10 WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2019 Impulse Reactions
8. Aleister Black Vs. Buddy Murphy
What to say about this?
First and foremost Aleister Black is genuinely, era-definingly brilliant and it's one of the year's biggest crimes that he's spent most of it in a cupboard instead of becoming a realisation of the forever-fantasy-booked "new Undertaker" both WWE and much of their fanbase have been hunting for. His work is smooth and deadly, his gimmick is over and his presentation is top drawer...when they let him leave that room that makes him talk like a total clown.
Buddy Murphy, too, is first rate. Once known as the 'Best Kept Secret' on 205 Live because of his impressive continuation of the work company escapee Neville had done a year prior, Murphy was the overdue Cruiserweight counterargument to the "law" that wore his name.
This, then, was a goddamn hardworking, goddamn good and goddamn worthy match on this goddamn pointless pay-per-view and the worry was that the latter was reductive in the face of the former. Black was bloodied (whilst selling a broken jaw that appeared to be the intended story), Murphy laid his sh*t in before getting his head stoved off when he was made to realise that the pair weren't as equal as he'd hoped.
Stealing the show without the shortcut of any of the titular weapons, this was totally meaningless yet totally mint.