WWE TLC 2015 Results: Top Highlights and Low Points
WWE likes to advertise the Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view as its version of a demolition derby, but of course, the hope is always that it will be more of a success than a chaotic wreck.
Whether that is true is never known until the results are in, so now that TLC 2015 is in the bag, it's time to break down what parts of it were a mess and which segments actually shined like WWE had planned.
Looking at the card beforehand, one could easily pick out a lot of flaws. The roster is thin, the build to many matches didn't make much sense for why the stipulations were attached and it just didn't feel like the proper way to end the year.
That being said, terrible builds have yielded great events in the past, so you can never quite rule out the possibility that things will be amazing.
Roman Reigns and Sheamus had big shoes to fill at the top of the card. Is the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in good hands, or was this a sign of bad things to come?
Was it a mistake to bring back some old stars to face The Wyatt Family, or did that turn out to be a welcome change of pace?
Is there any hope for the Divas division after the so-called "revolution" has seemingly fizzled into nothingness, or did Paige and Charlotte continue the old trend of having the bathroom break match?
Not everything can stand out as a positive or a negative, but it's time to analyze just what exactly went down at TLC 2015 and how things measured up.
Presented in order of appearance, let's break down the biggest highlights and low points of the night.
Low Point: Pre-Show Problems
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Wouldn't it be nice to have a pre-show that feels as though it's must-see entertainment rather than something that most people would prefer not to bother watching?
Wouldn't it also be nice to have a pre-show load perfectly on the WWE Network rather than having errors like what happened to many people here and at Survivor Series?
The WWE TLC Kickoff show is something that suffers from tons of problems, such as being incredibly repetitive and utterly pointless if it doesn't have a match.
Thankfully, this edition did include a match between Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, but it's so disappointing to see WWE cared so little about booking something for this that the match wasn't announced until the last minute.
It isn't difficult to put in a modicum of effort, particularly since there's an entire team of writers responsible for this content. One would think five minutes of thought and a quick glance on their Wikipedia page would maybe result in a Tyler Breeze vs. Dolph Ziggler match or even something with Neville and The Miz.
Instead, if you were even able to watch this rather than seeing your error screen, you would have sat through mostly just the same recaps that are shown every week on Raw, SmackDown, Main Event, Superstars, YouTube, Hulu and worst of all, later again before every match on the card.
WWE has nobody to blame but itself for making the pre-show an utter waste of time. It's a shame that two talented women like Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks were saddled with a last-minute match here instead of something that was worth the while.
Surprisingly, before the match there was a promo that was perhaps even worse than if there had just been nothing there at all. Team B.A.D. is simply not The New Day, try as it might. Its song was simply not entertaining and does more to hurt its case for more screen time than help it.
All in all, the pre-show could be a good use of time to fit in the people who aren't the top priority, but still could wrestle a decent match. Instead, it continually proves itself to be something to skip.
Highlight: WWE Tag Team Championship Ladder Match
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The collective WWE Universe's opinion for TLC going into the event seemingly was a whimper of excitement and a lot of fear it would be terrible. After a disappointing pre-show, skeptics appeared to be proven right.
Thankfully, this match was an admirable attempt at turning things around.
Admittedly, it wasn't fantastic or anything that will be remembered for years to come, but it did get the crowd to pop a few times, which is what you can hope for with an opening match.
The two standout moments that are highlights in their own right are when Xavier Woods tossed his trombone at Kalisto and when the Lucha Dragon did the Salida del Sol off a ladder onto another ladder.
The former spot was just funny and a good means for The New Day to retain the heel look, while the latter was an awesome spot that truly wowed the crowd. Kalisto's stock just rose with the audience for doing that one move, even though his team lost the match.
In a way, it's sad to think that one of the biggest highlights of the event is a solitary move rather than an entire match or the whole show being so good that the list is endless. Still, it at least speaks volumes to how cool that spot was and how there's potential for Kalisto to shock the crowd many more times in the future.
Low Point: Ryback vs. Rusev
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With the match for the tag team titles, the TLC event took one step forward. With this match, it took two steps back.
This might have been better if it hadn't already been done on television multiple times beforehand, giving the audience nothing fresh. Speaking of repeating itself, the bad acting job Lana did when Rusev pushed Ryback into her was pitiful, as was the spot in general as it was just retreading the same grounds that weren't so special to begin with.
This match's placement on the card is highly suspect. With such poor TLC expectations, WWE should have started off with a bang and followed it up with a few more reasons to fully win over the crowd before taking a break.
Instead, this was a filler match that came far too soon after the pre-show. If you can skip the first hour and, then, after one decent match, you see another reason to go do something else, what confidence does that build for the rest of the night?
