PWP’s Derron Browning explains what we should take away from WWE Tables, Ladders and Chairs from last night in Boston, MA.
I am back and better than ever. Instead of reviewing a WWE pay-per-view like I always do, I decided to do a new thing called “The Brain of Browning,” where I observe a pay-per-view and point out a few key things we should take away from it.
Are you ready? Let’s do it.
Starting off with a “BANG!”
Last night, the Triple Threat Ladder Match between the New Day, the Usos and the Lucha Dragons was a show-stealer. We saw tons of original and insane spots that will have us rewatch this match again and again like the Samurai Del Sol off the ladder. How Kalisto is standing after that is beyond me.
The New Day came out the victors, which was the best call as this division would be dead without them. My only gripe about this match was if the other two teams saw Xavier Woods at ringside, why not take him out so that three man advantage is gone? Anyway, this match, at least for the main roster is a match of the year candidate by far.
Alberto Del Placeholder
Alberto Del Rio defeated Jack Swagger in a Chairs Match to retain the United States Title. However, this feud means nothing. Why? Jack Swagger hasn’t been taken seriously in several years. The last time Swagger won a championship was 2012. Swagger is an accomplished amateur wrestler and could be a credible threat to any title holder, but with the facts I mentioned above, there was no way he was beating Del Rio. In fact, Alberto Del Rio I believe is only holding the championship until John Cena returns from hiatus.
Tacesereser that, the U.S. open challenge continues. The only question is where does Alberto Del Rio go from there after Cena wins the title? Back where he was before he left WWE the first time? If that is the case, he should have never came back.
Faces & Heels don’t matter in the Divas Division
This statement is sad but true. The divas division on the main roster turn more times than Big Show and Kane. Some are faces one week, some are heels one week and save for a few, there are no clear faces or heels. This reared its ugly head again during the Divas Title match between Paige and Charlotte. Both are outstanding wrestlers, but when the crowd has no clue who to root for, why should we be invested in the match? Paige, in the past few months, turned on her best friends and ran down Charlotte’s family. She even went as far as mentioning Charlotte’s deceased brother, who took his own life, which was beyond distasteful on WWE’s end. You would think she is the heel in this bout? Nope.
In this match, Ric Flair helped his daughter retain the Divas Championship. Heels are supposed to cheat to win not babyfaces. I like the Charlotte heel turn, but the question I have is who will be the top babyface for the division? I guess it’s Sasha Banks since she’s one of the few ladies the fans seems to care for, but she is still a heel! Why not have Team BAD get jealous and turn on Sasha because she is more over than Naomi and Tamina? Great, now my head hurts!
Moving on. I will watch NXT for my women’s wrestling fix because there are heels and faces down there.
League of Nations? More like League of Chumps
Yes, Rusev, Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio won their respective matches last night and that’s great. However, when your faction is getting beat on by one guy (who just finished a match that involved numerous weapons) and two of the members happen to be champions, they look like losers. Roman Reigns even beat these guys in a Handicap match on a SmackDown but according to booking on the main roster, “If it was on Smackdown, it didn’t really happen.”
You can’t have a faction dominant one minute and look like chumps. The Shield was a perfect example on how to book a faction. Why can’t they follow that? The League of Nations is cannon fodder for Roman Reigns and that’s it.
The Wyatt Family Dominate
The Wyatt Family have been through tons of ups and downs this year, but ended 2015 on a good note. Last night, The Wyatts defeated the ECW Originals in a 8 man tag team elimination tables match. Oddly, Erick Rowan was the only Wyatt eliminated. Now, why couldn’t the Wyatts win at Survivor Series? They needed the win more than Undertaker and Kane. The Shield was a perfect example again, on how to build up a faction.
Now, I hope we see them booked consistently next year. Hopefully, we can see them win titles like they did in NXT. However, with creative’s penchant for 50/50 booking on the main roster, it’ll be hard to imagine.
And New!
Since the Shield’s dissolution last year, we have seen both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins become world champions while Dean Ambrose has just been toiling along. Ambrose defeated Kevin Owens last night for the Intercontinental Title. As much as I am happy Ambrose won, I am sad that Owens lost. I would have loved to see Sami Zayn return at the Royal Rumble as a surprise to restart his feud Kevin Owens.
If I was doing some Fantasy Booking, I’d book Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32 to culminate their blood feud with Zayn getting his Mania moment by finally beating his former friend. However, with Sami Zayn not being called up to the main roster and lAmbrose as champion, where does that leave Owens? I hope not in mid-card hell.
See, WWE can book the right way (when they want too)
How many times have we seen poorly planned feuds with 50/50 booking, awful promos or cold matches? If you guessed a lot, you are correct.
After almost a year of Roman Reigns having the WWE World Heavyweight Championship robbed from him, Reigns snapped and brutally attacked the League of Nations after his TLC match with Sheamus after the League cost him the title. Triple H, Stephanie McMahon and a bunch of referees tried to calm Reigns down only for Reigns to beat the hell out of Triple H.
Reigns, despite the pleas of Stephanie McMahon and referees, would beat Triple H with a chair, put him through a table and spear him. The Boston crowd was completely apathetic towards this match itself (which was really good), but was 100% behind Roman after he snapped. Maybe because for once, he wasn’t gonna show up on RAW the next night and pretend like everything is all good like John Cena. This attack eventually will lead to a match between Reigns and Triple H at WrestleMania 32. It goes to show that WWE can be great if they want to, which is good and bad at the same time.
What did you take away from TLC? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks for reading!