As the dust settles on the final WWE pay per view of the year, we can now take the time to reflect on what has been and what is to come. With Christmas fast approaching and the anxiety running rife with what we’ll find under the tree this year, we can finally take stock on what presents Vince McMahon and company have given us and what we’d have preferred instead.
So my loyal minions, for the last time in 2012, from the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn New York, this was WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2012.
Six Man Tag Team Match
TLC Match
The Shield defeated Ryback and Team Hell No
To coin a phrase from Daniel Bryan, ‘yes, yes, yes!’ Out of all the possible outcomes to this match, WWE couldn’t have booked a better finish. The fact that the Shield walked out of Brooklyn with their hands raised high means that Vince and the WWE bigwigs are finally getting behind three new talents and pushing them to max instead of burying them to allow wrestlers like Ryback to take their place. For such a sensible booking decision, WWE deserves a giant pat on the back.
That’s not to say that the good work can be attributed all to WWE and their bookers, far from it. Because all six men deserve the plaudits just as much. Yes, that even goes for Ryback. Even though the loses of the encounter can walk away proud its really the three new upstarts that deserve the spotlight for this match. It would have been so easy for the three to walk into TLC with a nonchalant attitude and put in an average performance. Luckily though that didn’t happen. Reigns, Rollins and Ambrose went out with a purpose and showed WWE why they should be backing them over Ryback. Based on this performance from the Shield, WWE can have every faith that if they book the trio right and provide them with the correct feuds at the correct time, then all three men will flourish. You never know, the Shield could be the beginning of a turnaround in WWE’s development and stat making system.
So where to go from here? Next stop is the WWE Tag Team Championships. It’s the next sensible move for WWE to make with the trio and even though only two men can hold the gold, WWE could either repeat the storyline they heaped upon the three man trio of Demolition in the early 90’s and have them share the gold or go with Reigns and Ambrose for Tag Team Champions and have Seth Rollins defeat Kofi Kingston for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Either way, the plan cannot fail and with the heat and interest surrounding the Shield at the moment it can’t fail to do the WWE Tag Team Championships and the WWE Intercontinental Championship good as well.
The Championship victories will have to wait though. Because the next stop on WWE’s calendar is of course the first step on the Road to Wrestlemania. The Royal Rumble. An event which could do the Shield a lot of good as long as WWE aren’t planning to use the event as Ryback’s revenge in a singles match or three on one. I imagine that the Shield will be involved somehow in the WWE Championship Match between the Rock and C.M Punk, but should WWE get the booking absolutely right then the Royal Rumble match could be the foundations of something truly special. Hopefully by now the Shield have surpassed WWE’s normal Royal Rumble booking for undercard wrestlers in which minutes after they enter they are then again ejected by someone higher up the food chain. Sending the trio out within the first ten participants, eliminating some bug names along the way and having them last until the end where they’re finally ejected by Ryback after a historic beat down would look great for Rollins, Ambrose and Reigns and would also be sufficient revenge for Ryback.
After the Royal Rumble, WWE need to begin instigating feuds for the trio with other stars. As stated before Ambrose and Reigns would profit greatly from a feud with Team Hell No and Seth Rollins already has the star qualities to string a feud together with Kofi Kingston. Ideally all three men would capture their respective Championships at Wrestlemania 29, adding weight to the fact that C.M Punk’s new stable are a force to be reckoned with.
Team Hell No impressed me greatly at TLC and even Kane played his part to perfection. Although Daniel Bryan looks like he desperately needs a shave. For those that missed the pay per view, then you could have been forgiven for thinking Bryan had just come in from the streets to compete.
Of course Daniel Bryan was the stand out star on the losing team and sold like a trooper for the Shield whilst making the trio look good when they were trapped in his submission manoeuvres. The TLC match was a breath of fresh air for the duo who have been bogged down with defences of their WWE Tag Team Championships on recent pay per views and used as cannon fodder at Survivor Series. Many didn’t expect them to take their game up a level so close to the end of the year, but credit where credit is due, the tag team who were beginning to run dry have spun a new angle on their imploding tag team.