Matches like this suck what little crowd energy is left and forces WWE to have to recover rather than carry that momentum forward. Rather than keeping the pace going with a hot crowd, this just lumbered along.
If you pay attention to the audience, you can even notice a particular sign that is an unenthusiastic emoji—the visual equivalent of the word "meh"—which is obviously not the expression of excitement WWE would prefer.
Both Ryback and Rusev have something to offer on the roster, but their lack of intensity and overall boring performance on this show was disappointing to say the least. If you can honestly remember anything positive happening, please leave your comments to refresh everyone's memories.
Low Point: 8-Man Elimination Tables Match
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This tag team match had a lot of potential, but it all went out the window. Not to be a broken record, but with such low expectations going into TLC, the last thing this show needed was to set the audience up for something cool to happen only to fail to deliver.
The end of this match saw Bubba Ray Dudley setting up a spot with a table on fire. How awesome would that have been? The crowd went nuts in anticipation and then let out a massive sigh when the match ended immediately after, without so much as an ember.
Was someone backstage really thinking that dangling that carrot and taking it away would get the crowd pumped rather than annoyed?
This wasn't even the only weird thing to happen here. Very early on in the night, the most basic rule of the whole stipulation was thrown out the window!
Braun Strowman kicks his leg through a table, and Michael Cole says, "He has to be put through a table to be eliminated." It's immediately pointed out that his foot went through the table, which is then ignored with a simple "that doesn't count."
Why not? Years ago at Extreme Rules 2012, Cody Rhodes defeated Big Show in the same gimmick after Big Show's foot went through a table! If you can't think of a logical reason to ignore your previous rules, why book a spot like that to begin with? It wasn't an accident by any means.
This is the type of inconsistency that fans have every right to scoff at when it comes to WWE booking. There's no justification to doing something unnecessary that creates a problem that then needs to be corrected. All that is accomplished with something like this scenario is that it points out fallacies.
The idea of an elimination-style match like this meant that there was potential for seven different interesting spots and for a lot of carnage, but the end result was the equivalent of a post-match beatdown on Monday Night Raw.
Highlight: Dean Ambrose Wins the Intercontinental Championship
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Your mileage may vary on whether or not you agree with the decision to have Dean Ambrose defeat Kevin Owens for the Intercontinental Championship, but whether you're disappointed in who has the belt or not, it's hard to argue against one idea: This injected some vitality into this event.
If you're an Owens fan, step aside for a moment and look at the bigger picture. Generally speaking, the audience favors babyfaces over heels and are more excited when a good guy wins than a bad guy. Obviously, that's not the case for every match, particularly when both are beloved like these two, but it's a general rule of thumb.
That being said, this event consisted of nothing but heel victories before this match. Anybody who tries to follow kayfabe would have gotten frustrated by this point that not a single good guy was victorious, so when Ambrose won, it undoubtedly woke them up.
It's a shame the spot with Owens grabbing the ropes was slightly botched, as that took away part of this match's fun and excitement with Ambrose turning things around, but if you ignore the slight screw up and go with the flow, you were taken on a roller coaster for a minute.
Time will tell whether or not this was a good decision. Does this saddle Ambrose in a midcard match at WrestleMania? Does it do even more damage to Owens, who won't even have a title to defend? On the other hand, does it open these two up for some really interesting feuds going forward?
For now, all that can be said was that this was something intriguing on a show that was filled with more disappointments than things that can be praised.
Middle of the Road: WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match
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Since this is a list of the highlights and low points, it's somewhat of a cop-out to include something that is somewhere between the two, but with this match, that's almost the best way to talk about it.
There were both positives and negatives regarding what happened here. On one hand, there were aspects like the spot where both men fell through the ladder onto the outside, which the crowd popped for. On the other hand, there were times where the audience chanted "We want Cena" and "NXT!"
If you're a Roman Reigns fan, then you're probably upset that he didn't win the title, but you might be glad that he looked strong. If you're a Sheamus fan, you're probably happy that he retained, but you might be upset that he looked weak. Then again, if you're a fan of neither or both, then you probably are conflicted about how to feel.
This was a better match than what most of the card was, but it was also thoroughly underwhelming if this is the top of the roster leading into the time frame that is the most important to be excited about. If this is all we have to look forward to, how lame is the Royal Rumble going to be?
Adequate in a sea of disappointment isn't good enough for WrestleMania, so this shouldn't get a pass for being awesome unless you legitimately think that this is good enough to get you excited for the biggest pay-per-view of 2016. If it doesn't do that job, then this was just OK or worse.
What do you think about TLC? Are there highlights or low points missing from this list that you want to mention?
Were you disappointed Zeb Colter didn't make an appearance in the United States Championship match? How do you feel about the Divas Championship match?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.
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