend about how the main roster were feeling the pressure to put on a great show due to the unanimous praise for NXT REvolution, you could tell the guys in the ring were trying their best to put on their best matches. However, what I'm not sure they realize is not that the main roster hasn't been putting on great matches or that the NXT guys just stepped it up for this one show, but that the overall presentation of NXT is way better than RAW or Smackdown. It's not just the in-ring stuff that makes NXT a better show, it's everything. It's the booking, the writing, the in-ring work, the individual personalities....it's an overall package. We've been saying for months/years that the in-ring product on RAW is the best it's been in such a long time if you just look at what happens in the ring in a vacuum. They have the talent to put on great matches. But it's what happens to build up those matches.

 

Zayn/Neville wasn't great just because those two guys are amazing wrestlers who can tell a great in-ring story. It was great because their storyline has been simple, easy to follow, but most importantly it was easy for us to invest our emotions in to. We have followed Zayn's struggle from beginning to end, finally getting to the NXT title. They allowed it time to breathe, didn't shove the plot points down our throat at all time, and gave it time to build organically. We CARED if Zayn won or lost. We didn't have the announcers telling us how much of a loser Zayn is. We had the announcers talking about how hard it's been for Zayn to overcome this without resorting to heel tactics. We watched as Itami debuted and stood up to The Ascension, and then was beat down week after week until he brought in a friend to even the odds and then finally got the odds evened up for him to get his victory.

 

Despite how great the in-ring action can be on the main shows, I just haven't been given reason enough to CARE about what's happening. Why do I care about Ziggler and Harper killing themselves over the IC title? What started them against each other other than they were on opposite teams at Survivor Series? Try as they might, I just can't care about anything Cena does because he's always going to win, so him up against the odds yet again means nothing. They have given no real motive behind the Ambrose/Wyatt stuff besides "they're both crazy". Wyatt has tried with a few of his promos, but it has just been ringing hollow.

 

Give us a reason to care about why guys are fighting. Give the stories time to breathe and don't have the announcers shove it down our throats and/or shit on everything. This is why NXT was given so much praise. It's not just a bell-to-bell issue where the guys in NXT are that much better in-ring than the main roster. Some of them aren't at all. But their character progression is so much more natural and easy to get invested in. THAT is where the real rivalry between the main roster and NXT should be, with the writing/booking teams. Not the guys in the ring.

[Pete]

This was the first PPV I've skipped since getting the network. Wasn't feeling well, and between NXT and the awesome Ludus Gym show (Joel Maximo's school) I went to in Brooklyn Friday night with a fantastic 4-way TLC tag, I figured my wrestling enjoyment had peaked for the weekend. Doesn't look like I missed too much last night.

[Valcourt]

How Harpers arm wasn't DESTROYED by that dive i'll never know.

I honestly thought when he lifted his arm it was going to be all broken and flopping all over the place.

 

Those dudes bumped their butts off... Surprised Dolph got the win in his home town. I love Harper, he's so pro wrestling it's awesome.

[Spritenaut 32]

I kinda figured the monitor exploded because Dean tried to send Dave Meltzer an email through his Juno account.  It's 2014.  If your choices are explode or email Juno, exploding is the saner option.

 

RIP WWE Monitor.  Your sacrifice will not be in vain.  The Juno monster will be stopped.  Viva la revolution.

[Ramsey]

So, I had let my subscription to the Network lapse at the beginning of November (yup, I let the "free month" along with Survivor Series kiss my ass) and as a result missed the entire build to the last NXT Takeover show. After the rave reviews of said show came in I thought, ok, what the hell ("IT'S ONLY 9.99 MAGGLE!!!") and signed up for a month to catch the NXT show. As a result, I also saw last nights TLC. Good jump-to-bald-headed-Jesus-Palomina (name the movie) how the fuck can these two shows come from the same company. Exploding monitors, Kane in business casual vs. a gassed up muppet, on one side and Sami finding his redemption and the rest of that amazing show on the other.

 

My fear is that Vince and his pack of writers will now try to get involved in NXT so they can better "prepare the future superstars" for the shit show they will be expected to be a part of. The main roster product is EMBARRASSINGLY bad and it's not the talent that's doing it. The 70 year old man and his pack of sitcom writers are killing prime-time wrestling and we're all bearing witness.

[Jenalysis]

At this point , it's going to be up to the fans to revolt- or some indy is going to have to do NXT-quality stuff.  ROH/PWG probably could with a bit of tightening, but would fans pay for it?

 

WWE kinda made the product too cheap- making it hard for the indy shows as well.

[supremebve]

Am I the only one who is tired of Dean Ambrose making stupid faces for 30 seconds before he does anything?  I think he is a good worker, but his matches are starting to suffer from him mugging to the camera between every fucking spot.  If it happened once it would mean so much more than it does when it's done over and over again.  When the Shield broke up, I thought that Rollins was going to be the odd man out, but I swear he is the only one I enjoy watching these days.  He is the only one who has improved character wise since the break up  and he is putting on better matches. 

 

Luke Harper and Dolph Ziggler worked their asses off in a really fun match, but by the end of the night I don't know if anyone remembered it.  I think my biggest problem with this show is that nothing at all made an impact because everything was so over the top. The NXT show was great, because everything was set up properly, and executed well, and ended logically.  This sucked because they didn't set up anything, it was executed sloppily, and ended with a TV that blows up when it is unplugged.