Kane and Bryan are of course headed for a split. If that isn’t obvious then you need to go back and watch the last four months of WWE programming again. However with such possibilities still to e tired and tested with Team Hell No it would be a shame to split them so soon. I know the tag team has been in existence for three months now but should WWE keep the gold around their waist until Wrestlemania 29 then the possibilities are endless. Even though the duo will have to defend the WWE Tag Team Championships again Team Rhodes Scholars again, most likely at the Royal Rumble, if the duo can get through that feud then the inauguration of a feud with two members of the Shield could shed new light on the WWE Tag Team Championships.
At the moment it’s hard to see where WWE will take the pair after the impending split. A singles feud for Kane and Bryan doesn’t sound too appealing especially after their so-so match at SummerSlam this year. Daniel Bryan should by right take his place back at the top of the card and maybe when WWE realise that he’s the man they need to inject life into the main event scene they’ll actually do something productive with him. Kane though is going to be in big trouble when doesn’t have Daniel Bryan to rely on. Because in the ring, Kane has been the weak link of Team Hell No and when forced back into singles competition the opportunities will be severely limited.
Ryback is a man of two sides. When he’s put into high profile main event singles matches and expected to perform, he fails miserably. Yet when put into a match of this calibre with five other men who can hide his flaws with perfection, the artist formerly known as Skip Sheffield actually looks rather good. All that time and money invested into the wrecking machine had gone to waste before TLC 2012 and I suspect will again in January when he challenges C.M Punk for the WWE Championship before the Royal Rumble. Maybe the best way WWE can go with Ryback is put him in a tag team.
The money, time and effort it has taken to promote him will have been wasted but maybe that’s better than just allowing him to fade away into the abyss once more. Quite frankly he stinks as a singles wrestler. Yet when there’s someone by his side to take the brunt of the match out of his hands and help hide his flaws he could pass for an average talent who could have many years left in WWE. I don’t see a future for Ryback should he stay as a singles star. He just doesn’t have what it takes and WWE must see this by now. His performance at TLC compared to his dire efforts at Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series were night and day. Vince McMahon has conceded defeat before. Perhaps it’s time he did it again.
Let not take any credit away from Ryback here though, because his performance at TLC was very, very good and even if it goes no further than a quick run at the top of the card, then Ryback can look back on his WWE career as something he put his all into. Indeed his presence in the match made the Shield look even stronger and their victory even bigger. Despite the fact that he’s a lousy singles wrestler, Ryback really did put in a shift on December 16th and we must commend him for that. His impending WWE Championship Match with an injured C.M Punk should settle his status in Vince McMahon’s mind once and for all and open up other routes for him to walk.
I’d give this match an ‘A’ grade for the effort and the action. The six men involved did a thrilling job for me in putting three new wrestlers over and continuing their push. In the absence of WWE Champion C.M Punk, the Shield were thrown into the deep end. A task which they more than managed to keep their head above water and swim their way up our estimations and the WWE ladder. Bravo to all involved.
World Heavyweight Championship Match
Chairs Match
(c) Big Show defeated Sheamus
I have been critical if Big Show over the last few months. And quite rightly so. He’s shown me nothing that suggests he should be World Heavyweight Champion and really all he’s accomplished is stealing away the spotlight from other, younger wrestlers who could have prospered from it more. I will now though concede that TLC 2012 was once again a night Big Show could be very proud of himself. A man of his size and considerable weight wouldn’t normally be able to do the things he did in his Chairs Match with Sheamus, yet Big Show once again put his body on the line in order to get something out of the capacity crowd in the Barclays Centre.
It was a struggle, I imagine, to conjure up something inventive to do with a simple chairs match. After all, everything that could have been done has been done in previous years. WWE pleasantly surprised me by produced me by producing a specially made gigantic steel chair which looked like it buried Sheamus under its massive frame at one point. The highlight of the match though, where Big Show was concerned at least was when he voluntarily allowed Sheamus to hoist him up for ‘White Noise’ only to then be plunged through a cluster of standing chairs. For man whose body is beaten and bruised and as large as Big Show’s it was a brave and thrilling move to make. A move which made the crowd pop and livened up the match.
