PWInsider - WWE News, Wrestling News, WWE

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN TONIGHT - THE WWE TLC TIP SHEET

WWE will present their final show of the year, TLC on Sunday evening.  Here is out take on what will happen.

Dave: Before I get into the matches I just want to say that I feel badly for all of the the talent involved.  A few days before Christmas they have to go out and take major abuse to their bodies for what is a throwaway show with limited interest.  Raw hit rock bottom on Monday and Smackdown was bumped to FS1.  This show has no buzz at all, and the talents will have to go out and plunder themselves before the holidays.  I hope no one gets hurt and can enjoy their time at home.  I hope the same for all of you, Happy Holidays!

Mike: Indeed. Let's hope Santa can bring WWE talents some new creative direction!

TLC Match: WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Kevin Owens.

Dave: This is the only thing on the show I am interested in, due to Roman being involved.  He is, by far, the best thing going in the company right now.  And because of that, there is no way that KO should get the win here.  This is a throwawy show and WWE doesn't heat up again (if Vince can get it heated up again) until next month and The Royal Rumble.  So, both guys can take a lot of abuse for basically nothing.

Mike: This will be damn entertaining and should close to show on merit, but should there be a title change?  I think Kevin Owens is great but I just don't think that anything should overcome Roman Reigns' momentum at this time.  So, Roman retains but there's going to be a lot of plunder and violence and craziness to close out the year.

Richard:  This is the best story in the WWE by a significant margin.   However, if you look at everything that has happened going into Sunday for this match, it should be a slaughter for Roman Reigns.  Kevin Owens was attacked more times than there were viewers of Raw this week, but he kept getting up like he was Robocop coming after Clarence Boddicker.  Owens deserves as much credit as Roman and his band of merry sycophants for keeping this angle compelling.  My only fear for this match is that is going to continue the trend of Roman Reigns wrestling a Brock Lesnar match but with Roman talking while standing around between moves.  Roman will retain.

TLC Match: WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. AJ Styles.

Dave: See above.  Taking the Title off of Drew here makes zero sense.  This who feud has been booked so badly Drew should just wipe out AJ, and also Miz, and be done with it.  With that said, I could see AJ winning, with help from Miz, Miz stealing the Title and then Drew goes on into the Rumble, win and fight Roman at Mania.  Well frankly, I would like to see that so it probably won't happen.

Mike: AJ Styles has come off like a complete goof in how he has been presented of late, but he's still one of the best pro wrestlers in the world.  Sometimes, WWE doesn't want or care to showcase that, but with this style of match, it's pretty damn necessary and I suspect we'll be seeing Styles taking some crazy bumps off ladders and through chairs.  I don't believe for a second that McIntyre should lose the bout.  After the way he was beaten down on Raw, he should wipe out everyone involved and look like a beast to redeem himself.

Richard: To go with how amazing Raw has been, this should be the way this match ends.  1) AJ and Drew are knocked off a ladder while both are going for the belt and they go through tables.  2) Miz, who has been at ringside watching the entire match, gets up from his chair and signals for the referee to add himself into the match.  3) Miz wins the title.  I have also been a contributor to the "Give Me Drew vs Roman at Wrestlemania" campaign since Hell in a Cell when Drew lost the title and what better thing to do than give Drew another Rumble victory and then have him symbolically drive his giant sword through a table to signify he is going to challenge Roman at the "Showcase of the Immortals (hopefully in front of some sort of crowd)".  This match should be good considering who is in the match, but if you have been watching Raw (and based on the numbers, you haven't), it is treated like the 24/7 Title.  Why not throw R Truth in there and let the Ninja ref be the one to make the three count for Miz.

WWE Smackdown Women's Champion Sasha Banks vs. Carmella.

Dave: Throwaway match three.  Taking the title off of Sasha right now makes zero sense at all and it shouldn't happen.

Mike: I could see them doing a switch to have Banks win it back at Rumble but given all the attention she has rightfully earned from her return appearance on The Mandalorian, having her drop the title would be insipidly stupid.

Richard:  Why did they do the match on the 11th if this was still going to happen?   Since this is TLC, but this isn't a match with a 'T', 'L', or 'C' in it, does that match a No DQ affair so we can't see Sasha take the same shortcuts to retain like she did in the match on Smackdown?  I really enjoyed 80% of Carmella's promo this week on Smackdown, but with Carmella being a champagne drinking version of Sasha, is there a reason to care about either person?  Will Sasha's ring gear be a reference to her role on the Mandalorian?   Sasha should retain because the sommelier is nowhere near as good as James Ellsworth in being a blind devotee to Carmella.

Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt - Firefly Inferno Match.

Dave: Randy was one of the hottest things going in WWE a month or so ago.  Now?  He is a cog in some serious stupidity with The Fiend.  Come to think of it, Fiend was also one of the hottest things going in WWE until they screwed him up too.  This has "cinematic crap" written all over it.  I have already sat though that with Braun Strowman and John Cena and hated them both.  I honestly don't care what happens here so I will just say Bray wins to stay undefeated in non wrestling Vince productions.

Mike: I feel like this is being done just to give WWE a new playset to sell for their Mattel toys.  Hey kids, here's the burning Randy Orton doll!  Seriously, this wil be some over-produced silliness.  I don't know that Orton will lose.  He was laid out on Raw and that's usually (and with WWE, anything can change) a sign that the heel is going to go over...but who the hell is the heel here anyway?  I've no idea and I don't know that WWE knows either.  My guess is Alexa returns and helps Bray win.

Richard:  Give me a match with Bray Wyatt on a Pay Per View.  Then give me an Firefly Inferno Match with Bray Wyatt on a Pay Per View.  You have my money.  Seriously, I pay for the network so you have my money for me to watch this match.  When you consider what Randy Orton was doing for the first 10 months of this year, he is ending the year in this match?  I hope instead of fire shooting out of the moat of fire like we had for MVP and Kane, we have fireflies around the ring and their butts light up when someone hits the relevant ropes.  I expect Ramblin Rabbit to be "Kenny McCormicked" during this match.  Speaking of Kane, I hope he makes a cameo, but instead of being dressed in his gear like he was for the Undertaker tribute stand in the ring deal, he is dressed like Mayor Jacobs because he won't be ribbed again.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka & mystery partner (replacing Lana).

Dave: Speaking of storylines that have been a waste of time, here we go again.  So Lana finally looks competent and gets a win, and they put her out of action.  Unless she is the mystery partner, well you know why so few people watched Raw this week. I will say that the champs retained but I have zero investment in this, which is really saying something since I am such a big fan of Baszler and Asuka.

Mike: This would be a great window to shock everyone with the return of Charlotte Flair.  If it wasn't for the pandemic, I'd even say the surprise return of Kairi Sane for one night would be cool too.  I don't see the point of a title change, but it's not like these belts have been treated with even the utmost importance sadly, so my gut is Asuka walks out as a new champ.

Richard:   I hope Nia isn't pissed that Roman has stolen the 'put your opponent through a table' gimmick and can focus on this match.  When Lana was involved, the logic was to make this a tables match and when Nia is ready to send Lana through the table with a Samoan drop off the turnbuckles, Lana escapes and pushes Nia through the table to win the match and become the unlikely tag team champion.  However, this is a Raw angle and Vince won't let us have our pretty Raw toys since Vince is a Scrooge.  I would love for them to get to the feud that we want to see in the women's division on Raw (Asuka vs Baszler) but we have to deal with this.  Let Nia and Shayna argue over everything and they lose the title to set up Nia versus Shayna to determine the number one contender (on second thought, just give us Shayna vs Asuka with no match to give Shayna the chance to face Asuka because Nia would win this match [see booking, WWE Raw, 2014-2020]).  Depending on her status, it would be nice to see Naomi be the mystery partner (of the people currently on the roster [and please don't suggest Becky because she has had the baby]).  However, since she lost on Wednesday night, why not have Rhea Ripley come out as the 'mystery partner' after the usual 'You don't have any friends . . . who would be your tag team partner" promo.

WWE Raw Tag Team Champion The New Day vs. Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin of the Hurt Business with MVP. 

Dave: The Hurt Business never win so they will this time!  Or not.  Seriously, they need the win and New Day doesn't.  

Mike: WHY IS THIS MATCH HAPPENING?  The Hurt Business has lost like 10,000 times.  The work of the talents isn't in question here, but the booking has been terrible.  That said, there should be a title change just based on the face Cedric and Benjamin deserve SOMETHING for their hard work.

Richard:  At least they appear to be using Cedric well since he is the one who manipulated an injured Kofi into wrestling twice after beating Shelton clean a few weeks ago to send this earworm of a storyline back into motion.  New Day should win, but what other tag teams are there on Raw?  Can we make this a Triple Dome of Failure match by putting Bayley versus Nikki Cross and Piper Niven versus Kay Lee Ray on at the same time?

If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!

• Tweet