Sometimes, a wrestling show will leave you with a fantastic moment to go out on. A champion celebrating, or a surprise return.
On Sunday night, at TLC, we the viewers were left with a final moment of a television exploding to cost someone a match.
Moments matter in wrestling, particularly when they close a major show. And there's a case to be made that we've been spoiled this year. We've had Daniel Bryan celebrating at WrestleMania. We've had Sting helping Ziggler and Cena. We've even had Bray Wyatt standing in a cloud of smoke over the broken body of Dean Ambrose.
And yet, of all the possible moments, TLC ends with Dean Ambrose losing to Bray Wyatt, not because Bray did something, but because a television exploded in his hand. Yes, a television. After a hellacious TLC match, with many great spots, mainly coming from Dean Ambrose flying off a ladder, Ambrose loses because he finds a monitor under the ring (which is somewhow working, but more on that a little later), and when he tries to use it, he has trouble moving it, because it's plugged in, and when he tries to rip it out, it explodes.
Bray Wyatt took advantage and pinned Ambrose after a Sister Abigail. That's how the match, and the show, ended.
The biggest problem isn't that a tough, grueling, match ended in such a goofy way. It's not even that there was a plugged in monitor under the ring, while Cole prattled on about how it was their backup monitor in case something went wrong. (Really Cole, you have your backup monitors plugged in under the ring?) It's that the show finished on that.
That moment is the freshest thing in our mind. Not a very good ladder match between Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper. Not Roman Reigns returning and helping John Cena overcome serious odds. It's that Dean Ambrose, with a ring full of weapons, decided to pull a TV out of its plugs, and had it, literally, blow up in his face. Since that's the moment we're left with, it left a serious bad taste in my mouth -- and it made a pay-per-view that was overall average to slightly-above-average, though admittedly bumpy, seem much worse.
One of the more frustrating things is that it didn't have to end this way. Obviously the match didn't have to end that way, but more than that, the show didn't have to end that way.
Shockingly, the John Cena-Seth Rollins match started at 9 p.m. The match was a little bumpy and certainly overbooked, with J&J security constantly interfering, a ref bump, a match restart after the two went through a table together, Big Show interfering, and finally Roman Reigns coming out to clear the ring and help out Cena.
However, the match was entertaining, and without a question of a doubt it provided a good moment with Cena and Reigns standing tall at the end. While some people groaned, Reigns making his physical return made the crowd pop. It was the loudest reaction of the night, without question. Switching these two matches would've provided people a notable moment to go out on, and while some would be groaning that it ended with Cena and Reigns, it at least would have been better than what it actually ended with.
When Cena and Rollins came out, I was initially happy that Dean Ambrose would be main eventing for the second time in three pay-per-views. At the end of the night, I realized that main eventing was probably worse for him.
Moments matter, and in this case, the WWE did not deliver on that moment.
The rest of TLC:
** As mentioned before, Luke Harper and Dolph Ziggler put on a fantastic show in their ladder match. It truly seemed like they were trying to one-up each other in spots, each move a bit crazier than the last. You could clearly see the physical toll the match had on the competitors. There was talk that many wrestlers in the locker room wanted to one-up what the NXT roster was able to do at Takeover. And for this match, it certainly showed, as they took some bumps that many would refuse to take. At the end, Dolph Ziggler ended up regaining his Intercontinental title.
** After Roman Reigns helped Cena, he announced that he'd become the first official entrant into the Royal Rumble. Also, Cena-Lesnar for the title was officially announced for the show.
** In what was the most shocking result, in my mind, Big Show pinned Erick Rowan cleanly in their Stairs match. First off, the stairs match was just that, the two using a bunch of steel steps that were put around the ring to bludgeon each other. After the two beat on each other for a while, Big Show hit his punch, and then used the stairs to help cover Rowan. You could make the claim that over the past month, nobody had been pushed more in the company than Erick Rowan. I really don't understand having Big Show go over cleanly here. Doesn't that just yank the rug out from Rowan? Maybe the next few weeks will clear it up, but this seems like a completely nonsensical booking decision from WWE.
** Miz and Mizdow again entertained in their match against the Usos. After the usual antics, as Miz and Mizdow were outside the ring, Jey dove out, and Miz pushed Mizdow in the way. He then hit Jey with a Slammy, drawing the DQ. Miz and Mizdow left, still champions, though Mizdow gave Miz some looks that seemed to be the first signs of dissension between the two.
** Nikki Bella beat AJ after she sprayed hairspray, or something similar, in AJ's eyes. Brie had distracted the ref after helping Nikki get to the ropes. She was ejected, and as the ref made sure she was leaving, Nikki pulled the spray out of her boots and sprayed AJ. Before the match, Brie finally gave some sort of explanation as to why she's with Nikki, saying that blood was thicker than water.
** Ryback beat Kane in their chairs match. There was nothing overly terrible about this match, but nothing great either. The two kind of seemed to be going through the paces, just exchanging chair shots and throwing in high impact moves here and there.
** Rusev squashed Jack Swagger. Rusev had the offense for about 85 percent of the match. While Swagger did escape one Accolade, and turned it into a Patriot Lock, Rusev ended up hitting a sidekick and then put him in the Accolade again for the win. So very similar to many of their past matches.
** The New Day beat the Dusts on the preshow. The announce crew was in rare form during this match. I think they talked more about what show The Great Gazoo was on more than the actual match, or the pay-per-view for that matter.
What were your thoughts on TLC? Leave them in the comment section, email me, or find me on Twitter: @TheAOster