I still won’t concede that Big Show deserves the World Heavyweight Championship, but his performance at TLC was very, very special indeed. Now the final pay per view of the year is over, WWE have to find something else to do with Big Show now. I don’t see how another Sheamus vs Big Show match for the World Heavyweight Championship can be green lit when Sheamus has failed to pin Big Show in their last three pay per encounters, which just leaves one avenue. Dolph Ziggler. Now Ziggler has retained his Money in the Bank Contract, it’s surely time WWE took the next step and booked him to cash it in. Whether WWE could get a realistic feud out of Ziggler and Big Show remains to be seen. But I don’t see any other challengers ready to step up and play David, to Big Show’s goliath.
Sensibly, Big Show can’t stay World Heavyweight Champion forever and the smart money would have been to have Show drop the gold back to Sheamus at TLC. An outcome which would have done Big Show no harm at all considering his performance in this match, but would have done an immense amount for Sheamus who has begun to flounder under WWE’s booking. The Celtic Warrior has become an unimportant factor in WWE as we wrap up 2012 and this comes just one year after the Irishman was preparing for his first Royal Rumble victory and historic, if brief Wrestlemania 28 World Heavyweight Championship victory.
How the mighty have fallen indeed. Sheamus was a bright prospect in WWE last year. He was Triple H’s school pet backstage and had big things planned for him. However all that only means something if the booking team and the writers have a dynamic storyline for their latest prodigy. That is where WWE fell down with Sheamus, because they had the man they wanted to push but lacked the goods with which to push him with. They had the body of the car but forgot to put the wheels on. The only notable moment of Sheamus failed World Heavyweight Championship victory was his match with Big Show at Hell in a Cell in October. Apart from that, Sheamus and WWE have failed miserably. The warning bells should have rung for WWE when they had no other choice to but to book Sheamus to defend the gold against Del Rio on four consecutive WWE pay per views. It was clear the matches and feuds were going no where and the only purpose it served was to diminish Del Rio significantly.
One does wonder why WWE even thought about pushing Sheamus when they had no story or feuds for him to take part in. I’m convinced that if he hadn’t have been the apple of Triple H’s eye then maybe ‘The Great White’ would have been shuffled with the rest of the pack by now. Where do WWE go with him from here? Another pay per view match with Big Show is out of the question and with Randy Orton temporally unavailable due to an injury sustained at the Tribute to the Troops taping, Sheamus is left with a question mark hanging over his head.
Once again though, we can’t allow what has gone before and what may come again to spoil a perfectly good effort and a decent match for all involved. Whilst you get the impression that WWE, Big Show and Sheamus have ridden their luck with this feud and you really can have too much of a good thing, with no other prospects on the horizon I get the horrible feeling that we’re going to get more of something we never wanted in the first place.
Money in the Bank Contract Ladder Match
Dolph Ziggler defeated John Cena
It’s getting boring praising WWE for everything they’ve done right in one night. Usually I’d be writing about how they’ve ruined another perfectly good chance to make a star. But I can’t. Because once again, WWE booked this match exactly right, barring the way it actually ended. Instead of allowing Dolph Ziggler to defeat John Cena off of his own back, with say, a Zig-Zag from the top of the ladder, WWE just couldn’t bring themselves to allow Cena to lose a match without being screwed out of the victory.
It’s a shame in many ways because a clean victory in which Ziggler put his body on the line to defeat Cena would have been a top class finish and even put Dolph higher up people’s estimations. Whilst the victory for Ziggler was warranted and long overdue, I just can’t shake the feeling that it could have been done a much better way. A way which would have been more beneficial to the future World Heavyweight Champion. A clean victory would have done John Cena no harm at all.
How may of you saw it coming, I cannot tell. When A.J made her way to the ring to thwart the efforts of the now annoying Vickie Guerrero and watched Cena scale the rungs of the ladder, there was only one possible outcome. A.J stood there for way too long looking useless. It stood to reason that she would topple the ladder with Cena aloft, to allow Ziggler time to retrieve the briefcase. That though is a minor gripe in what was another very good encounter, even though it featured John Cena. Because the walking merchandise stand had an opponent of superior quality to help him through the match, Cena actually came out looking good. Maybe Christmas time can really produce miracles in its wake after all.
