WWE TLC 2017: Assessing The Potential Of All 7 Matches
Demons, dreck, debuts and destruction.
The build-up to TLC 2017 has been both contrived and bizarre.
Initial murmurings of a Shield Vs. Miztourage main event - a mismatch on the scale of Brock Lesnar Vs. Zach Gowen - did not materialise, mercifully. WWE has overcompensated for the apparent rejection of this teased headliner by absolutely stacking the strange bedfellows heel quintet of The Miz, The Bar, Braun Strowman and Kane.
The Shield's reformation segment was underwhelming at first. The presumed offscreen reconciliation of Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins was a dubious, plot hole-ridden contrast to the meticulously-plotted and emotional angle performed by Rollins and Dean Ambrose. The Shield also debuted new merch as soon as they reappeared. Absent were the chest protectors of old. D-Lo Brown didn't issue a cease and desist; WWE just couldn't wait a week to monetise the reunited brand. Those new shirts were a literal symbol of the sudden, calculated strategy.
Happily, WWE got the Shield right on Monday. The chest protectors reappeared, and with one winning costume play, it all felt genuinely, beautifully real. WWE also got the go-home RAW right, creating widespread excitement for the one-match TLC show.
Excitement for those with a guilty pleasure of über-sh*tty wrestling, but still...
7. KICKOFF MATCH: Sasha Banks Vs. Alicia Fox
We've already seen this match this week; in typically pointless WWE fashion, this wrestling match was promoted via a wrestling match between the same competitors. As rematches go, it's as uninspiring as the WrestleMania 29 main - only significantly less star-powered and with significantly less potential. Their match on RAW was a match on RAW; decent at the very best, too short to really register at the time, and forgotten forevermore as soon as the ref struck three.
Alicia Fox boasts a beautiful Northern Lights suplex, but despite more than a decade of in-ring experience, it remains the only top-tier component of her game. It's hard to imagine Fox bucking the trend on Sunday, and crafting her first truly memorable bout on the Kickoff portion of a B-level, one match show of a PPV. Sasha is capable of greatness - provided the platform, and the opponent, exists. But it's a Kickoff match.
Maximum Star Rating Ceiling: **1/4
Also added to the Kickoff portion of the show is all 277 slides of Drew Gulak's Powerpoint presentation bit - entertaining enough in a vacuum as far as deluded heel bits go, but not entertaining enough to fire up the Network earlier than planned. In that sense, it's very much symbolic of the brand on which it usually appears.