 TLC came and went with a whimper this past sunday night, with only a few real high points on an otherwise unimportant ppv. However, that does not mean the night wasn’t entertaining. Although some of the gimmick matches were a little hokey (looking at you, chairs and stairs), the added violence always increases interest. Lets get down to who came out of this show looking good, and who came out looking weak.
WINNERS
Luke Harper
In his first singles ppv match of his career, Luke Harper absolutely killed it, despite losing the IC title in his first major defence. Harper took some pretty impressive bumps and was cut open, showing WWE fans why he was so popular on the indie circuits.
Dolph Ziggler
Dolph got a loud pop from the hometown cloud here in Cleveland, even wearing some custom trunks with the OG Cleveland Browns mascot doing the Johnny Manziel “Money” sign. The way he bumped around the ring with the ladder was very similar to Shawn Michaels. Besides going over and taking the IC title back, he effectively made Luke Harper look like the bad guy in a horror movie. Like he seems to do every time we see him, Ziggler stole the show.
Damien Mizdow
This guy doesn’t stop being funny to me. When he did the handstand in the corner while the Uso’s had The Miz in a vertical suplex, I laughed out loud. He is so good at this gimmick that it makes you very hopeful that it will have a good payoff when him and The Miz finally split up. That being said, the WWE doesn’t have a good track record for this stuff, so don’t be surprised if he’s dressed like a bunny or something next month.
Dean Ambrose
Not only did the dude have a TV magically blow up in his face, he put his body through hell in his second ppv main event match in three months. He came out as the loser, as he seems to usually do in big matches, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to matter with this guy.
LOSERS
Erick Rowan
I know wins and losses don’t matter too much, but I just think having your newest babyface lose in his first big singles match is a poor decision, especially in such clean fashion. We’ll see how they book him over the next few weeks, but this was not a good night for the former Wyatt family member.
Seth Rollins
It remains to be seen whether or not the demise of The Authority is gonna help or hinder Seth Rollins, but right now he is looking pretty directionless. A match with John Cena on a pay per view is normally a big deal, but this match felt very secondary despite Cena’s number one contendership being kind of on the line. Plus, Cena got past Rollins despite numerous interferences from J & J Security, making Rollins look a tad weak in the process. I still have high hopes for Rollins come Mania season, but right now is a bit of a lull in his breakout year.
Ryback
I’m not quite sure what could help Ryback here in his second babyface run, but a chairs match with Corporate Kane is definitely not the answer. Chairs matches are pretty much the DMV of gimmick matches, as in nobody likes them.
Roman Reigns
When Reigns got hurt in September, there had become a growing consensus amongst a certain sect of the WWE Universe that he was lacking a few things, most notably wrestling and mic skills. I figured the time off would be a great time for them to tweak his character, but so far it seems like they never even thought of that.