Agreed, Cena went through his usual parody of moves which looked bad at best and disgraceful at worst, but there was the odd top notch spot which mad you sit up and take notice. The moment he lifted Ziggler and the ladder on his shoulders was impressive, even if his fall from the ladder when A.J appeared looked gangly, awkward and could have done him a great deal of damage. It strikes me that if John Cena had have injured himself performing one of his moves then it might knock some bloody sense into him and make him go back to the drawing board. The credit here though has to go to Vince McMahon for not allowing his bank balance to overcome his business sense and allow Ziggler to go over Cena in what could go down as Dolph Ziggler’s biggest victory yet.
Something struck me as strange after TLC went off the air though. After TLC ended, WWE.Com took to the action interviewing John Cena after his match. For a man whose girlfriend had just turned on him and who had just failed to secure a guaranteed World Heavyweight Championship Match, Cena was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Honestly, you have to go to WWE.Com to see how ludicrous and pathetic Cena looks. To convey the feeling of betrayal, shouldn’t Cena have been scowling and vowing vengeance on A.J? What did impress me from that interview though was Cena’s comments about Dolph Ziggler. Instead of going to town on WWE’s next star and making juvenile fun of him, John Cena resorted to putting Ziggler over again and made Dolph look like a star. For this Cena, a man who is famous for not sticking to rules or promos written for him, deserves a hell of a lot of credit.
Dolph Ziggler’s career has taken a ‘U’ turn in WWE in the latter stages of 2012. He’s gone from on top of the world at Money in the Bank, to falling into the pack through SummerSlam, Night of Champions and Hell in a Cell, back to the top of the world at Survivor Series and sitting on a throne that should have been allocated to him sooner with his victory over John Cena at TLC. If we’re being honest most of us tuned into the pay per view expecting another John Cena victory and with good reason. Very rarely has John Cena or WWE allowed anyone new to go over and therefore almost pasted it into our psyche that when Cena is pitted against anyone who we expect to ascend the ladder, the outcome is always written in stone.
I like to think that Dolph Ziggler’s victory at TLC is a turning point in WWE. A new beginning where the company will refuse to sacrifice anyone with the slightest hope of making it to Cena and instead make the leader of the Cenation do the deed for the good of the company. It’s what has to happen to allow WWE to make new steps forward. It’s what needs to happen if the star making system in WWE is to be rejuvenated and overhauled.
WWE can use Dolph Ziggler as a trailblazer now. Already, deep in the bowels of WWE development heads are turning and a new dawn is approaching. Those who thought they’d never stand a chance in WWE are beginning to think anew. Out of every outcome at TLC 2012, this could be the one that changes the face of WWE for the better.
Hopefully, WWE will take Dolph and run with him now. Cashing in that briefcase is long overdue and hopefully if it doesn’t come at Royal Rumble it will transpire at Wrestlemania 29. Dolph Ziggler even has to be a major candidate to win the 30 Man Royal Rumble Match. An ideal situation would be for Ziggler to be the last man standing in the first pay per view of 2013, go on to Wrestlemania 29 to face the World Heavyweight Champion – lose and then cash in immediately after the match. That way when Ziggler won the gold the world couldn’t turn around and shout ‘Fluke!’ Because Ziggler will have done all of the work in the actual match and not allowed someone else to do it for him.
That would be the perfect way for WWE to treat Ziggler going into Wrestlemania 29. Continuous victories and some continuity that we can get behind is the key to unlocking a new star. If WWE weren’t willing to sacrifice Ziggler to Cena then I can’t see them being willing to sacrifice him to anyone else. At Christmas time, WWE’s future king has finally taken his rightful place on his throne. Aided by a good match and a refusal to go away when it would have been easy for him to give up when all looked bleak, all Dolph Ziggler needs now is some gold around his waist.
