7 Match Star Ratings For WWE TLC 2020

7. KICKOFF: Eight-Man Tag Team Match

The Kickoff show seems even more inessential than ever now, with no real crowd to gently coax into no atmosphere, so it didn't really matter that King Corbin started the proceedings.

At least when he was in the ring taking suplexes awkwardly, Sami Zayn chewed the scenery by berating Big E like the wonderful pissant that he is. Corbin wasn't helped when Chad Gable and then Daniel Bryan stepped in the ring to work some choice technical exchanges with Cesaro, but the match was. It settled into an aesthetically pleasing if generic rhythm as Michael Cole reminded the audience of Sami Zayn's leaked tirade. The match earns an extra quarter star since WWE referenced Tom Cruise, and not Christian Bale.

Otis invoked Vader with his ring gear. That won't help, sorry. His sequence with Shinsuke Nakamura barely registered as anything that was going to pull you into a match that had slowed to a crawl after - yes - Baron Corbin had another stint in there with Bryan. How do you contrive to make an eight-man tag with so many excellent talents in it so tedious?

Paced poorly - this could have banged without banging anybody up, it was an eight-man for f*ck's sake - this alternate universe spot-fest thriller really only served to build Sami Zayn and Big E's upcoming Intercontinental Title match.

Zayn was decent value playing the chicken sh*t heel, because he's a godsend, but this didn't offer even the hollow thrills the dynamic was capable of.

It's Christmas. Who cares.

Star Rating: ★★½