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Next up is Rusev vs. Jack Swagger. They've had good matches in the past, so this should pick the show up a bit. I liked that Swagger cut off Lana and didn't allow her to talk. He's pissed about what happened to Zeb Colter, so he shouldn't be politely waiting. Some good stuff from Swagger early. He had a real spring in his step. Rusev shocking him with the Allocade and beating him down to try and stun him was good stuff. Swagger actually fighting his way out of the move was a nice surprise. Rusev forcing him to black out in the Accolade is something we've seen before, so I hope they actually use this to further develop Swagger's character. A solid match but nothing we haven't seen before. Just a mid-card bout.
The fact they had a Brock-Cena video package ready to go is pretty silly when you think about the idea that "they didn't know" who was going to win tonight.
So, TLC headlines TLC. As it should be. Dean Ambrose vs. Bryan Wyatt should deliver a great brawl. As long as WWE doesn't try to get cute with the finish, this should rock.
The early portion of the PPV was a lot of fun as they brawled around the aisle and into the audience. I've been waiting for someone to actually brawl over to the Kickoff Panel area for months. Dean Ambrose gets to be the trivia answer to the question, "Who was the first person to use it?" Some good stiff chair shots on Wyatt. There was an entertaining sequence where Ambrose caned Wyatt. If you were looking for a crazy brawl to close out the festivities tonight, it looks like we are going to get it. Ambrose took a hell of a bump off the top through the table on the outside. Ambrose's facial expressions as he was trying to recover and make a comeback were excellent. Wyatt setting up the cane in the buckle and running Ambrose into it was a cool, unique and depraved spot. Wyatt smashing Ambrose into the ladder with a back senton splash was nasty. It was obvious these guys were risking life and limb to try and bring the crowd back to life. That lariat that Wyatt drilled Ambrose with was freaking awesome. Ambrose hitting the flying elbows off the ladder was cool as well. These guys were really giving of their bodies for the audience. I liked that the moves actually hurt Ambrose as well, taking from the old Cactus Jack promo, "If it hurts me, I know it hurt the other guy." Wyatt shocking him with Sister Abigail was a cool surprise as well. There were a lot of little things I really enjoyed about this, like Ambrose having to work to even turn Wyatt over to pin him. Little things like that are so often lost and forgotten today that when they are done, it actually really adds to the bouts. Ambrose being out of his mind while looking for his neck weapon of torture was entertaining. Let's see where this TV monitor tease goes. One thing I didn't like was the camera angle changing to show the ladder on the OTHER side of the Arena to show up what Dean was spying. That just took me right out of the moment. Dean getting Bray back for trying to crush his throat on Smackdown made a lot of sense. The Ambrose elbow off that massive ladder looked nuts and WWE shot it to look even more incredible by filming it from underneath. I'd hate to be Ambrose's hips tomorrow after those ladder elbows. That crazy spot really woke the crowd up. Unfortunately, the end took everyone right out of it again as Ambrose caused the TV to spark by trying to run it into Bray, since it was still "wired into electricity." The idea was it blinded Dean, allowing him to be hit with Sister Abigail. It came off really hokey and took me right out of the bout. I actually would have preferred they sparked the thing and then had everyone hit the ring to rush Dean out, as if it was a legitimate accident to leave people guessing. Instead, it felt like a more "real" version of the night a photographer used "Flash paper" while shooting a picture of Hulk Hogan and blinded him to set up Yokozuna getting a win. The match was really good and deserved something more than a finish that overbooked. NXT this past week showed that as long as the finishes and the wrestling are good, it doesn't matter who wins. Wyatt needed the win to make him more credible. Getting it this way didn't help accomplish that and in fact, only served to waste all the hard work these guys put into the match. Like the Seth Rollins ending, I don't have an issue with who won and who lost, but I think WWE made the wrong call here in how they got to that finish.
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