WWE Intercontinental Championship Match
(c) Kofi Kingston defeated Wade Barrett
I did hope that the way TLC was going, it might have been the night WWE reinvented the Intercontinental Championship. The night that the Championship that once made stars worked its magic again and started to become something meaningful. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. It wasn’t through lack of effort by Kingston and Barrett, I guess TLC was the first time I saw that maybe the Intercontinental Championship is beyond help.
In any other era of wrestling this match would have been a top draw. Had the participants not been up to scratch then the reputation of the Intercontinental Championship would have brought the people in their droves. Now though, the mere mention of said Championship seems to have the reverse effect. It may not drive people away from live events but it doesn’t help reel them in either. You can look for blame wherever you wish, but the only place your gaze will fall in the end, is the desk of Vincent Kennedy McMahon. And the reason? It’s his company. Everything goes through Vince. There isn’t anything that goes on television without his stamp of approval. Somewhere along the line the Championship that once meant more than the WWE Championship has slipped through his net.
Kofi Kingston, I’m afraid, isn’t the answer. As good as Kingston is, he’s become the proverbial comfy furniture. Something you know is always going to be there but ultimately, after a while, becomes samey and never adds anything new to your life. It shouldn’t have come to this. Kofi still has all the right factors to burst up the ladder. Even if it will take an earth shattering effort by WWE to get him to that point. For that to happen though, WWE have to be willing to push him and get behind him. At the moment, they’re not. There’s nothing about WWE that makes me think they’re ready to do so and without a willingness from the very top to make a change. Kingston is going to stagnate fast.
Wade Barrett would have been the perfect challenger two years ago. As leader of Nexus the Championship would have done Barrett some good. As a singles star, the British born grappler is more accustomed to the higher tear of wrestling elite. You may not think it to look at him now but Wade Barrett is WWE Championship material. Next to Daniel Bryan he was the standout star of the first season of NXT and had his paths not have crossed with John Cena so early in his career, who knows where he’d have been.
Had WWE so wanted to, they could have re-introduced Barrett as a vengeful machine who made a ‘B’ line for the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. Barrett could have been introduced as a man who was bitter over his injury costing him the top spot and came back with one thing on his mind. Had he have stepped back onto WWE’s shores and took on John Cena, beating the hell out of him and pinning him clean in the ring without hardly any offence from Cena.
Barrett could then have turned his attention to Sheamus doing the same on Smackdown which would have necessitated a feud between the two. A feud which would have replaced Sheamus vs Big Show. WWE could have done so many things with Wade Barrett upon his return. More modelling him with an English mafia look and dumping him on Superstars for weeks. First impressions are hard to get a second shot at and Wade Barrett is already on his third. Unfortunately I don’t think WWE or the Englishman is going to get a fourth and no amount of good performances or Intercontinental Championship losses are going to change that.
WWE Divas Championship Match
(c) Eve defeated Naomi
Finally, something I can berate. I was getting soft with all the praise going around TLC 2012 that I almost forgot how to be a complete and utter bitch. You can always rely on the Divas Division to bring you right back down to earth.
This was an opportunity squandered. The ‘Santa’s Helper’ Battle Royal to determine the Number One Contender to the WWE Divas Championship on the pre-show was a good way to start again. Not the perfect way. But a good way nonetheless. A chance to get a fresh face into the mix and show the wrestling skills of the limited number of actual female wrestlers that still exist in WWE.
The winner of the battle royal, Naomi, could have been granted a month to build herself up under the watchful eye of WWE Divas Champion Eve and then create a feud going into the Royal Rumble or even better Wrestlemania. It would have given the Divas Division a little more spice. Something for the WWE Universe to get their teeth into. I’m convinced that a built up feud would have done much better business than a rushed job which served no one purpose, just like the Divas Championship Match was.
Instead of a new opportunity it actually turned out to be a reason for WWE to book Eve on the show. Another wasted opportunity gone awry. Instead of dedicating the time this farce took to another match, WWE decided to squander the meaningless Championship once again. Because of booking decision such as this one, the WWE Divas Division is sinking faster than the Titanic and no matter what ideas WWE come up with for it, they always seem to be just plasters, temporarily being applied over the cracks instead of a permanent rebuild which would fix them.
