WWE TLC 2015 Matches: Full Predictions for Each Champion at Event

The build to WWE Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2015 is finally over, a welcome relief to many fans.

TLC 2015 isn't merely a fun, gimmicky end-of-year event. It's the prep work for WrestleMania season. There needs to be a clear direction for not only the WWE champion but the rest of the roster heading into next month's Royal Rumble. 

WWE Creative's uneven booking for the past month, especially in the world championship picture, has muddled that direction. Champions need to stand strong, challengers need to be considered credible threats and storylines need to be developed. 

So who will walk out of the TD Garden in Boston on Sunday, Dec. 13 holding WWE gold? 

Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens (WWE Intercontinental Championship)

Of all the matches at TLC 2015, Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens for the WWE Intercontinental Championship may be the most anticipated. 

It may also be the most scrutinized when the night is over. 

A lackluster build, questionable card and dearth of big-time, mainstream Superstars has left this PPV searching for an identity. Many diehard fans of the product are looking to Ambrose vs. Owens to deliver that identity with a show-stealing match. 

It's not like they can't rise to the challenge. Kevin Owens burst onto the scene this year with three spectacular matches against John Cena. Week in and week out, Owens has given his all in the ring and on the mic.

Ambrose has main evented multiple pay-per-views in 2015, highlighted by his matches with Seth Rollins for the world title at Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank.

They certainly have the chops to deliver, but are fans putting too much pressure on these two Superstars? Can they raise the level of an entire pay-per-view with a midcard title? 

Ambrose and Owens fans will say no, because of the Superstars' track record. Facts say otherwise, since WWE Creative has had little time to build their feud and has focused all its attention instead on the night's main event. 

Ryback and Bray Wyatt put on a tremendous match at Payback earlier this year, but the lack of a cohesive story dims the excitement when you look back. At this event last year, Luke Harper and Dolph Ziggler stole the show with their IC title ladder match, but the rest of the card sucked the energy out of fans. 

Here's hoping Ambrose vs. Owens becomes a second version of Owens-Cena instead of the previous examples. 

Winner: Kevin Owens

Paige vs. Charlotte (WWE Divas Championship)

Charlotte's heel turn will be completed at TLC 2015. Whether it matters or not to fans is another story. 

The uneven storytelling within the Divas division, where everyone can be a heel or face depending on the day of the week, continues to hurt the credibility of the women who wrestle. As performers in the ring, Charlotte and Paige should elicit excitement among fans. 

Unfortunately, the glaring problem with the womens' characters is what's driving this narrative, making the match itself an afterthought. 

Charlotte can be a quintessential heel, using her family name and superior physical gifts to overrun the rest of the Divas division. It's a character she played in NXT very well. Her biggest obstacle in becoming heel? There are no likable characters to go against her. 

Paige was a face, then a heel, then a face again. Now she's a combination of the two. Sasha Banks is a heel in name only, since she is the most over Diva on the roster. Becky Lynch is the only true face in the division, but she's been portrayed as a sidekick instead of an up-and-coming force. 

The rest of the division—the remnants of Team Bella and Team B.A.D. and the long-forgotten Natalya, bit players who don't matter in the grand scheme of the Divas Championship picture—have had their own identity crises. 

Charlotte has been groomed to be at the top of the division. She has the gifts to be a quality champion, with quality challengers coming after her. Unfortunately, there isn't a character in the division anyone cares about. 

And maybe that's the problem: If WWE Creative stopped making these women characters and let them instead be themselves, then maybe it would have a bona fide revolution on its hands.

Winner: Charlotte

Jack Swagger vs. Alberto Del Rio (WWE United States Championship)

Alberto Del Rio's return to WWE has been one peak and all valley. 

Del Rio was welcomed with open arms when he returned to WWE and beat John Cena for the United States Championship. It seemed that WWE had a ruthless champ on its hands, a known commodity who looked more energized than ever before. 

WWE Creative ruined Del Rio the very next night, introducing its convoluted MexAmerica storyline with Zeb Coulter. With Coulter apparently out of the mix following the Dec. 7 episode of Raw, WWE can get Del Rio back on track. 

The Del Rio alliance in the League of Nations can only help the current U.S. champ, especially against an opponent like Cena. Bleacher Report's Ryan Dilbert explained this, stating that leaning on the League's superior mic-workers will allow Del Rio to be "indignant and sadistic, a merciless predator tearing his claws against someone's flesh."

That should start at TLC, with a decisive victory over Jack Swagger and a potential rematch against John Cena looming once the former U.S. champ returns from hiatus. 

Winner: Alberto Del Rio

Lucha Dragons vs. The Usos vs. The New Day (WWE Tag Team Championship)

The New Day's reign atop the tag team division looks to run into its biggest obstacle, as it faces The Usos and The Lucha Dragons in a ladder match. 

In reality, there's no way WWE should remove the belts from the dynamic trio of Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E. Instead, the group should be elevated further.

The comedic approach of The New Day is fun, but this group has been at its best when showing a mean streak as well. Earlier in the year, The New Day showed this side, beating Dolph Ziggler before his match against John Cena and bringing The Showoff's battered body to the ring before an impromptu match between Woods and Cena for the U.S. title. 

It's at that point that the trio proved to be legitimate threats, something that's been lacking since that encounter. TLC 2015 provides a great forum to reintroduce that side of the group. 

With ladders in play, Kingston is always a threat. Big E can overpower any of the Superstars in the ring, while Woods continues to play the wild card on the outside. With no disqualifications and an extra man, The New Day should take full advantage. 

Sending a statement to the rest of the tag division via the broken bodies of The Usos and The Lucha Dragons would bring an element of danger back to The New Day. 

Winner: The New Day

Roman Reigns vs. Sheamus (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)

For the past three weeks, WWE Creative has put all of its energy into getting fans to care about Roman Reigns. Based on the pops he's received from the live crowds on Raw and SmackDown in recent weeks, it worked.

The problem is, the emphasis on Reigns has had a negative ripple effect throughout the rest of the roster. 

WWE champion Sheamus has looked not just weak but pathetic. His newly formed League of Nations has done little to provide support for the WWE champion, being upended by Reigns week in and week out. 

Its members have been involved in one-off feuds with little crossover appeal. Rusev and Ryback haven't been given any storyline to follow. Alberto Del Rio has been booked terribly since his return to WWE last month but appears to have finally broken free of the ill-conceived MexAmerica angle with Zeb Coulter. Both of those results are still better than whatever WWE has King Barrett doing backstage. 

WWE even pulled The Wyatt Family and The ECW Originals (The Dudley Boyz, Tommy Dreamer and Rhyno) into the fray this past week on Raw, only to unceremoniously dump them during the program's opening match. 

The Divas ushered in a so-called "revolution" just this summer, but every woman on the roster has suffered from a lack of any creative direction, good or bad. The tag team division, which had been one of the most entertaining segments of the company's programming, is suffering from stale storytelling and crossovers with little payoff (see: The Usos and Reigns). 

Reigns' winning the championship at TLC 2015 is the only way to right the ship. Otherwise, WWE will continue dumping all of the creative energy it has left into a story no one cares about and risk further alienating a fanbase desperate for change. 

Winner: Roman Reigns