WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross is back with a new blog on jrsbarbq.com with his thoughts on TLC. Here are some highlights:
– Hot start with CM Punk and the Shield. a creative match with a surprising outcome that kept Punk ‘good’ and furthered the apparent dissension within the ranks of the trio. This matched challenged the balance of the card to follow them which I love. If I’d had a say this is the match that I would have chosen to kick off the show too. Good call in my book.
– AJ Lee vs. Natalya was an extremely solid, Divas match but it should have gone on later in the show IE trading places w/ Brodus vs. Truth. Nonetheless if the Divas strive to be thought of as more than sizzle and support players then having matches akin to AJ vs. Nattie will help their cause.
– Forecast that the Fatal 4 Way might be the sleeper on the PPV and it arguably was. Happy that WWE made it an elimination rules tag bout as I also wrote about in a pre TLC blog. The elimination rules makes for a better story and the elimination of teams makes the match ‘cleaner’ as it leads to the conclusion. The Rhodes Brothers are the best thing to happen to the WWE tag team scene in a long time.
– Enjoyed the Wyatt Family’s 3 vs 1 match w/ Daniel Bryan. No issues with the underdog Bryan eventually falling to the three, much larger men. Would have liked to have seen just a bit more of Bray Wyatt but that will come in time. Bray has that all important 2nd gear which is essential for stars to possess and his eventual one on one matches with Daniel Bryan should be excellent. The conclusion of the match made me want to see more of the Wyatt/Bryan saga for sure. Without question, Bray Wyatt can be special if he continues to hone his craft and maintains his athleticism. Plus, like his grandpa Blackjack Mulligan, Bray has a natural gift of gab.
– Sincerely appreciated the hard work from both John Cena and Randy Orton in the unification match to create the first WWE World Heavyweight Champion. TLC sounds great on paper and makes for a sensational video promo but the match stips can be very limiting. Based on today’s boundaries, I thought that the two men did all that they could do to utilize the ‘toys’ that they had to play with but at the end of the day I’d have been just as happy to have seen a straight wrestling match considering what was at stake.
I predicted Orton to win last week here and for no particular reason other than I’ve always enjoyed various periods of time when there was a villain champion who was being chased by the dogged hero who was striving to be the champion.
It will be interesting to see if any new individuals get inserted into the Championship picture. That should be everyone’s goal, right?
With being WWE World Champion comes great responsibility and requires virtually a 24/7 commitment to the role. Closing the shows on which one is booked, having stellar matches on a nightly basis, carrying one’s self as the ‘top guy’ outside the ring and a litany of other behind the scenes matters makes being the WWE World Champion a massively challenging professional matter that contains many life changing elements.