There is no one left for Eve to have a really sizzling feud against, even if she could string two moves together. Kharma and Beth Phoenix were WWE’s best hopes of making something new from the Divas Division and now they’ve allowed their two best female wrestlers to slip through the cracks the company has lost direction here. Just look at all the females who could actually wrestle that WWE have allowed to walk away.
Gail Kim could have been another saviour. Along with Kharma and Phoenix, Kim could have set the Divas Division alight. Yet WWE re-hired her and then did nothing with her. Kim and Kharma had a thrilling feud in TNA and given the chance could have done in WWE. Mickie James was canned because of an alleged affair John Cena. Instead of reprimanding her for whatever they thought she did wrong – it takes two to tango. Cena wasn’t reprimanded – they allowed her to walk away. Had WWE kept Beth Phoenix, Kharma, Mickie James, Gail Kim and hired in a few other females wrestlers from abroad – Japan has a thriving women’s division and there’s even an all female wrestling promotion in Japan – then they could have had a smash hit on their hands.
It really is an easy fix. And it could still be mended today. If WWE axed the fake tits which don’t belong in a wrestling ring on a rated PG product and hired some actually wrestlers then they’re be an increase in interest in their Divas product. As it is, Eve vs Naomi was a substandard effort and outing. None of the competitors got over in the slightest and it only served to kill a little time on an otherwise fine pay per view.
WWE United States Championship Match
(c) Antonio Cesaro defeated R-Truth
On the episode of Smackdown that went before TLC, Antonio Cesaro defeated Sheamus via countout in what was a commendable effort by the two. Showing that he can hang with the main event players, Cesaro seemed better than this match at TLC. Stepping into the ring against Truth, Cesaro knew in his mind that he belong higher up the card. And he would have been right.
I wrote everything I could about this match in the TLC preview. I really don’t see what else I can add. The match itself was almost an exact rerun of their Survivor Series encounter and had this been the main feature on the show then most would have walked away feeling hard done by. For a Championship and wrestler WWE expect great things from in the future then the company are really going to have to do better than this. Nothing special, nothing outstanding came from the United States Championship Match at TLC and I can’t imagine it did anything to make people want to buy a pay per view where the gold is being defended in the future.
Antonio Cesaro needs to drop the United States Championship and move on, quickly. His skills and wrestling technique speak of a man capable of much better things. Not every talent has to be built up from the bottom upwards. Ryback wasn’t and it didn’t even take WWE a whole year to bump him into the main event spot. Cesaro should be where Ryback is now and Ryback should be United States Champion. A simple swap would sort everything out. Would it have really killed WWE to take the former Ring of Honor star and introduce him at main event level? Cesaro has more skill than Ryback, he’s a better wrestler than Ryback and yet he’s being left behind while WWE concentrate on a much lesser talent.
I guess it just goes to prove that advanced wrestling ability isn’t the main thing in WWE today. If you have muscles that look like a bull’s bollocks then you’re guaranteed to get a push even if you can’t fight your way out of a paper bag.
R-Truth on the other hand should seek employment elsewhere. In any other organisation in any other country, Truth would be a star. New Japan Pro Wrestling would welcome him with open arms because underneath the lackadaisical efforts he’s taken to putting in, there is a wrestler waiting to break out. Surrounded by a superior wrestlers who would show him up before they began wrestling, Truth would be forced to put in his finest effort. An action which I’m sure would warrant some rave reviews.
In WWE, Truth is out of his depth as far as he has nothing to work for. He knows as much as we do that WWE aren’t going to make him United States Champion let alone WWE Champion and when that benchmark has been removed from your goals what else is there to work for? Going through the motions, is how best I’d describe R-Truth in recent months and even when he had Tag Team gold around his waist it still wasn’t enough to kick him into gear.
Antonio Cesaro vs R-Truth for the WWE United States Championship was merely designed to push Cesaro further in WWE. Booked without a though for the challenger, WWE need to have a serious look through their roster and do a little spring cleaning.
