Breaking Down the Best and Worst of the WWE for Week of December 15

After NXT killed it on their latest live special last week, it was WWE's turn to try to top them. It didn't happen.

TLC saw wrestlers like Dolph Ziggler put their bodies through hell to entertain the fans. The result was a spot-heavy show that entertained but didn't resonate as deeply as NXT Takeover: R Evolution.

Blame part of that on a campy ending to the main event where Dean Ambrose had to wonder if Tex Avery had taken over for Vince McMahon.

The rest of the week was up and down. Raw didn't take the baton that TLC handed it. SmackDown, on the other hand, was more exciting than usual as it gave fans a rare live edition of the show.

A few days later, NXT continued its great run. The monster who first stepped into Full Sail University at the Takeover special took another massive bite on Thursday's show. 

Best: Effort and Stunts at TLC

Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper kicked off the pay-per-view with gutsy performances. Theirs was a clash filled with hard shots with ladders and plenty of spills from way up high. 

Other Ladder matches have had better stories and more emotion, but this was a memorable, intense contest.

Erick Rowan and Big Show made the best of their ill-advised Steel Stairs match gimmick. John Cena and Seth Rollins managed to get a handful of table crashes into a bout that normally just has one.

Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose capped the night off with the same kind of reckless approach that Ziggler and Harper had.

The show produced a number of highlights that WWE will undoubtedly reuse. And it looked as if just about everyone on the card was trying to disprove Vince McMahon's now-famous comments about the roster's lack of ambition that he shared with Steve Austin while appearing on his podcast.

Energy, passion and a willingness to end the night covered in bruises made for a fun show.

WWE Creative got in the way of the Superstars at times. Most notably, Wyatt vs. Ambrose ended with an idea that should have been voted down. 

Worst: The Exploding TV

Credit: WWE.com

Surprises, swerves and plot twists all have their place in pro wrestling. Derailing a story with a corny ending that comes out of nowhere doesn't.

Dean Ambrose failed to finish off Bray Wyatt because a TV he tried to use as a weapon blew up in his face. After that baffling choice, the talk post-TLC wasn't about how intense Wyatt vs. Ambrose was or how much this improved each man's stock, but it was about how silly the climax was.

It also serves to cheapen Wyatt's win. He didn't beat Ambrose as much as he lucked into a victory by TV.

Both men should be used to this kind of poor script, though. Ambrose's last big loss came by way of Wyatt's hologram floating out of a lantern. Wyatt's last big pay-per-view win saw a child with a demonic voice frighten John Cena into losing.

WWE needs to stay away from this kind of over-the-top element.

The greatest matches in wrestling history have ended with lasting images that still stay in fans' minds. None of them needed to resort to exploding electronics or other cartoon mayhem.

Best: SmackDown Goes Live

To celebrate WWE week on USA, SmackDown aired live on Tuesday night.

For once, fans didn't have to avoid spoilers until Friday. And while it wasn't a great edition of SmackDown, the fact that it was happening as the audience watched it created an electricity that gets lost with taped shows.

With WWE's budget-trimming as of late, it's clear that the company isn't going to go the costly route of putting the show on live every week. Still, putting more live editions on throughout the year would certainly make the show feel more significant, more must-watch. 

Worst: Raw Fails to Build on TLC Momentum

AJ Lee left her match at TLC with a mystery chemical burning her eyes. Doctors flushed them out and luckily prevented any long-term damage to her vision.

All that was just part of the storyline, but it makes no sense that this incident wouldn't be a bigger deal the next night.

A member of the roster nearly goes blind, and the show simply goes on, with no update on her health or Nikki Bella bragging about her act.

Dolph Ziggler celebrated winning back the Intercontinental Championship by getting tossed around in a forgettable tag team match that seemed most concerned with displaying how powerful Big Show is.

And one night after Bray Wyatt main evented TLC, he didn't appear on Raw at all. He and Dean Ambrose worked the dark match instead.

Of course, The Bunny made it to the show proper, though.

WWE failed to build on Ziggler's victory as well as the Divas title and main event storylines. Simply moving on from the big moments on a pay-per-view is a surefire way to make them seem less important. 

Best: Kevin Owens Is a Very Bad Man

In just his second appearance for NXT, Kevin Owens firmly established himself as a top heel. 

He was merciless in his beatdown of Adrian Neville. Hard right hands stunned the former champ. A DDT had Neville's eyes roll backward.

After the match ended, Owens left Neville in the same condition that he left Sami Zayn at the last Takeover special. A powerbomb to the ring apron sent Neville on the same stretchered trip to the emergency room that his buddy, Zayn, took.

That's a simple, effective way to convince the audience that Owens is a threat. He comes off as a dangerous, unstable man and he's only been around for two weeks.

Building up Owens like this is a smart way to establish him. It's also going to elevate whomever stops him in a major way.

This is the kind of straight-ahead, throwback storytelling that gets NXT so much praise.