Number One Contenders Match
WWE Tag Team Championships
Tag Team Tables Match
Team Rhodes Scholars defeated Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara
Who wants to start making the ‘Farewell’ banners for Rey Mysterio? I’ll lend you some paint if you like. The number one contenders match for the right to challenge WWE Tag Team Champions Team Hell No, was never going to be Rey Mysterio’s night. Very rarely does a wrestler the calibre of Mysterio regress in the twilight of his career. Yet that seems to be the case for the masked man. For those who fondly remember his debut in 2002 will have had their memories shook violently by Mysterio’s latest stint.
The kind of performances and booking Mysterio gives and receives hark back to his debut in the company. When he was opening pay per views and having meaningless matches against Chavo Guerrero. The fact is that those matches in 2002 were getting Mysterio no where and yet ten years hence, Mysterio finds himself right back in the same hole he was originally in. For a man who has had numerous knee operations, taking time out of singles competition would have been a blessed relief. Tag team action would be seen as a welcomed rest. To have a partner there for you, taking the strain from your injured body was a relief. However Rey Mysterio has found that having a tag team partner has been nothing but the stone around his ankles as he’s plunged into the river.
Sin Cara should have been a star by now. Maybe if anyone else have had been given the role to portray then the name Sin Cara would be in the main event spots. Yet after WWE insisted they get a Mexican who spoke no English to do the mask, when there many better options in Ring of Honor, it all seemed to go, as we say in England, tits up. The warning signs were there when after his big debut he botched so many moves it was impossible to take him seriously again. It could have been nerves, it could have been an unprofessional nature that made him rush every match. We’ll never know. What we do have knowledge of however is that Sin Cara quickly went from one of WWE’s hopefully to a WWE zero.
I know WWE were desperate to put another tag team together, involving one of their headline stars, but what quite drove them to put Rey Mysterio with Sin Cara still baffles me to this day. I believe the plan was for Mysterio to make Cara more popular by association. However after a few tag team matches it was like Midas in reverse. WWE should have been quicker and spotted that Cara was doing Mysterio more harm than Mysterio was doing Cara good. But they didn’t. They allowed it to fester and now Rey Mysterio has been tainted. Read into his absence from live events – which WWE have pulled him from – what you will. I see it as the beginning of the end.
Team Rhodes Scholars were a dull little outfit when first put together. There’s no denying it. Cody Rhodes had so little credit I’m amazed he could withdraw money from an ATM machine and Damien Sandow was the laughing stock of WWE backstage. There was no belief in Team Rhodes Scholars at the very inception of their team and for all tense and purposes Rhodes and Sandow were slung together to make up the numbers in the Hell in a Cell WWE Tag Team Championship tournament. Somewhere along the road though the pair have become one of the most reliable tag teams in WWE.
Damien Sandow is a cracking wrestler who should be at the very top of the WWE Intercontinental Championship division by now and if there was any justice in WWE Cody Rhodes would be WWE Champion by now. Those though are not the cards that have been dealt the duo and instead they’re showing their class in the tag team division. No one in WWE thought that pair would be as popular as they’ve become and I believe that Rhodes and Sandow can go far in WWE as long as they’re kept as a tandem.
I don’t see them as WWE Tag Team Champions any time soon, largely because of the fact that the Championship will most likely be going to the Shield. Conversely Team Rhodes Scholars could be the rarest of things. Star challengers. Most challengers to Championships come and go and then have to make do with a spot when and where. Rhodes and Sandow though have been a constant part of the Tag Team Championship picture since their creation. WWE even went as far as putting the duo in the Survivor Series Elimination Match which Rhodes had to pull out of thanks to Kane’s carelessness.
Thankfully just as it looks like Rey Mysterio’s days are numbered in WWE, Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow have found their niche and a working formula that will see them endure and continue for at least another year. After their WWE Tag Team Championship match against Team Hell No which I would expect to be at Royal Rumble, Team Rhodes Scholars could be employed to help the other tag teams underneath them gain some ground. The team are of a standing in the company now that a victory for minor team over them would do the victors many a favour without damaging Team Rhodes Scholars imagine.
Finally WWE have found two men who they can rely on to deliver the goods and possibly carry the Tag Team Division when Team Hell No disperse to other corners of the company. It’s the first time in many years that we’ve been given a tag team to get excited about and that can only be looked upon as a good thing.
The Miz, Alberto Del Rio and Brooklyn Brawler defeated 3MB
Really? I mean...really? You’re telling me that this is the very best WWE could come up with for the Miz? After all that bullshit about stripping him of the WWE Intercontinental Championship to revamp him into the main event, WWE gives us this?
There is a chance that Vince was planning on booking Orton vs the Miz before the Viper got injured, but even then, wouldn’t it have just been a better idea to book a face Miz against a heel Del Rio? I’d have liked to have seen that. In fact it could have even stole the show as match of the night had they been granted fifteen minutes to work their magic. Anything but this tripe. Giving Miz the Brooklyn Brawler as a tag team partner was the very bottom of the barrel as far as I’m concerned.
Those not in the know, the Brawler – real name Steve Lombardi – was a wrestling character in the late 80’s and early 90’s who never won a wrestling match. And before you tell me the reason he was included here save your breath, I already know. Just because the event took place in Brooklyn, New York still isn’t a good reason to book one of WWE’s worst ever wrestlers on a 2012 pay per view. Today Lombardi serves as a road agent in WWE and is much better off behind the scenes. It took me a few seconds to realise who he was. I though Popeye had been hitting the smack, hard.
It was plain to see the pissed off look on Miz’s face as he made his way to the ring. All that promise and hope gone for now. To my recollection it’s the first match Miz has wrestled in which he really didn’t look like he cared. Both Miz and Alberto Del Rio really need to take their careers by the scruff of the neck and stand up to Vince McMahon, demanding that WWE do something productive with them. What’s the worst that can happen? Neither man can be buried any further than they already are being and seeing as both could help WWE in the future then Vince is more likely to listen to either of them than say Jinder Mahal.
If the Miz’s push doesn’t start soon then WWE are going to have to come to terms with the fact that the Miz is going to be listed on the opportunities lost list. And that will be a great disservice to a man who has more talent in his little finger than some of WWE’s top guys do in their whole body.
Pre-Show
‘Santa’s Helper’ Battle Royal
Divas Championship Number One Contender Match
Naomi defeated Alicia Fox, Layla, Natalya, Cameron, Rosa Mendes, Aksana, Tamina Snuka, Kaitlyn
Thankfully, if you missed this then you didn’t miss much. Naomi was the surprise winner in a match where WWE abandoned the Kaitlyn storyline. So much for consistency. I think WWE would have done better actually having Kaitlyn win the Divas Championship before they cast her adrift, that way they would have had a complete storyline before moving on yet again.
Everything I have to say about the Divas division can be read above. Although I will say that seeing all the Divas battle in Santa outfit and other various was more off putting than it was sexy. I have no idea the tone WWE were going for in this match but its safe to say that they didn’t quite match it.
WWE TLC 2012 was a superb pay per view event. Not always in the ring but the overall outcomes of matches did more for the future of WWE and the rising stars than any pay per view this year. A superior effort by all involved, Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2012 can be noted down as one of the top five pay per views of the year thanks to victories granted to the Shield, Dolph Ziggler and another fine effort by Sheamus and Big Show in what should have been, by all rights, a disaster.
Those who should have been higher up the card were cast aside with a ‘Bah Humbug’ and naught but coal in their stockings and in some cases WWE didn’t even bother trying to push wrestlers that could have done with a big boost to end the year on. Those aside though, WWE deserves a lot of credit for the final pay per view of the year, the outcomes and bookings as much as the in ring product. If they can produce them this well at odd times during the year, there’s no reason they can’t do it every month.
Even though the night was an unmitigated success for the Shield, it’s the man who finally took his place amongst WWE’s elite that really claimed the evening and Dolph Ziggler will be the most talked about wrestler as the year once again rolls over. For a man who has been passed over time and time again for other, less talented, individuals, Dolph Ziggler is the new born king once again. And it’s about time too.
Onwards and upwards...
